On gap equations and color-flavor locking in cold dense QCD with three massless flavors

The superconductivity in cold dense QCD with three massless flavors is analyzed in the framework of the Schwinger-Dyson equation. The set of two coupled gap equations for the color antitriplet, flavor antitriplet (bar{3},bar{3}) and the color sextet, flavor sextet (6,6) order parameters is derived. It is shown that the antitriplet-antitriplet gives the dominant contribution to the color-flavor locked order parameter, while the sextet-sextet is small but nonzero.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, REVTe

The effective potential of composite diquark fields and the spectrum of resonances in dense QCD

The effective potential of composite diquark fields responsible for color symmetry breaking in cold very dense QCD, in which long-range interactions dominate, is derived. The spectrum of excitations and the universality class of this dynamics are described.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure (new), REVTeX. The latest version to appear in Phys. Lett. B. References added, discussion improve

Gluonic phase versus LOFF phase in two-flavor quark matter

We study the gluonic phase in a two-flavor color superconductor as a function of the ratio of the gap over the chemical potential mismatch,$\Delta/\delta\mu$. We find that the gluonic phase resolves the chromomagnetic instability encountered in a two-flavor color superconductor for $\Delta/\delta \mu < \sqrt{2}$. We also calculate approximately the free energies of the gluonic phase and the single plane-wave LOFF phase and show that the former is favored over the latter for a wide range of coupling strengths.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, references added, revisions to text, version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Optically opaque color-flavor locked phase inside compact stars

The contribution of thermally excited electron-positron pairs to the bulk properties of the color-flavor locked quark phase inside compact stars is examined. The presence of these pairs causes the photon mean free path to be much smaller than a typical core radius ($R_0 \simeq 1$ km) for all temperatures above 25 keV so that the photon contribution to the thermal conductivity is much smaller than that of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons. We also find that the electrons and positrons dominate the electrical conductivity, while their contributions to the total thermal energy is negligible.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. Published versio

Edge states in quantum Hall effect in graphene (Review Article)

We review recent results concerning the spectrum of edge states in the quantum Hall effect in graphene. In particular, a special attention is payed to the derivation of the conditions under which gapless edge states exist in the spectrum of graphene with zigzag and armchair edges.We find that in the case of a half-plane or a ribbon with a zigzag edges, there are gapless edge states only when a spin gap dominates over a Dirac mass gap. In the case of a half-plane with an armchair edge, the existence of the gapless edge states depends on the specific type of Dirac mass gaps. The implications of these results for the dynamics in the quantum Hall effect in graphene are discussed

Dimensional Reduction and Dynamical Chiral Symmetry Breaking by a Magnetic Field in 3+13+1 Dimensions

It is shown that in $3+1$ dimensions, a constant magnetic field is a catalyst of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, leading to generating a fermion mass even at the weakest attractive interaction between fermions. The essence of this effect is the dimensional reduction $D \rightarrow D-2$ ($3+1 \rightarrow 1+1$) in the dynamics of fermion pairing in a magnetic field. The effect is illustrated in the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. Possible applications of this effect are briefly discussed.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Collective modes of color-flavor locked phase of dense QCD at finite temperature

A detailed analysis of collective modes that couple to either vector or axial color currents in color-flavor locked phase of color superconducting dense quark matter at finite temperature is presented. Among the realm of collective modes, including the plasmons and the Nambu-Goldstone bosons, we also reveal the gapless Carlson-Goldman modes, resembling the scalar Nambu-Golstone bosons. These latter exist only in a close vicinity of the critical line. Their presence does not eliminate the Meissner effect, proving that the system remains in the color broken phase. The finite temperature properties of the plasmons and the Nambu-Goldstone bosons are also studied. In addition to the ordinary plasmon, we also reveal a "light" plasmon which has a narrow width and whose mass is of the order of the superconducting gap.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. REVTeX. Two references added and minor modifications introduced (see p. 5 and pp. 13,14). To appear in Nucl. Phys.

Theory of the Magnetic Catalysis of Chiral Symmetry Breaking in QED

The theory of the magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking in QED is developed. An approximation for the Schwinger-Dyson equations describing reliably this phenomenon is established, i.e., it is shown that there exists a consistent truncation of those equations in this problem. The equations are solved both analytically and numerically, and the dynamical mass of fermions is determined.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, REVTe

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

How the quark self-energy affects the color-superconducting gap

We consider color superconductivity with two flavors of massless quarks which form Cooper pairs with total spin zero. We solve the gap equation for the color-superconducting gap parameter to subleading order in the QCD coupling constant $g$ at zero temperature. At this order in $g$, there is also a previously neglected contribution from the real part of the quark self-energy to the gap equation. Including this contribution leads to a reduction of the color-superconducting gap parameter \f_0 by a factor b_0'=\exp \big[ -(\p ^2+4)/8 \big]\simeq 0.177. On the other hand, the BCS relation T_c\simeq 0.57\f_0 between \f_0 and the transition temperature $T_c$ is shown to remain valid after taking into account corrections from the quark self-energy. The resulting value for $T_c$ confirms a result obtained previously with a different method.Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, no figur