6 research outputs found
The Crystallography of Strange Quark Matter
Cold three-flavor quark matter at large (but not asymptotically large)
densities may exist as a crystalline color superconductor. We explore this
possibility by calculating the gap parameter Delta and free energy Omega(Delta)
for possible crystal structures within a Ginzburg-Landau approximation,
evaluating Omega(Delta) to order Delta^6. We develop a qualitative
understanding of what makes a crystal structure stable, and find two structures
with particularly large values of Delta and the condensation energy, within a
factor of two of those for the CFL phase known to characterize QCD at
asymptotically large densities. The robustness of these phases results in their
being favored over wide ranges of density and though it also implies that the
Ginzburg-Landau approximation is not quantitatively reliable, previous work
suggests that it can be trusted for qualitative comparisons between crystal
structures. We close with a look ahead at the calculations that remain to be
done in order to make contact with observed pulsar glitches and neutron star
cooling.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of Strangeness in
Quark Matter 2006, UCLA. Talk given by Rishi Sharm
Inhomogeneous phase of a Gluon Plasma at finite temperature and density
By considering the non-perturbative effects associated with the fundamental
modular region, a new phase of a Gluon Plasma at finite density is proposed. It
corresponds to the transition from glueballs to non-perturbative gluons which
condense at a non vanishing momentum. In this respect the proposed phase is
analogous to the color superconducting LOFF phase for fermionic systems.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
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.
Bulk viscosity in 2SC quark matter
The bulk viscosity of three-flavor color-superconducting quark matter
originating from the nonleptonic process u+s u+d is computed. It is assumed
that up and down quarks form Cooper pairs while the strange quark remains
unpaired (2SC phase). A general derivation of the rate of strangeness
production is presented, involving contributions from a multitude of different
subprocesses, including subprocesses that involve different numbers of gapped
quarks as well as creation and annihilation of particles in the condensate. The
rate is then used to compute the bulk viscosity as a function of the
temperature, for an external oscillation frequency typical of a compact star
r-mode. We find that, for temperatures far below the critical temperature T_c
for 2SC pairing, the bulk viscosity of color-superconducting quark matter is
suppressed relative to that of unpaired quark matter, but for T >~ 10^(-3) T_c
the color-superconducting quark matter has a higher bulk viscosity. This is
potentially relevant for the suppression of r-mode instabilities early in the
life of a compact star.Comment: 18 pages + appendices (28 pages total), 8 figures; v3: corrected
numerical error in the plots; 2SC bulk viscosity is now larger than unpaired
bulk viscosity in a wider temperature rang
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives
We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe