5,261 research outputs found
Mixed phases of color superconducting quark matter
We examine electrically and color neutral quark matter in beta-equilibrium
focusing on the possibility of mixed phases between different color
superconducting phases. To that end we apply the Gibbs criterion to ensure
phase equilibrium and discuss the external conditions under which these mixed
phases can occur. Neglecting surface and Coulomb effects we find a rich
structure of different mixed phases with up to four components, including 2SC
and CFL matter as well as more ``exotic'' components, like a phase with us- and
ds-pairing but without ud-pairing. Preliminary estimates indicate, however,
that the mixed phases become unstable if surface and Coulomb effects are
included.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, v2: minor changes in the text, version to appear
in Nucl. Phys.
A quark action for very coarse lattices
We investigate a tree-level O(a^3)-accurate action, D234c, on coarse
lattices. For the improvement terms we use tadpole-improved coefficients, with
the tadpole contribution measured by the mean link in Landau gauge.
We measure the hadron spectrum for quark masses near that of the strange
quark. We find that D234c shows much better rotational invariance than the
Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action, and that mean-link tadpole improvement leads to
smaller finite-lattice-spacing errors than plaquette tadpole improvement. We
obtain accurate ratios of lattice spacings using a convenient ``Galilean
quarkonium'' method.
We explore the effects of possible O(alpha_s) changes to the improvement
coefficients, and find that the two leading coefficients can be independently
tuned: hadron masses are most sensitive to the clover coefficient, while hadron
dispersion relations are most sensitive to the third derivative coefficient
C_3. Preliminary non-perturbative tuning of these coefficients yields values
that are consistent with the expected size of perturbative corrections.Comment: 22 pages, LaTe
Self-consistent parametrization of the two-flavor isotropic color-superconducting ground state
Lack of Lorentz invariance of QCD at finite quark chemical potential in
general implies the need of Lorentz non-invariant condensates for the
self-consistent description of the color-superconducting ground state.
Moreover, the spontaneous breakdown of color SU(3) in this state naturally
leads to the existence of SU(3) non-invariant non-superconducting expectation
values. We illustrate these observations by analyzing the properties of an
effective 2-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio type Lagrangian and discuss the
possibility of color-superconducting states with effectively gapless fermionic
excitations. It turns out that the effect of condensates so far neglected can
yield new interesting phenomena.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure
Heating (Gapless) Color-Flavor Locked Quark Matter
We explore the phase diagram of neutral quark matter at high baryon density
as a function of the temperature T and the strange quark mass Ms. At T=0, there
is a sharp distinction between the insulating color-flavor locked (CFL) phase,
which occurs where Ms^2/mu < 2 Delta, and the metallic gapless CFL phase, which
occurs at larger Ms^2/mu. Here, mu is the chemical potential for quark number
and Delta is the gap in the CFL phase. We find this distinction blurred at
nonzero T, as the CFL phase undergoes an insulator-to-metal crossover when it
is heated. We present an analytic treatment of this crossover. At higher
temperatures, we map out the phase transition lines at which the gap parameters
Delta_1, Delta_2 and Delta_3 describing ds-pairing, us-pairing and ud-pairing
respectively, go to zero in an NJL model. For small values of Ms^2/mu, we find
that Delta_2 vanishes first, then Delta_1, then Delta_3. We find agreement with
a previous Ginzburg-Landau analysis of the form of these transitions and find
quantitative agreement with results obtained in full QCD at asymptotic density
for ratios of coefficients in the Ginzburg-Landau potential. At larger Ms^2/mu,
we find that Delta_1 vanishes first, then Delta_2, then Delta_3. Hence, we find
a "doubly critical'' point in the (Ms^2/mu,T)-plane at which two lines of
second order phase transitions (Delta_1->0 and Delta_2->0) cross. Because we do
not make any small-Ms approximation, if we choose a relatively strong coupling
leading to large gap parameters, we are able to pursue the analysis of the
phase diagram all the way up to such large values of Ms that there are no
strange quarks present.Comment: 24 pages; 22 figures; typos in labelling of Figs. 7, 20 correcte
Quark mass effects on the stability of hybrid stars
We perform a study of the possible existence of hybrid stars with color
superconducting quark cores using a specific hadronic model in a combination
with an NJL-type quark model. It is shown that the constituent mass of the
non-strange quarks in vacuum is a very important parameter that controls the
beginning of the hadron-quark phase transition. At relatively small values of
the mass, the first quark phase that appears is the two-flavor color
superconducting (2SC) phase which, at larger densities, is replaced by the
color-flavor locked (CFL) phase. At large values of the mass, on the other
hand, the phase transition goes from the hadronic phase directly into the CFL
phase avoiding the 2SC phase. It appears, however, that the only stable hybrid
stars obtained are those with the 2SC quark cores.Comment: 12 pages, 7 eps figures; v2: figures and table modified after
correction of a minor numerical mistake, discussion clarified, references
added, conclusions unchanged; version to appear in PL
Ginzburg-Landau approach to the three flavor LOFF phase of QCD
We explore, using a Ginzburg-Landau expansion of the free energy, the
Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase of QCD with three flavors, using
the NJL four-fermion coupling to mimic gluon interactions. We find that, below
the point where the QCD homogeneous superconductive phases should give way to
the normal phase, Cooper condensation of the pairs u-s and d-u is possible, but
in the form of the inhomogeneous LOFF pairing.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Eq. (20) corrected. As a consequence figures have
been modified to show only the solution with parallel total momenta of the
us, ud pairs, as the other configurations are suppressed. Main conclusions of
the paper are unchange
Colour superconductivity in finite systems
In this paper we study the effect of finite size on the two-flavour colour
superconducting state. As well as restricting the quarks to a box, we project
onto states of good baryon number and onto colour singlets, these being
necessary restrictions on any observable ``quark nuggets''. We find that
whereas finite size alone has a significant effect for very small boxes, with
the superconducting state often being destroyed, the effect of projection is to
restore it again. The infinite-volume limit is a good approximation even for
quite small systems.Comment: 14 pages RevTeX4, 12 eps figure
Color-Neutral Superconducting Quark Matter
We investigate the consequences of enforcing local color neutrality on the
color superconducting phases of quark matter by utilizing the
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model supplemented by diquark and the t'Hooft six-fermion
interactions. In neutrino free matter at zero temperature, color neutrality
guarantees that the number densities of u, d, and s quarks in the
Color-Flavor-Locked (CFL) phase will be equal even with physical current quark
masses. Electric charge neutrality follows as a consequence and without the
presence of electrons. In contrast, electric charge neutrality in the less
symmetric 2-flavor superconducting (2SC) phase with ud pairing requires more
electrons than the normal quark phase. The free energy density cost of
enforcing color and electric charge neutrality in the CFL phase is lower than
that in the 2SC phase, which favors the formation of the CFL phase. With
increasing temperature and neutrino content, an unlocking transition occurs
from the CFL phase to the 2SC phase with the order of the transition depending
on the temperature, the quark and lepton number chemical potentials. The
astrophysical implications of this rich structure in the phase diagram,
including estimates of the effects from Goldstone bosons in the CFL phase, are
discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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