Bulk viscosity in the nonlinear and anharmonic regime of strange quark matter

The bulk viscosity of cold, dense three-flavor quark matter is studied as a function of temperature and the amplitude of density oscillations. The study is also extended to the case of two different types of anharmonic oscillations of density. We point several qualitative effects due to the anharmonicity, although quantitatively they appear to be relatively small. We also find that, in most regions of the parameter space, with the exception of the case of a very large amplitude of density oscillations (i.e. 10% and above), nonlinear effects and anharmonicity have a small effect on the interplay of the nonleptonic and semileptonic processes in the bulk viscosity.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; v2: Appendix B is omitted, a few new discussions added and some new references adde

Charge Violation and Alice Behavior in Global and Textured Strings

Spontaneous breaking of global symmetries can produce ``Alice'' strings: line defects which make unbroken symmetries multivalued, induce apparent charge violation via Aharonov-Bohm interactions, and form point defects when twisted into loops. We demonstrate this behavior for both divergent and textured global Alice strings. Both adiabatically scatter charged particles via effective Wilson lines. For textured Alice strings, such Wilson lines occur at all radii, and are multivalued only inside the string. This produces measurable effects, including path-dependent charge violation.Comment: 32 pages, 2 epsfigs, Revte

Phase separation in asymmetrical fermion superfluids

Motivated by recent developments on cold atom traps and high density QCD we consider fermionic systems composed of two particle species with different densities. We argue that a mixed phase composed of normal and superfluid components is the energetically favored ground state. We suggest how this phase separation can be used as a probe of fermion superfluidity in atomic traps.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX2e, version to appear in Phys.Rev.Let

Dense quark matter in compact stars

The densest predicted state of matter is colour-superconducting quark matter, in which quarks near the Fermi surface form a condensate of Cooper pairs. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is an ongoing enterprise. Using a bag model of quark matter, I discuss the effects of colour superconductivity on the mass-radius relationship of compact stars, showing that colour superconducting quark matter can occur in compact stars at values of the bag constant where ordinary quark matter would not be allowed. The resultant ``hybrid'' stars with colour superconducting quark matter interior and nuclear matter surface have masses in the range 1.3-1.6 Msolar and radii 8-11 km. Once perturbative corrections are included, quark matter can show a mass-radius relationship very similar to that of nuclear matter, and the mass of a hybrid star can reach 1.8 \Msolar.Comment: 11 pages, for proceedings of SQM 2003 conference; references added, abstract reworde

Illuminating Dense Quark Matter

We imagine shining light on a lump of cold dense quark matter, in the CFL phase and therefore a transparent insulator. We calculate the angles of reflection and refraction, and the intensity of the reflected and refracted light. Although the only potentially observable context for this phenomenon (reflection of light from and refraction of light through an illuminated quark star) is unlikely to be realized, our calculation casts new light on the old idea that confinement makes the QCD vacuum behave as if filled with a condensate of color-magnetic monopoles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Vortices on Higher Genus Surfaces

We consider the topological interactions of vortices on general surfaces. If the genus of the surface is greater than zero, the handles can carry magnetic flux. The classical state of the vortices and the handles can be described by a mapping from the fundamental group to the unbroken gauge group. The allowed configurations must satisfy a relation induced by the fundamental group. Upon quantization, the handles can carry ``Cheshire charge.'' The motion of the vortices can be described by the braid group of the surface. How the motion of the vortices affects the state is analyzed in detail.Comment: 28 pages with 10 figures; uses phyzzx and psfig; Caltech preprint CALT-68-187

SO(10) Cosmic Strings and SU(3) Color Cheshire Charge

Certain cosmic strings that occur in GUT models such as $SO(10)$ can carry a magnetic flux which acts nontrivially on objects carrying $SU(3)_{color}$ quantum numbers. We show that such strings are non-Abelian Alice strings carrying nonlocalizable colored ``Cheshire" charge. We examine claims made in the literature that $SO(10)$ strings can have a long-range, topological Aharonov-Bohm interaction that turns quarks into leptons, and observe that such a process is impossible. We also discuss flux-flux scattering using a multi-sheeted formalism.Comment: 37 Pages, 8 Figures (available upon request) phyzzx, iassns-hep-93-6, itp-sb-93-6

Flavor-Symmetry Restoration and Symanzik Improvement for Staggered Quarks

We resolve contradictions in the literature concerning the origins and size of unphysical flavor-changing strong interactions generated by the staggered-quark discretization of QCD. We show that the leading contributions are tree-level in \order(a^2) and that they can be removed by adding three correction terms to the link operator in the standard action. These corrections are part of the systematic Symanzik improvement of the staggered-quark action. We present a new improved action for staggered quarks that is accurate up to errors of \order(a^4,a^2\alpha_s) --- more accurate than most, if not all, other discretizations of light-quark dynamics.Comment: 7 page

Breached Pairing Superfluidity at Finite Temperature and Density

A general analysis on Fermion pairing at finite temperature and density between different species with mismatched Fermi surfaces is presented. Very different from the temperature effect of BCS phase, the recently found breached pairing phase resulted from density difference of the two species lies in a region with calabash-like shape in the $T-\mu$ plane, and the most probable temperature for the new phase's creation is finite but not zero.Comment: 5 papes, 5 figures. Comments are welcome to [email protected]

Bulk viscosity in a cold CFL superfluid

We compute one of the bulk viscosity coefficients of cold CFL quark matter in the temperature regime where the contribution of mesons, quarks and gluons to transport phenomena is Boltzmann suppressed. In that regime dissipation occurs due to collisions of superfluid phonons, the Goldstone modes associated to the spontaneous breaking of baryon symmetry. We first review the hydrodynamics of relativistic superfluids, and remind that there are at least three bulk viscosity coefficients in these systems. We then compute the bulk viscosity coefficient associated to the normal fluid component of the superfluid. In our analysis we use Son's effective field theory for the superfluid phonon, amended to include scale breaking effects proportional to the square of the strange quark mass m_s. We compute the bulk viscosity at leading order in the scale breaking parameter, and find that it is dominated by collinear splitting and joining processes. The resulting transport coefficient is zeta=0.011 m_s^4/T, growing at low temperature T until the phonon fluid description stops making sense. Our results are relevant to study the rotational properties of a compact star formed by CFL quark matter.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures; one reference added, version to be published in JCA