Mesons and diquarks in neutral color superconducting quark matter with β\beta-equilibrium

The spectrum of meson and diquark excitations in cold color-superconducting (2SC) quark matter is investigated under local color and electric neutrality constraints with $\beta$-equilibrium. A 2-flavored Nambu--Jona-Lasinio type model including a baryon $\mu_B$, color $\mu_8$, and electric $\mu_Q$ chemical potentials is used. Two relations between coupling constants $H$ and $G$ in the diquark- and quark-antiquark channels, correspondingly, are treated, $H=3G/4$ and $H=G$. At $H=3G/4$ the gapless- and at $H=G$ the gapped neutral color superconductivity is realized. It is shown that color and electrical neutrality together with $\beta$-equilibrium lead to a strong mass splitting within the pion isotriplet in the 2SC phase (both gapped and gapless), in contrast with non--neutral matter. It is also shown that the properties of the physical $SU(2)_c$-singlet diquark excitation in the 2SC ground state varies for different parameterization schemes. Thus, for $H=3G/4$ one finds a heavy resonance with mass $\sim$ 1100 MeV in the non--neutral (gapped) case, whereas, if neutrality is imposed, a stable diquark with mass $\sim\mu_Q\sim$ 200 MeV appears in the gapless 2SC phase. For $H=G$, there is again a resonance (with the mass $\sim$ 300 MeV) in the neutral gapped 2SC phase. Hence, the existence of the stable massive SU(2)$_c$-singlet diquark excitation is a new peculiarity of the gapless 2SC.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; version accepted for publication in PR

Mesons and diquarks in the color neutral 2SC phase of dense cold quark matter

The spectrum of meson and diquark excitations of dense color neutral cold quark matter is investigated in the framework of a 2-flavored Nambu--Jona-Lasinio type model, including a quark $\mu$- and color $\mu_8$ chemical potential. It was found out that in the color superconducting (2SC) phase, i.e. at $\mu>\mu_c=342$ MeV, $\mu_8$ aquires rather small values $\sim$ 10 MeV in order to ensure the color neutrality. In this phase the $\pi$- and $\sigma$ meson masses are evaluated around $\sim$ 330 MeV. The spectrum of scalar diquarks in the color neutral 2SC phase consists of a heavy ($\rm SU_c(2)$-singlet) resonance with mass $\sim$ 1100 MeV, four light diquarks with mass $3|\mu_8|$, and one Nambu --Goldstone boson which is in accordance with the Goldstone theorem. Moreover, in the 2SC phase there are five light stable particles as well as a heavy resonance in the spectrum of pseudo-scalar diquarks. In the color symmetric phase, i.e. for $\mu <\mu_c$, a mass splitting of scalar diquarks and antidiquarks is shown to arise if $\mu\ne 0$, contrary to the case of $\mu = 0$, where the masses of scalar antidiquarks and diquarks are degenerate at the value $\sim$~700 MeV. If the coupling strength in the pseudo-scalar diquark channel is the same as in the scalar diquark one (as for QCD-inspired NJL models), then in the color symmetric phase pseudo-scalar diquarks are not allowed to exist as stable particles.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; version accepted for the publication in PR

Pion, sigma-meson and diquarks in the 2SC phase of dense cold quark matter

The spectrum of meson and diquark excitations of dense cold quark matter is investigated in the framework of a Nambu--Jona-Lasinio type model for light quarks of two flavors. It was found out that a first order phase transition occurs when the chemical potential $\mu$ exceeds the critical value $\mu_c=350$ MeV. Above $\mu_c$, the diquark condensate \vev{qq} forms, breaking the color symmetry of strong interaction. The masses of $\pi$- and $\sigma$-mesons are shown to grow with the chemical potential $\mu$ in the color-superconducting phase, but the mesons themselves become almost stable particles due to the Mott effect. Moreover, we have found in this phase an abnormal number of three, instead of five, Nambu--Goldstone bosons, together with a color doublet of light stable diquark modes and a color-singlet heavy diquark resonance with the mass $\sim$ 1100 MeV. In the color symmetric phase, \textit{i.e.} for $\mu <\mu_c$, the splitting between the masses of diquarks and antidiquarks is shown to arise if $\mu\ne 0$, contrary to the case of vanishing chemical potential, $\mu = 0$, where the mass spectrum of antidiquarks and diquarks is degenerate at the value $\sim$ 700 MeV.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Abnormal number of Nambu-Goldstone bosons in the color-asymmetric 2SC phase of an NJL-type model

We consider an extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model including both (q \bar q)- and (qq)-interactions with two light-quark flavors in the presence of a single (quark density) chemical potential. In the color superconducting phase of the quark matter the color SU(3) symmetry is spontaneously broken down to SU(2). If the usual counting of Goldstone bosons would apply, five Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons corresponding to the five broken color generators should appear in the mass spectrum. Unlike that expectation, we find only three gapless diquark excitations of quark matter. One of them is an SU(2)-singlet, the remaining two form an SU(2)-(anti)doublet and have a quadratic dispersion law in the small momentum limit. These results are in agreement with the Nielsen-Chadha theorem, according to which NG-bosons in Lorentz-noninvariant systems, having a quadratic dispersion law, must be counted differently. The origin of the abnormal number of NG-bosons is shown to be related to a nonvanishing expectation value of the color charge operator Q_8 reflecting the lack of color neutrality of the ground state. Finally, by requiring color neutrality, two massive diquarks are argued to become massless, resulting in a normal number of five NG-bosons with usual linear dispersion laws.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, revtex

Critical temperature for kaon condensation in color-flavor locked quark matter

We study the behavior of Goldstone bosons in color-flavor-locked (CFL) quark matter at nonzero temperature. Chiral symmetry breaking in this phase of cold and dense matter gives rise to pseudo-Goldstone bosons, the lightest of these being the charged and neutral kaons K^+ and K^0. At zero temperature, Bose-Einstein condensation of the kaons occurs. Since all fermions are gapped, this kaon condensed CFL phase can, for energies below the fermionic energy gap, be described by an effective theory for the bosonic modes. We use this effective theory to investigate the melting of the condensate: we determine the temperature-dependent kaon masses self-consistently using the two-particle irreducible effective action, and we compute the transition temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. Our results are important for studies of transport properties of the kaon condensed CFL phase, such as bulk viscosity.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, v2: new section about effect of electric neutrality on critical temperature added; references added; version to appear in J.Phys.