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 qualitatively the physics mechanism of $d$-quark $^3P_2$ pairing in analogy to nuclear physics. Our finding serves as the theoretical underpinning for the phenomenological construction of the equation of state in the neutron star environment.
This study is performed with the aim of gaining insights into the possible applicability of the quark-hadron continuity concept, not only in the idealized case of three-flavor symmetric quark matter, but also for the transition from neutron matter to two-flavor quark matter. A key issue is the continuity between neutron superfluidity and a corresponding superfluid quark phase produced by $d$-quark pairing. Symmetry arguments are developed and relevant dynamical mechanisms are analyzed. It is pointed out that the $^3P_2$ superfluidity in dense neutron matter has a direct analogue in the $^3P_2$…
The effects of chiral imbalance and external magnetic field on pion superfluidity and color superconductivity are investigated in extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio models. We take Schwinger approach to treat the interaction between charged pion condensate and magnetic field at finite isospin density and include simultaneously the chiral imbalance and magnetic field at finite baryon density. For the superfluidity, the chiral imbalance and magnetic field lead to catalysis and inverse catalysis effects, respectively. For the superconductivity, the chiral imbalance enhances the critical baryon density,…
We describe the interplay of two nonperturbative phenomena which should take place in the chirally invariant deconfined phase of QCD matter at finite density and T=0: (i) Cooper-pair quark-quark ground-state condensation in appropriate channels should yield exotic sorts of color superfluidity, and (ii) quark-antiquark ground-state condensation should yield spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. We briefly review the main recent achievements in the subject, and present the field-theory formalism which enables to deal with both above mentioned types of condensates simultaneously.
Based upon the analogy to the electroweak phase diagram, I propose that in QCD there might be a critical line for a superfluid transition, in the plane of chemical potential and temperature. The order parameter has the quantum numbers of the H-dibaryon, but the transition is driven by color superconductivity in strange quark matter.
We discuss the phase structure of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) with two colors and two flavors of light quarks. This is motivated by the increasing interest in the QCD phase diagram as follows: (1) The QCD critical point search has been under intensive dispute and its location and existence suffer from uncertainty of effective U(1)_A symmetry restoration. (2) A new phase called quarkyonic matter is drawing theoretical and experimental attention but it is not clear whether it can coexist with diquark condensation. We point out that two-color QCD is nontrivial enough to contain essential ingredi…
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.
In this paper, we study two-color, two-flavor QCD using chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order when the diquark chemical potential ($μ_{B}$) is equal to the isospin chemical potential ($μ_{I}$). For chemical potentials larger than the physical pion mass, the system is in a multicomponent superfluid phase with both pions and diquarks. We construct the one-loop effective potential using $χ$PT in the presence of an external multicomponent superfluid source and use the effective potential to calculate the chiral condensate, the multicomponent superfluid condensate and the (multicompon…
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.
We investigate pion superfluidity and its effect on meson properties and equation of state at finite temperature and isospin and baryon densities in the frame of standard flavor SU(2) NJL model. In mean field approximation to quarks and random phase approximation to mesons, the critical isospin chemical potential for pion superfluidity is exactly the pion mass in the vacuum, and corresponding to the isospin symmetry spontaneous breaking, there is in the pion superfluidity phase a Goldstone mode which is the linear combination of the normal sigma and charged pion modes. We calculate numerically…
We study QCD with one flavor at finite baryon density. In the limit of very high baryon density the system is expected to be a color superconductor. In the case of one flavor, the order parameter is in a $\bar 3$ of color and has total angular momentum one. We show that in weak coupling perturbation theory, the energetically preferred phase exhibits ``color-spin-locking'', i.e. the color and spin direction of the condensate are aligned. We discuss the properties of this phase and argue that it shares important features of the hadronic phase at low density. In particular, we find an unbroken ro…
The hydrodynamic description of a superfluid is usually based on a two-fluid picture. We compute the basic properties of the relativistic two-fluid system from the underlying microscopic physics of a relativistic φ^4 complex scalar field theory. We work at nonzero but small temperature and weak coupling, and we neglect dissipation. We clarify the relationship between different formulations of the two-fluid model, and how they are parameterized in terms of partly redundant current and momentum 4-vectors. As an application, we compute the velocities of first and second sound at small temperature…
Quark-hadron continuity was proposed as crossover between hadronic matter and quark matter without a phase transition, based on the matching of the symmetry and excitations in both phases. In the limit of a light strange-quark mass, it connects hyperon matter and the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase exhibiting color superconductivity. Recently, it was proposed that this conjecture could be generalized in the presence of superfluid vortices penetrating both phases (arXiv:1803.05115 [hep-ph]), and it was suggested that one hadronic superfluid vortex in hyperon matter could be connected to one non…
We review, clarify, and extend the notion of color-flavor locking. We present evidence that for three degenerate flavors the qualitative features of the color-flavor locked state, reliably predicted for high density, match the expected features of hadronic matter at low density. This provides, in particular, a controlled, weak-coupling realization of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in this (slight) idealization of QCD.
Quark-hadron continuity is a scenario that hadronic matter is continuously connected to color superconductor without phase transitions as the baryon chemical potential increases. This scenario is based on Landau's classification of phases since they have the same symmetry breaking pattern. We address the question whether this continuity is true as quantum phases of matter, which requires the treatment beyond Ginzburg-Landau description. To examine the topological nature of color superconductor, we derive a dual effective theory for $U(1)$ Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons and vortices of the color-f…
We describe the crystalline phase of color superconducting quark matter. This phase may occur in quark matter at densities relevant for compact star physics, with possible implications for glitch phenomena in pulsars. We use a Ginzburg-Landau approach to determine that the crystal has a face-centered-cubic (FCC) structure. Moreover, our results indicate that the phase is robust, with gaps, critical temperature, and free energy comparable to those of the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase. Our calculations also predict ``crystalline superfluidity'' in ultracold gases of fermionic atoms.
Superfluidity or superconductivity with mismatched Fermi momenta appears in many systems such as charge neutral dense quark matter, asymmetric nuclear matter, and in imbalanced cold atomic gases. The mismatch plays the role of breaking the Cooper pairing, and the pair-breaking state cannot be properly described in the framework of standard BCS theory. I give a brief review on recent theoretical development in understanding unconventional color superconductivity, including gapless color superconductor, the chromomagnetic instabilities and the Higgs instability in the gapless phase. I also intro…
We study the bosonic excitations in the favorite cubic three flavor crystalline LOFF phases of QCD. We calculate in the Ginzburg-Landau approximation the masses of the eight pseudo Nambu-Goldstone Bosons (NGB) present in the low energy theory. We also compute the decay constants of the massless NGB Goldstones associated to superfluidity as well as those of the eight pseudo NGB. Differently from the corresponding situation in the Color-Flavor-Locking phase, we find that meson condensation phases are not expected in the present scenario.
Alice and Boojums are both representative characters created by Lewis Carroll. We show that they possibly meet in cores of rotating neutron stars. Recent studies of quark-hadron continuity suggest that neutron superfluid matter can connect smoothly to two-flavor symmetric quark matter at high densities. We study how this can be maintained in the presence of the vortices. In the neutron matter, quantized superfluid vortices arise. In the two-flavor dense quark matter, vortices carrying color magnetic fluxes together with fractionally quantized superfluid circulations appear as the most stable c…
The recent study by Bowers and Rajagopal on the possible structures for the QCD crystalline color superconducting phase favors a cubic structure and allows for a first discussion of the QCD dynamics in the crystalline phase. The cubic structure leads to complete breaking of traslation invariance and to three phonon modes. We discuss the expected form of the effective Lagrangian and the phonon dispersion laws assuming the proposed crystal structure. Besides the interest for QCD and the related possible relevance to compact stars these considerations may become useful to atomic systems exhibitin…
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.
In Maxwell theory the constant electric charge e of the electron is consistent with the continuity equation $\partial_μj^μ(x)=0$ where $j^μ(x)$ is the current density of the electron where the repeated indices $μ=0,1,2,3$ are summed. However, in Yang-Mills theory the Yang-Mills color current density $j^{μa}(x)$ of the quark satisfies the equation $D_μ[A]j^{μa}(x)=0$ which is not a continuity equation ($\partial_μj^{μa}(x)\neq 0$) which implies that the color charge of the quark is not constant where a=1,2,...,8 are the color indices. Since the charge of a point particle is obtained from the ze…
Quark-hadron continuity with two-flavor quarks that was proposed recently connects hadronic matter with neutron $^3P_2$ superfluidity and two-flavor dense quark matter. This two-flavor dense quark phase consists of the coexistence of the 2SC condensates and the $P$-wave diquark condensates of $d$-quarks, which gives rise to color superconductivity as well as superfluidity. We classify vortices in this phase. The most stable vortices are what we call the non-Abelian Alice strings, which are superfluid vortices with non-Abelian color magnetic fluxes therein, exhibiting so-called topological obst…
We investigate the interplay between the chiral and diquark condensates on the basis of the Ginzburg-Landau potential with QCD symmetry. We demonstrate that the axial anomaly drives a new critical point at low temperature in the QCD phase diagram and leads to a smooth crossover between the hadronic and color superconducting phases.
Constant electric charge $e$ satisfies the continuity equation $\partial_μj^μ(x)= 0$ where $j^μ(x)$ is the current density of the electron. However, the Yang-Mills color current density $j^{μa}(x)$ of the quark satisfies the equation $D_μ[A] j^{μa}(x)= 0$ which is not a continuity equation ($\partial_μj^{μa}(x)\neq 0$) which implies that a color charge $q^a(t)$ of the quark is not constant but it is time dependent where $a=1,2,...8$ are color indices. In this paper we derive general form of color potential produced by color charges of the quark. We find that the general form of the color poten…
We argue that in the color-flavor-locking (CFL) superconducting phase classical soliton solutions can exist, whose excitations should be interpreted as states formed by a quark (or an antiquark) and condensed diquarks. This finding extends the picture of quark-hadron-continuity showing the existence of a region, intermediate between the CFL and the hypernuclear phase, where chiral solitons and Nambu Goldstone bosons can exist. We derive an expression of the soliton mass in terms of the QCD coupling, $g_s$, and the Nambu Goldstone boson parameters. From the quark-hadron continuity we can draw a…
We investigate the effects of realistic quark masses and local color neutrality on quark pairing in the three-flavor Polyakov--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. While prior studies have indicated the presence of light flavor quark (2SC) or symmetric color-flavor-locked (CFL) pairing at low temperatures, we find that in the absence of a local color neutrality constraint the inclusion of the Polyakov loop gives rise to phases in which all quark colors and flavors pair, but with unequal magnitudes. We study this asymmetric color-flavor-locked (ACFL) phase, which can exist even for equal mass quarks, ide…
We explore the phase structure of two-color and two-flavor QCD in the space of the quark chemical potential μ_q and the isospin chemical potential μ_I. Using a mean-field model we calculate the chiral and diquark condensates, σand Δ, self-consistently. In weak coupling and in the chiral limit, we confirm the interval of the isospin chemical potential, 0.71Δ_0<μ_I<0.75Δ_0, in which a single plane-wave Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase is favored over isotropic superfluidity and normal quark matter. The LOFF window becomes slightly wider at high density. For stronger coupling with no…
We delineate the quark-hadron continuity by constructing QCD equations of state for neutron star dynamics, covering the wide range of charge chemical potential ($μ_Q$) and temperatures ($T$). Based on the nuclear-2SC continuity scenario, we match equations of state for nuclear and two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) quark matter, where the matching baryon density is $n_B\simeq 1.5n_0$ ($n_0\simeq 0.16\, {\rm fm^{-3}}$: nuclear saturation density). The effective vector and diquark couplings in a quark matter model evolve as functions of $n_B, μ_Q, T$, whose low density values are constrained…
The quark-hadron crossover conjecture was proposed as a continuity between hadronic matter and quark matter with no phase transition. It is based on matching of symmetry and excitations in both the phases. It connects hyperon matter and color-flavor locked (CFL) phase of color superconductivity in the limit of light strange quark mass. We study generalization of this conjecture in the presence of topological vortices. We propose a picture where hadronic superfluid vortices in hyperon matter could be connected to non-Abelian vortices (color magnetic flux tubes) in the CFL phase during this cros…
I provide new arguments supporting the validity of the t'Hooft anomaly conditions at non zero quark chemical potential. These constraints strengthen the quark-hadron continuity scenario. Finally I review the 2SC effective Lagrangian for color superconductivity.
We find a novel confinement mechanism in the two-flavor dense quark matter proposed recently, that consists of the 2SC condensates and the $P$-wave diquark condensates of $d$-quarks. This quark matter exhibiting color superconductivity as well as superfluidity is classified into two phases; confined and deconfined phases of vortices. We establish that the criterion of the confinement is color neutrality of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) phases: vortices exhibiting color non-singlet AB phases are confined by the so-called AB defects to form color-singlet bound states. In the deconfined phase, the most stab…
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 review efforts to study, using the methods of lattice field theory, the phenomenon of diquark condensation via BCS pairing at a Fermi surface, which has been proposed as a mechanism for color superconductivity in dense quark matter. The particular models studied are the Gross-Neveu model and SU(2) lattice gauge theory; in both cases evidence for superfluidity at high density is presented. The behaviour expected for quarks in both fundamental and adjoint representations of SU(2) is contrasted.
We discuss the phase structure of dense matter, in particular the nature of the transition between hadronic and quark matter. Calculations within a Ginzburg-Landau approach show that the axial anomaly can induce a critical point in this transition region. This is possible because in three-flavor quark matter with instanton effects a chiral condensate can be added to the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase without changing the symmetries of the ground state. In (massless) two-flavor quark matter such a critical point is not possible since the corresponding color superconductor (2SC) does not break …
Using a general Ginzburg-Landau effective Lagrangian, we study the topological structure and low-lying collective modes of dense QCD having both chiral and diquark condensates, for two and three massless flavors. As we found earlier, the QCD axial anomaly acts as an external field applied to the chiral condensate in a color superconductor and, as a new critical point emerges, leads to a crossover between the broken chiral symmetry and color superconducting phases. At intermediate densities where both chiral and diquark condensates are present, we derive a generalized Gell-Mann- Oakes-Renner re…
We study the ground states of low-density hadronic matter and high-density color-flavor locked color superconducting phase in three-flavor QCD at finite baryon chemical potential under rotation. We find that, in both cases under sufficiently fast rotation, the combination of the rotation-induced topological term for the eta' meson and the QCD anomaly leads to an inhomogeneous condensate of the eta' meson, known as the chiral soliton lattice (CSL). We find that, when baryon chemical potential is much larger than isospin chemical potential, the critical angular velocity for the realization of th…
This article reviews our view on how chiral symmetry, its pattern of breaking and restoration under extreme conditions manifest themselves in the nucleon, nuclei, nuclear matter and dense hadronic matter. Topics treated are nucleon structure in terms of chiral symmetry, "first-principle" (QCD) calculations of the properties of finite nuclei effectuated by embedding the ``standard nuclear physics approach" into the framework of effective field theories of nuclei with predictions for certain astrophysical processes, a reinterpretation of the Brown-Rho (BR) scaling that implements chiral symmetry…
We point out a new configuration in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model, allowing baryons in the pointlike approximation to coexist with fundamental quarks. The resulting phase is a holographic realization of quarkyonic matter, which is predicted to occur in QCD at a large number of colors, and possibly plays a role in real-world QCD as well. We find that holographic quarkyonic matter is chirally symmetric and that, for large baryon chemical potentials, it is energetically preferred over pure nuclear matter and over pure quark matter. The zero-temperature transition from nuclear matter to the quar…
Based on a recently developed relativistic density functional approach to color-superconducting quark matter and a novel quark-hadron transition construction which phenomenologically accounts for the effects of inhomogeneous pasta phases and quark-hadron continuity, we construct a class of hybrid equations of state applicable at the regimes typical for compact star astrophysics and heavy ion collisions. We outline that early quark deconfinement is a notable consequence of strong diquark pairing providing a good agreement with the observational data and driving the trajectories of the matter ev…
In this review, we discuss various properties of topological solitons in dense QCD matter, with a particular emphasis on the CFL phase exhibiting superfluidity and superconductivity, and their phenomenological implications in terms of the effective field theories such as the Ginzburg-Landau theory, the chiral Lagrangian, or the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equation. The most fundamental topological excitations are non-Abelian vortices, which are 1/3 quantized superfluid vortices and color magnetic flux tubes. They are created at a phase transition or a rotation such compact stars. The intervortex-int…
We show that there exists a special compactification of QCD on $\mathbb{R}^3 \times S^1$ in which the theory has a domain where continuous chiral symmetry breaking is analytically calculable. We give a microscopic derivation of the chiral lagrangian, the chiral condensate, and the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation $m_π^2 f_π^2 = m_q \langle \bar{q} q \rangle$. Abelian duality, monopole operators, and flavor-twisted boundary conditions, or a background flavor holonomy, play the main roles. The flavor twisting leads to the new effect of fractional jumping of fermion zero modes among monopole-insta…
Since the birth of the quark model, the diquark which is composed of two quarks has been considered as a substantial structure of color anti-triplet. This is not only a mathematical simplification for dealing with baryons, but also provides a physical picture where the diquark would behave as a whole object. It is natural to ask whether such a structure is sufficiently stable against external disturbance. The mass spectra of the ground states of the scalar and axial-vector diquarks which are composed of two-light (L-L), one-light-one-heavy (H-L) and two-heavy quarks (H-H) respectively have bee…
