Nonlocality effects on Color Spin Locking condensates

We consider the color spin locking (CSL) phase of two-flavor quark matter at zero temperature for nonlocal instantaneous, separable interactions. We employ a Lorentzian-type form factor allowing a parametric interpolation between the sharp (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model) and very smooth (e.g. Gaussian) cut-off models for systematic studies of the influence on the CSL condensate the deviation from the NJL model entails. This smoothing of the NJL model form factor shows advantageous features for the phenomenology of compact stars: (i) a lowering of the critical chemical potential for the onset of the chiral phase transition as a prerequisite for stability of hybrid stars with extended quark matter cores and (ii) a reduction of the smallest pairing gap to the order of 100 keV, being in the range of values interesting for phenomenological studies of hybrid star cooling evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Chiral crossover, deconfinement and quarkyonic matter within a Nambu-Jona Lasinio model with the Polyakov loop

We study the interplay between the chiral and the deconfinement transitions, both at high temperature and high quark chemical potential, by a non local Nambu-Jona Lasinio model with the Polyakov loop in the mean field approximation and requiring neutrality of the ground state. We consider three forms of the effective potential of the Polyakov loop: two of them with a fixed deconfinement scale, cases I and II, and the third one with a $\mu$ dependent scale, case III. In the cases I and II, at high chemical potential $\mu$ and low temperature $T$ the main contribution to the free energy is due to the Z(3)-neutral three-quark states, mimicking the quarkyonic phase of the large $N_c$ phase diagram. On the other hand in the case III the quarkyonic window is shrunk to a small region. Finally we comment on the relations of these results to lattice studies and on possible common prospects. We also briefly comment on the coexistence of quarkyonic and color superconductive phases.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4. Some typos corrected, references adde

Pressure dependence of the thermoelectric power of single-walled carbon nanotubes

We have measured the thermoelectric power (S) of high purity single-walled carbon nanotube mats as a function of temperature at various hydrostatic pressures up to 2.0 GPa. The thermoelectric power is positive, and it increases in a monotonic way with increasing temperature for all pressures. The low temperature (T < 40 K) linear thermoelectric power is pressure independent and is characteristic for metallic nanotubes. At higher temperatures it is enhanced and though S(T) is linear again above about 100 K it has a nonzero intercept. This enhancement is strongly pressure dependent and is related to the change of the phonon population with hydrostatic pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Phonon Drag Effect in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

A variational solution of the coupled electron-phonon Boltzmann equations is used to calculate the phonon drag contribution to the thermopower in a 1-D system. A simple formula is derived for the temperature dependence of the phonon drag in metallic, single-walled carbon nanotubes. Scattering between different electronic bands yields nonzero values for the phonon drag as the Fermi level varies.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Quark matter in compact stars?

Ozel, in a recent reanalysis of EXO 0748-676 observational data (astro-ph/0605106), concluded that quark matter probably does not exist in the center of compact stars. We show that the data is actually consistent with the presence of quark matter in compact stars.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX; New title and overall rewrite to reflect version published in Nature. Conclusions unchange

The effective action and quantum gauge transformations

The local symmetry transformations of the quantum effective action for general gauge theory are found. Additional symmetries arise under consideration of background gauges. Together with "trivial" gauge transformations, vanishing on mass shell, they can be used for construction simple gauge generators. For example, for the Yang-Mills theory the classically invariant effective action is obtained, reproducing DeWitt's result. For rank one theories a natural generalization is proposed.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages; added reference

Recent progress constraining the nuclear equation of state from astrophysics and heavy ion reactions

The quest for the nuclear equation of state (EoS) at high densities and/or extreme isospin is one of the longstanding problems of nuclear physics. Ab initio calculations for the nuclear many-body problem make predictions for the density and isospin dependence of the EoS far away from the saturation point of nuclear matter. On the other hand, in recent years substantial progress has been mode to constrain the EoS both, from the astrophysical side and from accelerator based experiments. Heavy ion experiments support a soft EoS at moderate densities while recent neutron star observations require a ``stiff'' high density behavior. Both constraints are discussed and shown to be in agreement with the predictions from many-body theory.Comment: Invited talk given at NPA III, Dresden, Germany, March 200

Population clustering as a signal for deconfinement in accreting compact stars

We study the evolution of the rotation frequency for accreting compact stars. The discontinuous change of the moment of inertia of a rapidly rotating star due to the possible quark core appearance entails a characteristic change in the spin evolution. Numerical solutions have been performed using a model equation of state describing the deconfinement phase transition. Trajectories of spin evolution are discussed in the angular velocity - baryon number plane (phase diagram) for different accretion scenarios defined by the initial values of mass and magnetic field of the star, as well as mass accretion rate and magnetic field decay time. We observe a characteristic increase in the waiting time when a configuration enters the quark core regime. Overclustering of the population of Z sources of LMXBs in the phase diagram is suggested as a direct measurement of the critical line for the deconfinement phase transition since it is related to the behaviour of the moment of inertia of the compact star.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, uses aastex.cls (included), text and figures revised, references update

Minisuperspace Models in M-theory

We derive the full canonical formulation of the bosonic sector of 11-dimensional supergravity, and explicitly present the constraint algebra. We then compactify M-theory on a warped product of homogeneous spaces of constant curvature, and construct a minisuperspace of scale factors. First classical behaviour of the minisuperspace system is analysed, and then a quantum theory is constructed. It turns out that there similarities with the "pre-Big Bang" scenario in String Theory.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures, added additional discussion of gauge fixing and self-adjointness of the Hamiltonian, added reference

Equation of State of Nuclear Matter at high baryon density

A central issue in the theory of astrophysical compact objects and heavy ion reactions at intermediate and relativistic energies is the Nuclear Equation of State (EoS). On one hand, the large and expanding set of experimental and observational data is expected to constrain the behaviour of the nuclear EoS, especially at density above saturation, where it is directly linked to fundamental processes which can occur in dense matter. On the other hand, theoretical predictions for the EoS at high density can be challenged by the phenomenological findings. In this topical review paper we present the many-body theory of nuclear matter as developed along different years and with different methods. Only nucleonic degrees of freedom are considered. We compare the different methods at formal level, as well as the final EoS calculated within each one of the considered many-body schemes. The outcome of this analysis should help in restricting the uncertainty of the theoretical predictions for the nuclear EoS.Comment: 51 pages, to appear in J. Phys. G as Topical Revie