Synthesis of baryons from unconfined quarks

The cosmic temperature at which primordial quarks condense into baryons is calculated for a number of cases within a field theory of partially confined quarks that enjoys temporary asymptotic freedom. It is assumed that the mass of a quark in a dense quark anti-quark medium is a monotonic function of the medium, that is, that the so-called Archimedes effect is valid. It is shown that, within such models, unbound quark lifetimes are larger than the age of the universe at the time of the transition and that the Archimedes effect implies that the change of the medium from free to bound quarks is a phase transition. 1 figure, 1 table.