  We explore the possibility of a structured hadron-quark mixed phase forming
in the interior of neutron stars. The quark-meson coupling (QMC) model, which
explicitly incorporates the internal quark structure of the nucleon, is
employed to describe the hadronic phase, while the quark phase is described by
the same bag model as the one used in the QMC framework, so as to keep
consistency between the two coexisting phases. We analyze the effect of the
appearance of hadron-quark pasta phases on the neutron-star properties. We also
discuss the influence of nuclear symmetry energy and the bag constant B in
quark matter on the deconfinement phase transition. For the treatment of the
hadron-quark mixed phase, we use the energy minimization method and compare it
with the Gibbs construction. The finite-size effects like surface and Coulomb
energies are taken into account in the energy minimization method; they play
crucial roles in determining the pasta configuration during the hadron-quark
phase transition. It is found that the finite-size effects can significantly
reduce the region of the mixed phase relative to that of the Gibbs
construction. Using a consistent value of B in the QMC model and quark matter,
we find that hadron-quark pasta phases are formed in the interior of massive
stars, but no pure quark matter can exist.
