Nonlocality effects on spin-one pairing patterns in two-flavor color superconducting quark matter and compact stars applications

We study the influence of nonlocality in the interaction on two spin one pairing patterns of two-flavor quark matter: the anisotropic blue color paring besides the usual two color superconducting matter (2SCb), in which red and green colors are paired, and the color spin locking phase (CSL). The effect of nonlocality on the gaps is rather large and the pairings exhibit a strong dependence on the form factor of the interaction, especially in the low density region. The application of these small spin-one condensates for compact stars is analyzed: the early onset of quark matter in the nonlocal models may help to stabilize hybrid star configurations. While the anisotropic blue quark pairing does not survive a big asymmetry in flavor space as imposed by the charge neutrality condition, the CSL phase as a flavor independent pairing can be realized as neutral matter in compact star cores. However, smooth form factors and the missmatch between the flavor chemical potential in neutral matter make the effective gaps of the order of magnitude $\simeq 10$ keV, and a more systematic analysis is needed to decide whether such small gaps could be consistent with the cooling phenomenology.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, corrected version with revised parameterizatio

Color neutrality effects in the phase diagram of the PNJL model

The phase diagram of a two-flavor Polyakov loop Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model is analyzed imposing the constraint of color charge neutrality. Main effects of this constraint are a shrinking of the chiral symmetry breaking (chiSB) domain in the T-mu plane, a shift of the critical point to lower temperatures and a coexistence of chiSB and two-flavor superconducting phases. The effects can be understood in view of the presence of a nonvanishing color chemical potential mu_8, which is necessary to compensate the color charge density rho_8 induced by the nonvanishing Polyakov-loop mean field phi_3.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, figures added, minor text modification

Pseudoscalar Meson Nonet at Zero and Finite Temperature

Theoretical understanding of experimental results from relativistic heavy-ion collisions requires a microscopic approach to the behavior of QCD n-point functions at finite temperatures, as given by the hierarchy of Dyson-Schwinger equations, properly generalized within the Matsubara formalism. The convergence of sums over Matsubara modes is studied. The technical complexity of finite-temperature calculations mandates modeling. We present a model where the QCD interaction in the infrared, nonperturbative domain, is modeled by a separable form. Results for the mass spectrum of light quark flavors (u, d, s) and for the pseudoscalar bound-state amplitudes at finite temperature are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Particles and Nuclei Letters, based on invited lectures at "Dense Matter In Heavy Ion Collisions and Astrophysics", 21.08-01.09 2006, Dubna, Russi

η\eta and η′\eta' mesons in the Dyson-Schwinger approach at finite temperature

We study the temperature dependence of the pseudoscalar meson properties in a relativistic bound-state approach exhibiting the chiral behavior mandated by QCD. Concretely, we adopt the Dyson-Schwinger approach with a rank-2 separable model interaction. After extending the model to the strange sector and fixing its parameters at zero temperature, T=0, we study the T-dependence of the masses and decay constants of all ground-state mesons in the pseudoscalar nonet. Of chief interest are $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$. The influence of the QCD axial anomaly on them is successfully obtained through the Witten-Veneziano relation at T=0. The same approach is then extended to T>0, using lattice QCD results for the topological susceptibility. The most conspicuous finding is an increase of the $\eta^\prime$ mass around the chiral restoration temperature $T_{\rm Ch}$, which would suggest a suppression of $\eta^\prime$ production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The increase of the $\eta^\prime$ mass may also indicate that the extension of the Witten-Veneziano relation to finite temperatures becomes unreliable around and above $T_{\rm Ch}$. Possibilities of an improved treatment are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Diquark Condensates and Compact Star Cooling

The effect of color superconductivity on the cooling of quark stars and neutron stars with large quark cores is investigated. Various known and new quark-neutrino processes are studied. As a result, stars being in the color flavor locked (CFL) color superconducting phase cool down extremely fast. Quark stars with no crust cool down too rapidly in disagreement with X-ray data. The cooling of stars being in the N_f =2 color superconducting (2SC) phase with a crust is compatible with existing X-ray data. Also the cooling history of stars with hypothetic pion condensate nuclei and a crust does not contradict the data.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Heavy flavor kinetics at the hadronization transition

We investigate the in-medium modification of the charmonium breakup processes due to the Mott effect for light (pi, rho) and open-charm (D, D*) quark-antiquark bound states at the chiral/deconfinement phase transition. The Mott effect for the D-mesons effectively reduces the threshold for charmonium breakup cross sections, which is suggested as an explanation of the anomalous J/psi suppression phenomenon in the NA50 experiment. Further implications of finite-temperature mesonic correlations for the hadronization of heavy flavors in heavy-ion collisions are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to SQM2001 Conference, submitted to J. Phys.