We compute the thermal conductivity of color-flavor locked (CFL) quark matter. At temperatures below the scale set by the gap in the quark spectrum, transport properties are determined by collective modes. In this work we focus on the contribution from the lightest modes, the superfluid phonon and the massive neutral kaon. The calculation is done in the framework of kinetic theory, using variational solutions of the linearized Boltzmann equation. We find that the thermal conductivity due to phonons is κ^P =1.04 10^{26} mu_{500}^8 Δ_{50}^{-6} erg/(cm s K), where μ_{500} is the chemical potential in units of 500 MeV and Δ_{50} is the gap in units of 50 MeV. The contribution of kaons is κ^K = 2.81 10^{21} f_{π,100}^4 T_{MeV}^{1/2} m_{10}^{-5/2} erg/(cm s K), where f_{π,100} is the pion decay constant in units of 100 MeV, T_{MeV} is the temperature in units of 1 MeV, and m_{10} is the kaon mass in units of 10 MeV. These values are smaller than previous estimates, but still much larger than (in the case of phonons) or similar to (for kaons) the corresponding values in nuclear matter. From the phonon thermal conductivity we estimate that a CFL quark matter core of a compact star becomes isothermal on a timescale of a few seconds.
Considering the density dependence of quark masses, we investigate the color-flavor-locked matter and its stability relative to the ( unpaired ) strange quark matter. We find that, when the current mass of strange quark $m_s$ is small, the strange quark matter remains stable for the moderate baryon densities. When $m_s$ is large, the gapless phase of the color-flavor-locked matter is found to be difficult to be stable. A schematic phase diagram of three-flavor quark matter is presented, in which the color-flavor-locked phase region is suppressed in comparison with the previous results.
Within Ginzburg-Landau theory, we study the structure of a magnetic vortex in color-flavor locked quark matter. This vortex is characterized by winding of the SU(3) phase in color-flavor space, as well as by the presence of a color-flavor unlocked condensate in the core. We estimate the upper and lower critical fields and the critical Ginzburg-Landau parameter that distinguishes between type I and type II superconductors.
Taking the vector kaon-quark interaction into account, we reexamine in detail the neutral kaon condensation in color-flavor locked quark matter. It is found that the pairing phenomena in the quark matter are somewhat influenced by $K^0$ condensation. Different from the previous predictions, we find that the $K^0$ condensed phase might no longer be more stable than the normal phase even if $K^0$ condensation can occur in the color-flavor locked matter.
We show that the magnetization in color-flavor locked superconductors can be so strong that homogeneous quark matter becomes metastable for a wide range of magnetic field values. This indicates that magnetic domains or other type of magnetic inhomogeneities can be present in the quark cores of magnetars.
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…
In the presence of nonzero strange quark mass $m_s$, we investigate color neutrality in the $K^0$ condensed phase of color-flavor locked quark matter. By treating the $m_s$ effects on both kaon condensate and Fermi-surface phenomenon self-consistently, we develop a new treatment to evaluate color neutral solutions within the model-independent framework. It is pointed out that, in the general sense, the expectation values of gluon fields obtained from dynamics of Goldstone bosons solely are not identified with the factual color chemical potentials.
The effect of Polyakov loop on the QCD phase diagram at high density is studied within the Nambu-Jona Lasinio model with Polyakov loop (PNJL model). We point out that the color neutrality is missing in the standard PNJL model at finite density. Moreover, we discuss how the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase is to be distorted by the inclusion of Polyakov loop.
Recent publications rule out the negatively charged beta equilibrium strangelets in ordinary phase, and the color-flavor locked (CFL) strangelets are reported to be also positively charged. This letter presents new solutions to the system equations where CFL strangelets are slightly negatively charged. If the ratio of the square-root bag constant to the gap parameter is smaller than 170 MeV, the CFL strangelets are more stable than iron and the normal unpaired strangelets. For the same parameters, however, the positively charged CFL strangelets are more stable.
The electric/color neutral solution and the critical conditions for gapless formation are investigated in the $K^0$ condensed color-flavor locked matter. We point out that there exist no longer gapless modes for down-strange quark pairing while the gapless phenomenon for up-strange one is dominated in the $K^0$ condensed environment. In a model-independent way, the phase transition to the resulting gapless phase is found to be of first-order. The novel phase structure implies that the chromomagnetic instability happens in the previous-predicted gapless phase might be removed at least partly.
The color-flavor locked (CFL) phase of strangelets is investigated in a quark mass density-dependent model. Parameters are determined by stability arguments. It is concluded that three solutions to the system equations can be found, corresponding, respectively, to positively charged, negatively charged, and nearly neutral CFL strangelets. The charge to baryon number of the positively charged strangelets is smaller than the previous result, while the charge of the negatively charged strangelets is nearly proportional in magnitude to the cubic-root of the baryon number. However, the positively c…
Diquark excitations of dense quark matter are considered in the framework of the Nambu -- Jona-Lasinio model with three types of massless quarks in the presense of a quark number chemical potential $μ$. We investigate the effective action of meson- and diquark fields at sufficiently high values of $μ$, where the color--flavor locked (CFL) phase is realized, and prove the existence of NG-bosons in the sector of pseudoscalar diquarks. In the sector of scalar diquarks an additional NG-boson is found, corresponding to the spontaneous breaking of the U(1)$_B$ baryon symmetry in the CFL phase. Final…
We propose a new framework to generate the Standard Model (SM) quark flavor hierarchies in the context of two Higgs doublet models (2HDM). The `flavorful' 2HDM couples the SM-like Higgs doublet exclusively to the third quark generation, while the first two generations couple exclusively to an additional source of electroweak symmetry breaking, potentially generating striking collider signatures. We synthesize the flavorful 2HDM with the `flavor-locking' mechanism, that dynamically generates large quark mass hierarchies through a flavor-blind portal to distinct flavon and hierarchon sectors: Dy…
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 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 consider the Polyakov Nambu Jona Lasinio model with three massless quarks at high density and moderate temperature in the superconductive color flavor locking phase. We compute the critical temperature $T_c$ as a function of the baryonic chemical potential for the phase transition from the superconductive state to the normal phase. We find that $T_c$ is higher by a factor 1.5 -2 in comparison to the model containing no Polyakov loop. We also compute the specific heat $C_v$ near the second order phase transition and we show that the inclusion of the Polyakov loop does not change the value of…
Strange stars in the color flavor locked phase, as described by a generalization of the phenomenological MIT bag model proposed in the context of color superconductivity, are studied through a model motivated by the semiclassical solutions for hydrostatic equilibrium. Results show that within this framework it is possible to find ultracompact configurations situated between regular compact stars and black holes.
We calculate the Debye and Meissner masses of a gauge boson in a material consisting of two species of massless fermions that form a condensate of Cooper pairs. We perform the calculation as a function of temperature, for the cases of neutral Cooper pairs and charged Cooper pairs, and for a range of parameters including gapped quaisparticles, and ungapped quasiparticles with both quadratic and linear dispersion relations at low energy. Our results are relevant to the behavior of photons and gluons in the gapless color-flavor-locked phase of quark matter. We find that the photon's Meissner mass…
Considering the density dependence of quark mass, we investigate the phase transition between the (unpaired) strange quark matter and the color-flavor-locked matter, which are supposed to be two candidates for the ground state of strongly interacting matter. We find that if the current mass of strange quark $m_s$ is small, the strange quark matter remains stable unless the baryon density is very high. If $m_s$ is large, the phase transition from the strange quark matter to the color-flavor-locked matter in particular to its gapless phase is found to be different from the results predicted by p…
We offer a diagrammatic derivation of the effective masses of the axial flavor excitations in the electrical and color neutral CFL phase of QCD. In particular we concentrate on the excitations with the quantum numbers of the kaons: we show how their effective chemical potentials, responsible of their Bose-Einstein condensation and found previously on the basis of pure symmetry arguments, arise at the microscopic level by loop effects. We perform also the numerical evaluation of the relevant loops in the whole CFL regime $M_s^2/2μΔ\leqslant 1$, showing the existence of the enhancement of the ka…
The stability of the color flavor locked phase in the presence of a strong magnetic field is investigated within the phenomenological MIT bag model, taking into account the variation of the strange quark mass, the baryon density, the magnetic field, as well as the bag and gap parameters. It is found that the minimum value of the energy per baryon in a color flavor locked state at vanishing pressure is lower than the corresponding one for unpaired magnetized strange quark matter and, as the magnetic field increases, the energy per baryon decreases. This implies that magnetized color flavor lock…
We analyze how the CFL states in dense matter work in the direction of enhancing the parameter space for absolutely stable phases (strange matter). We find that the "CFL strange matter" phase can be the true ground state of hadronic matter for a much wider range of the parameters of the model (the gap of the QCD Cooper pairs $Δ$, the strange quark mass $m_s$ and the Bag Constant $B$) than the state without any pairing, and derive a full equation of state and an accurate analytic approximation to the lowest order in $Δ$ and $m_{s}$ which may be directly used for applications. The effects of pai…
The stability of color-flavor locked (CFL) strangelets is studied in the three-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We consider all quark flavors to be massless, for simplicity. By making use of the multiple reflection expansion, we explicitly take into account finite size effects and formulate the thermodynamic potential for CFL strangelets. We find that the CFL gap could be large enough so that the energy per baryon number of CFL strangelets is greatly affected. In addition, if the quark-quark coupling constant is larger than a certain critical value, there is a possibility of finding absolutel…
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.
It is shown that extremely strong electric fields may be generated at the surface of strange quark matter in the color-flavor locked phase because of the surface effects. Some properties of strange stars made of this matter are briefly discussed.
The role of neutrality constraints for the phase structure of QCD at non-vanishing chemical potentials is studied within a self-consistent truncation scheme for the Dyson-Schwinger equation of the quark propagator in Landau gauge. We find the (approximate) color-flavor-locked phase to be energetically preferred at all potentially relevant densities and for physical values of the quark masses. We furthermore observe the impossibility to define this phase by residual global symmetries and discuss the role of chemical potentials.
QCD superconductors in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase sustain excitations (``Cooper'' mesons) that can be described as pairs of particles or holes around a gapped Fermi surface. In weak coupling and to leading logarithm accuracy the masses, decay constants and form factors of the scalar, pseudoscalar, vector and axial-vector excitations, which explicitly are of finite size, can be calculated exactly. Furthermore, the constraints of this microscopic calculation on the effective-lagrangian description and the computation of the generalized triangle anomaly are discussed.
Strange quark matter in a color-flavor locked state is significantly more bound than ``ordinary'' strange quark matter. This increases the likelihood of strangelet metastability or even absolute stability. Properties of color-flavor locked strangelets are discussed and compared to ordinary strangelets. Apart from differences in binding energy, the main difference is related to the charge. A statistical sample of strangelets may allow experimental distinction of the two. Preliminary estimates indicate that the flux of strangelets in galactic cosmic rays could be sufficient to allow for strangel…
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…
The quark quasiparticle model is extended to study the properties of color-flavor locked strange quark matter at finite chemical potential and in a strong magnetic field. We present a self-consistent thermodynamic treatment by employing a chemical potential dependent bag function. It is found that the magnetized color-flavor-locked (MCFL) matter is more stable than other phases within a proper magnitude of magnetic field. The stability window is graphically shown for the MCFL matter compared with ordinate magnetized matter. The anisotropic structure of MCFL matter is dominated by the magnetic …
We calculate the phase diagram of color and electrically neutral quark matter in weak equilibrium using the NJL model at high baryon densities. We extend previous analyses by taking into account the possibility of formation of pseudoscalar meson condensates in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase. We find that the kaon condensed phase (CFL-K0) is preferred over the CFL phase at low temperatures. It is found that the CFL-K0 phase contains no gapless modes. The results we have obtained should be of relevance for the modeling of compact stars.
The properties of pseudoscalar bosonic excitations in the color-flavor locked phase at moderate densities are studied within a model of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio type. Our previous analysis is extended to Goldstone bosons with hidden flavor and to higher-lying modes which stay massive in the chiral limit. The bosons are constructed explicitly by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for quark-quark scattering in random phase approximation. The masses and weak decay constants of the Goldstone bosons are found in good agreement with predictions from the low-energy effective theory. In the non-Goldst…
Finite lumps of color-flavor locked strange quark matter (CFL-strangelets) are significantly more stable than strangelets without color-flavor locking for wide ranges of parameters, increasing the likelihood of strangelet metastability, or even absolute stability beyond some minimum baryon number $A_{min}$. Whereas bulk CFL strange quark matter is electrically neutral, CFL-strangelets are positively charged, with $Z\approx 0.3 A^{2/3}$. This is quite different from ``ordinary'' strangelets and may provide a possible test of color-flavor locking if strangelets are detected in upcoming cosmic-ra…
Near the flavor SU(3) limit, we propose an analytical description for color-flavor-locked-type Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) phase in the Nambu Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. The diquark behaviors in light-flavor and strange-flavor-involved channels and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of bound diquark states are studied. When the attractive interaction between quarks is strong enough, a BCS-BEC crossover is predicted in the environment with color-flavor-locked pairing pattern. The resulting Bose-Einstein condensed phase is found to be an intergrade phase before the emergence of the previous-pred…
The Bethe-Salpeter equations for diquarks with the quantum numbers of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons are analyzed in the color-flavor locked phase of cold dense QCD with three quark flavors. The decay constants and the velocities of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons are calculated in the Pagels-Stokar approximation. It is also shown that, in contrast to the case of dense QCD with two flavors, there are no massive radial excitations with quantum numbers of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons in the color-flavor locked phase. The role of the Meissner effect in the pairing dynamics of diquarks is explained.
We demonstrate that quark matter in the color-flavor locked phase of QCD is rigorously electrically neutral, despite the unequal quark masses, and even in the presence of an electron chemical potential. As long as the strange quark mass and the electron chemical potential do not preclude the color-flavor locked phase, quark matter is automatically neutral. No electrons are required and none are admitted.
The properties of the pseudoscalar Goldstone bosons in the color-flavor locked phase at moderate densities are studied within a model of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio type. The Goldstone bosons are constructed explicitly by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for quark-quark scattering in random phase approximation. Main focus of our investigations are (i) the weak decay constant in the chiral limit, (ii) the masses of the flavored (pseudo-) Goldstone bosons for non-zero but equal quark masses, (iii) their masses and effective chemical potentials for non-equal quark masses, and (iv) the onset of kao…
We calculate the self-energies and the spectral densities of longitudinal and transverse gluons at zero temperature in color-superconducting quark matter in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase. We find a collective excitation, a plasmon, at energies smaller than two times the gap parameter and momenta smaller than about eight times the gap. The dispersion relation of this mode exhibits a minimum at some nonzero value of momentum, indicating a van Hove singularity.
We investigate the influence of charged kaon condensation in hadronic sector on the formation of the electron-free charge neutral quark matter of equipartition of three light flavors, i.e., a phenomenon called ``enforced electrical neutrality" of the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase. We employ the chiral quark model which is assumed to be applicable, "bottom-up," toward chiral restoration while accessible to kaon condensation in the hadronic sector. Approaching "bottom-up" the high density regime is more appropriate in addressing the properties of compact stars than approaching "top-down" from …
A schematic NJL-type model is employed to investigate kaon and pion condensation in deconfined quark matter in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, explicitly referring to quark degrees of freedom. To that end we allow for non-vanishing pseudoscalar diquark condensates in addition to the scalar ones which constitute the CFL phase. Color neutrality is ensured by the appropriate choice of color chemical potentials. The dependence of the free energy in the Goldstone condensed phases on quark masses and charge chemical potentials is found to be in good qualitative -- in most cases also quantitativ…
Electric and color neutral solutions, and the critical conditions for the formation of gapless color superconductors, are investigated in $K^0$ condensed color-flavor locked quark matter for nonzero strange quark mass. We show that as the strange quark mass increases, gapless modes for up-strange quark pairing occur first, followed by down-strange quark pairing. The behavior of the gaps, the dispersion relations, and the thermodynamic potential are all found as functions of the strange quark mass on the basis of a Nambu Jona-Lasinio type model. To a high degree of accuracy, they are presented …
At high density, diquarks could condense in the vacuum with the QCD color spontaneously broken. Based on the observation that the symmetry breaking pattern involved in this phenomenon is essentially the same as that of the Pati-Salam model with broken electroweak--color SU(3) group, we determine the relevant electroweak interactions in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase in high density QCD. We briefly comment on the possible implications on the cooling of neutron stars.
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.
The spectrum of meson and diquark excitations of dense quark matter is considered in the framework of the Nambu -- Jona-Lasinio model with three types of massless quarks in the presense of a quark number chemical potential $μ$. We investigate the effective action of meson- and diquark fields both at sufficiently large values of $μ>μ_c\approx 330$ MeV, where the color--flavor locked (CFL) phase is realized, and in the chirally broken phase of quark matter ($μ<μ_c$). In the last case all nine pseudoscalar mesons are Nambu -- Goldstone (NG) bosons, whereas the mass of the scalar meson nonet is tw…
We analyze the phases of dense quark matter at nonzero quark masses. We map out the phase diagrams for charged quark matter as well as charge neutral matter containing leptons. We find that in Color Flavor Locked (CFL) quark matter, the symmetric phase with equal numbers of $u$, $d$ and $s$ quarks is unlikely to occur in nature. Various less symmetric phases with additional meson condensates may play a role in neutron star cores, however, in agreement with the analysis of Bedaque and Schäfer. We discuss the implications of these novel color superconducting quark matter phases and their transit…
We analyze the spectrum of the massive states for the color flavor locked phase (CFL) of QCD. We show that the vector mesons have a mass of the order of the color superconductive gap $Δ$. We also see that the excitations associated with the solitonic sector of the CFL low energy theory have a mass proportional to $F^2_π/Δ$ and hence are expected to play no role for the physics of the CFL phase for large chemical potential. Another interesting point is that the product of the soliton mass and the vector meson mass is independent of the gap. We interpret this behavior as a form of electromagneti…
We study the effects of moderately strong magnetic fields on the properties of color-flavor locked color superconducting quark matter in the framework of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We find that the energy gaps, which describe the color superconducting pairing as well as the magnetization, are oscillating functions of the magnetic field. Also, we observe that the oscillations of the magnetization can be so strong that homogeneous quark matter becomes metastable for a range of parameters. We suggest that this points to the possibility of magnetic domains or other types of magnetic inhomogenei…
We study the effects of the gapless color-flavor locked (gCFL) phase on the equation of state of strongly interacting matter in the range of baryonic chemical potential involved in a compact star. We analyze the possibility of a phase transition from hadronic matter to gCFL quark matter and we discuss, for different values of the strange quark mass and diquark coupling strength, the existence of a gCFL phase in quark or hybrid stars. The mass-radius relation and the structure of compact stars containing the gCFL phase are shown and the physical relevance of this superconducting phase inside a …
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 weak interactions involving Goldstone bosons in the neutral kaon condensed phase of color flavor locked quark matter. We calculate the rates for the dominant processes that contribute to the neutrino mean free p ath and to neutrino production. A light $K^+$ state, with a mass $\tilde{m}_{K^+} \propto (Δ/μ) (Δ/m_s)(m_d-m_u)$, where $μ$ and $Δ$ are the quark chemical potential and superconducting gap respectively, is shown to play an important role. We identify unique characteristics of weak interaction rates in this novel phase and discuss how they might influence neutrino emission in …
Enforcing color and electric charge neutrality conditions on the three-flavor color superconducting matter, I derive the explicit form of the quark propagators and the gluon self-energies for the gapless and the ordinary color-flavor-locked phases.
The contribution of thermally excited electron-positron pairs to the bulk properties of the color-flavor locked quark phase inside compact stars is examined. The presence of these pairs causes the photon mean free path to be much smaller than a typical core radius ($R_0 \simeq 1$ km) for all temperatures above 25 keV so that the photon contribution to the thermal conductivity is much smaller than that of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons. We also find that the electrons and positrons dominate the electrical conductivity, while their contributions to the total thermal energy is negligible.
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 study the weak interaction rates involving Goldstone bosons in the Color Flavor Locked (CFL) quark matter. Neutrino mean free path and the rate of energy loss due to neutrino emission in a thermal plasma of CFL pions and kaons is calculated. We find that in addition to neutrino scattering off thermal mesons, novel Cherenkov like processes wherein mesons are either emitted or absorbed contribute to the neutrino opacity. Lack of Lorentz invariance in the medium and loss of rotational invariance for processes involving mesons moving relative to the medium allow for novel processes such as $π^0…
It is possible that a system composed of up, down and strange quarks consists the true ground state of nuclear matter at high densities and low temperatures. This exotic plasma, called strange quark matter (SQM), seems to be even more favorable energetically if quarks are in a superconducting state, the so-called color-flavor locked state. Here are presented calculations made on the basis of the MIT bag model considering the influence of finite temperature on the allowed parameters characterizing the system for stability of bulk SQM (the so-called stability windows) and also for strangelets, s…
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…
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 sel…
We investigate the issue of charge neutrality of the CFL$K^0$ phase of dense quark matter using the low energy effective theory of high density QCD. We show that the local electric and color charge neutrality of the ground state in a homogeneous color superconducting medium follows from its dynamics. We also consider the situation of a spatially inhomogeneous medium, such as may be found in a neutron star core. We find that spatial inhomogeneity results in the generation of electric fields, and positrons/electrons may be present in the ground state. We estimate the concentration of charged lep…
We consider the phase diagram of QCD at very high baryon density and at zero temperature in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The state of matter at such high densities and low temperatures is believed to be a phase known as the color-flavor locked phase which breaks color and electromagnetic gauge invariance leaving a linear combination of them unbroken. Of the 9 quarks (three flavors and three colors), five are neutral under this unbroken generator and four are oppositely charged. In the presence of a magnetic field corresponding to the unbroken generator however, the properties of th…
