Dissipative processes acting in rotating neutron stars are essential in preventing the growth of the r-mode instability. We estimate the damping time of r-modes of an hypothetical compact quark star made up by color flavor locked quark matter at a temperature $T \lesssim 0.01$ MeV. The dissipation that we consider is due to the the mutual friction force between the normal and the superfluid component arising from the elastic scattering of phonons with quantized vortices. This process is the dominant one for temperatures $T \lesssim 0.01$ MeV where the mean free path of phonons due to their self-interactions is larger than the radius of the star and they can be described as an ideal bosonic gas. We find that r-modes oscillations are efficiently damped by this mechanism for pulsars rotating at frequencies of the order of 1 Hz at most. Our analysis rules out the possibility that cold pulsars rotating at higher frequencies are entirely made up by color flavor locked quark matter.
We calculate the correlation functions needed to describe the linear response of superfluid matter, and go on to calculate the differential cross section for neutral-current neutrino scattering in superfluid neutron matter and in color-flavor locked quark matter (CFL). We report the first calculation of scattering rates that includes neutrino interactions with both pair-breaking excitations and low-lying collective excitations (Goldstone modes). Our results apply both above and below the critical temperature, allowing use in simulations of neutrino transport in supernovae and neutron stars.
At very high densities, as for example in the core of a neutron star, matter may appear in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, which is a superfluid. This phase features topologically stable vortex solutions, which arise in a spinning superfluid as localized configurations carrying quanta of angular momentum. Despite the topological stability of these vortices they are not the lowest energy state of the system at neutron star densities and decay into triplets of semi-superfluid fluxtubes. In these proceedings we report on the progress of our numerical study in the Ginzburg-Landau approach, wh…
We calculate the bulk viscosity of color-superconducting quark matter in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase. We assume that the lightest bosons are the superfluid mode H and the kaons K0 and K+, and that there is no kaon condensate. We calculate the rate of strangeness-equilibrating processes that convert kaons into superfluid modes, and the resultant bulk viscosity. We find that for oscillations with a timescale of milliseconds, at temperatures T << 1 MeV, the CFL bulk viscosity is much less than that of unpaired quark matter, but at higher temperatures the bulk viscosity of CFL matter can b…
We evaluate the three bulk viscosity coefficients $ζ_1, ζ_2$ and $ζ_3$ in the color-flavor locked (CFL) superfluid phase due to phonons and kaons, which are the lightest modes in that system. We first show that the computation is rather analogous to the computation of the same coefficients in superfluid $^4$He, as due to phonons and rotons. For astrophysical applications, we also find the value of the viscosities when there is a periodic disturbance, and the viscosities also depend on the frequency of the disturbance. In a temperature regime that might be of astrophysical relevance, we find th…
We study how vortices in dense superfluid hadronic matter can connect to vortices in superfluid quark matter, as in rotating neutron stars, focusing on the extent to which quark-hadron continuity can be maintained. As we show, a singly quantized vortex in three-flavor symmetric hadronic matter can connect smoothly to a singly quantized non-Abelian vortex in three-flavor symmetric quark matter in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, without the necessity for boojums appearing at the transition.
We study, within Ginzburg-Landau theory, the responses of three-flavor superfluid quark-gluon plasmas to external magnetic fields and rotation, in both the color-flavor locked and isoscalar color-antitriplet diquark phases near the critical temperature. Fields are incorporated in the gradient energy arising from long wavelength distortions of the condensate, via covariant derivatives to satisfy local gauge symmetries associated with color and electric charge. Magnetic vortex formation, in response to external magnetic fields, is possible only in the isoscalar phase; in the color-flavor locked …
We consider the phonon contribution to the bulk viscosities $ζ_1, ζ_2$ and $ζ_3$ of a cold relativistic superfluid. We assume the low temperature $T$ regime and that the transport properties of the system are dominated by the phonons. We use kinetic theory in the relaxation time approximation and the low energy effective field theory of the corresponding system. The parametric dependence of the bulk viscosity coefficients is fixed once the equation of state is specified, and the phonon dispersion law to cubic order in momentum is known. We first present a general discussion, valid for any supe…
We discuss the friction experienced by the body rotating in superfluid liquid at T=0. The effect is analogous to the amplification of electromagnetic radiation and spontaneous emission by the body or black hole rotating in quantum vacuum, first discussed by Zel'dovich and Starobinsky. The friction is caused by the interaction of the part of the liquid, which is rigidly connected with the rotating body and thus represents the comoving detector, with the "Minkowski" vacuum outside the body. The emission process is the quantum tunneling of quasiparticles from the detector to the ergoregion, where…
We compute the dynamical friction on a small perturber moving through an inviscid fluid, i.e., a superfluid. Crucially, we account for the tachyonic gravitational mass for sound waves, reminiscent of the Jeans instability of the fluid, which results in non-zero dynamical friction even for subsonic velocities. Moreover, we illustrate that the standard leading order effective theory in the derivative expansion is in general inadequate for analysing supersonic processes. We show this in two ways: (i) with a fluid treatment, where we solve the linearized hydrodynamical equations coupled to Newtoni…
We investigate collective excitations coupled with baryon density in a system of massless three-flavor quarks in the collisionless regime. By using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model in the mean-field approximation, we derive the spectra both for the normal and color-flavor locked (CFL) superfluid phases at zero temperature. In the normal phase, we obtain zero sound as a low-lying collective mode in the particle-hole (vector) channel. In the CFL phase, when the excitation energy, $ω$, is smaller than the threshold given by twice the pairing gap $Δ$ ($ω<2Δ$), a phonon corresponding to fluctuati…
By considering Higgs modes within the Ginzburg-Landau framework, we study influences of a rotated magnetic field on the color-flavor-locked-type matter of dense QCD. We demonstrate, in a model-independent way, that a diquark condensate may be triggered by the magnetic response of rotated-charged Higgs modes, in addition to the known color-flavor-locked condensate. Moreover, the condensate is applied to explore formations of vortices in the presence of external magnetic fields. The superfluid-like vortices are constructed for the magnetic-induced condensate. In the situation including both kind…
Color superconductivity is expected to be formed in high density quark matter where color symmetry is spontaneously broken in the presence of di-quark condensate. Stable non-Abelian vortices or color magnetic flux tubes exist in the color-flavor locked phase at asymptotically high density. $\mathbb{C}P^2$ Nambu-Goldstone(NG) bosons and Majorana fermions belonging to the triplet representation are localized around a non-Abelian vortex. We discuss the zero mode analysis and the low-energy effective world sheet theory of a non-Abelian vortex. We determine the interactions of these bosonic and fer…
We show that topological superfluid strings/vortices with flux tubes exist in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase of color superconductors. Using a Ginzburg-Landau free energy we find the configurations of these strings. These strings can form during the transition from the normal phase to the CFL phase at the core of very dense stars. We discuss an interesting scenario for a network of strings and its evolution at the core of dense stars.
Color-flavor locked (CFL) quark matter at high densities is a color superconductor, which spontaneously breaks baryon number and chiral symmetry. Its low-energy thermodynamic and transport properties are therefore dominated by the H (superfluid) boson, and the octet of pseudoscalar pseudo-Goldstone bosons of which the neutral kaon is the lightest. We study the CFL-K^0 phase, in which the stress induced by the strange quark mass causes the kaons to condense, and there is an additional ultra-light "K^0" Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of isospin. We compute the bulk viscosi…
We propose a wide universality class of gapless superfluids, and analyze a limit that might be realized in quark matter at intermediate densities. In the breached pairing color superconducting phase heavy $s$-quarks, with a small Fermi surface, pair with light $u$ or $d$ quarks. The groundstate has a superfluid and a normal Fermi component simultaneously. We expect a second order phase transition, as a function of increasing density, from the breached pairing phase to the conventional color-flavor locked (CFL) phase.
Superfluid vortices in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase of dense quark matter are known to be energetically disfavored relative to well-separated triplets of "semi-superfluid" color flux tubes. However, the short-range interaction (metastable versus unstable) has not been established. In this paper we perform numerical calculations using the effective theory of the condensate field, mapping the regions in the parameter space of coupling constants where the vortices are metastable versus unstable. For the case of zero gauge coupling we analytically identify a candidate for the unstable mode,…
Color magnetic flux tubes appear in the color-flavor locked phase of high density QCD, which exhibits color superconductivity as well as superfluidity. They are non-Abelian superfluid vortices and are accompanied by orientational zero modes in the internal space associated with the color-flavor locked symmetry spontaneously broken in the presence of the vortex. We show that those zero modes are localized around the vortex in spite of the logarithmic divergence of its tension, and derive the low-energy effective theory of them on the world-sheet of the vortex-string.
Hydrodynamics of superfluids can be described by formally dividing the fluid into a normal fluid and a superfluid part. In color-flavor locked quark matter, at least one superfluid component is present due to spontaneous breaking of baryon number conservation, and an additional one due to the breaking of strangeness arises once one takes into account kaon condensation. We show how such a two-component description emerges from an underlying scalar field theory which can be viewed as an effective theory for kaons. Furthermore, the occurring hydrodynamic quantities in the low-temperature limit ar…
Stable non-Abelian vortices, which are color magnetic flux tubes as well as superfluid vortices, are present in the color-flavor locked phase of dense quark matter with diquark condensations. We calculate the Aharanov-Bohm phases of charged particles, that is, electrons, muons, and color-flavor locked mesons made of tetraquarks around a non-Abelian vortex.
At asymptotic high density and low temperature quarks form Cooper pairs in a color-flavor locked (CFL) configuration. The diquark condensates break spontaneously the baryon symmetry, and this fact makes the CFL phase also superfluid. At low temperatures the transport properties are dominated by the contribution of the superfluid phonon, the Goldstone boson associated to baryon symmetry breaking, in full analogy to what happens in superfluid He4. We discuss how to derive transport properties in the ultracold regime making use of an analogue model of gravity. We also review how this model can be…
I clarify how the concept of quark-hadron continuity, which was previously considered in the context of the asymptotic color-flavor locked phase with ideal three-flavor symmetry, is applied to two-flavor matter. Our observation is that neutron star matter can continuously be connected to two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) phase with an additional condensate of $d$-quarks in the $^3P_2$ channel. I discuss here two aspects of this novel phase. First, I introduce the notion of continuity based on the patterns of symmetry breaking and the corresponding order parameters, and then explain qualit…
We investigate the color-singlet order parameters and the quark description of the Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase. We put emphasis on the NG boson (phason) called ``H'' associated with the $\mathrm{U_B(1)}$ symmetry breaking. We qualitatively argue the nature of H as the second sound in the hydrodynamic regime. We articulate, based on a diquark picture, how the structural change of the condensates and the associated NG bosons occurs continuously from hadronic to CFL quark matter if the quark-hadron continuity is realized. We sharpen the qualitative differenc…
We study junctions of vortices, or boojums, at the interface between color and hadronic superconducting/superfluid phases. This type of interface could be present in the interior of neutron stars, where an inner core made of quark matter in the color-flavor-locked phase is surrounded by an outer shell of superconducting protons and superfluid neutrons. We study the fate of magnetic (proton) and superfluid (neutron) vortices as they enter the color-flavor locked phase. We find that proton vortices terminate on Dirac monopoles of the massless magnetic field, and magnetic fluxes of massive gauge …
We write a covariant transport equation for the phonon excitations of a relativistic superfluid valid at small temperatures. The hydrodynamical equations for this system are derived from the effective field theory associated to the superfluid phonons. We describe how to construct the kinetic theory for the phonon quasiparticles using a relativistic generalization of the analogue model of gravity developed by Unruh. This gravity analogy relies on the equivalence between the action of a phonon field moving in a superfluid background with that of a boson propagating in a given curved space-time. …
We compute the contribution of phonons to the thermal conductivity in the core of superfluid neutron stars. We use effective field theory techniques to extract the phonon scattering rates, written as a function of the equation of state of the system. We also calculate the phonon dispersion law beyond linear order, which depends on the gap of superfluid neutron matter. With all these ingredients, we solve the Boltzmann equation numerically using a variational approach. We find that the thermal conductivity $κ$ is dominated by combined small and large angle binary collisions. As in the color-fla…
We discuss some low energy properties of color-flavor locked (CFL) superconductors. First, we study how an external magnetic field affects their Goldstone physics in the chiral limit, stressing that there is a long-range component of the field that penetrates the superconductor. We note that the most remarkable effect of the applied field is giving a mass to the charged pions and kaons. By estimating this effect, we see that for values $e B \sim 2 f_πΔ$, where $Δ$ is the quark gap, and $f_π$ the pion decay constant, the charged Goldstone bosons become so heavy, that they turn out to be unstabl…
We present the first multi-fluid analysis of a dense neutron star core with a deconfined colour-flavour-locked superconducting quark component. Accounting only for the condensate and (finite temperature) phonons, we make progress by taking over results for superfluid $^4$He. The resultant two-fluid model accounts for a number of additional viscosity coefficients (compared to the Navier-Stokes equations) and we show how they enter the dissipation analysis for an oscillating star. We provide simple estimates for the gravitational-wave driven r-mode instability, demonstrating that the various pho…
We study the low energy effective action for the collective modes of the color flavor locked phase of QCD. This phase of matter has long been known to be a superfluid because by picking a phase its order parameter breaks the quark-number $U(1)_B$ symmetry spontaneously. We consider the modes describing fluctuations in the magnitude of the condensate, namely the Higgs mode, and in the phase of the condensate, namely the Nambu-Goldstone (or Anderson-Bogoliubov) mode associated with the breaking of $U(1)_B$. By employing as microscopic theory the Nambu-Jona Lasinio model, we reproduce known resul…
At very high densities, QCD is in the color-flavor locked phase, which is a color-superconducting phase. The diquark condensates break chiral symmetry in the same way as it is broken in vacuum QCD and gives rise to an octet of pseudo-Goldstone bosons and a superfluid mode. The lightest of these are the charged and neutral kaons. For energies below the superconducting gap, the kaons are described by an $O(2)\times O(2)$-symmetric effective scalar field theory with chemical potentials. We use this effective theory to study Bose-condensation of kaons and their properties as functions of the tempe…
When a color superconductor of high density QCD is rotating, superfluid vortices are inevitably created along the rotation axis. In the color-flavor locked phase realized at the asymptotically large chemical potential, there appear non-Abelian vortices carrying both circulations of superfluid and color magnetic fluxes. A family of solutions has a degeneracy characterized by the Nambu-Goldtone modes CP2, associated with the color-flavor locked symmetry spontaneously broken in the vicinity of the vortex. In this paper, we study electromagnetic coupling of the non-Abelian vortices and find that t…
