66 research outputs found
Gauge invariance of the color-superconducting gap on the mass shell
The gap parameter for color superconductivity is expected to be a gauge
invariant quantity, at least on the appropriate mass shell. Computing the gap
to subleading order in the QCD coupling constant, g, we show that the prefactor
of the exponential in 1/g is gauge dependent off the mass shell, and
independent of gauge on the mass shell.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the Conference on Statistical QCD, Bielefeld,
August 26 - 30, 200
Color superconductivity in cold, dense quark matter
We review what is different and what is similar in a color superconductor as
compared to an ordinary BCS superconductor. The parametric dependence of the
zero-temperature gap on the coupling constant differs in QCD from that in BCS
theory. On the other hand, the transition temperature to the superconducting
phase is related to the zero-temperature gap in the same way in QCD as in BCS
theory.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the "Fifth Workshop on QCD",
Villefranche, Jan. 3-7, 200
Longitudinal gluons and Nambu-Goldstone bosons in a two-flavor color superconductor
In a two-flavor color superconductor, the SU(3)_c gauge symmetry is
spontaneously broken by diquark condensation. The Nambu-Goldstone excitations
of the diquark condensate mix with the gluons associated with the broken
generators of the original gauge group. It is shown how one can decouple these
modes with a particular choice of 't Hooft gauge. We then explicitly compute
the spectral density for transverse and longitudinal gluons of adjoint color 8.
The Nambu-Goldstone excitations give rise to a singularity in the real part of
the longitudinal gluon self-energy. This leads to a vanishing gluon spectral
density for energies and momenta located on the dispersion branch of the
Nambu-Goldstone excitations.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, minor revisions to text, one ref. adde
Lifetime Effects in Color Superconductivity at Weak Coupling
Present computations of the gap of color superconductivity in weak coupling
assume that the quarks which participate in the condensation process are
infinitely long-lived. However, the quasiparticles in a plasma are
characterized by having a finite lifetime. In this article we take into account
this fact to evaluate its effect in the computation of the color gap. By first
considering the Schwinger-Dyson equations in weak coupling, when one-loop
self-energy corrections are included, a general gap equation is written in
terms of the spectral densities of the quasiparticles. To evaluate lifetime
effects, we then model the spectral density by a Lorentzian function. We argue
that the decay of the quasiparticles limits their efficiency to condense. The
value of the gap at the Fermi surface is then reduced. To leading order, these
lifetime effects can be taken into account by replacing the coupling constant
of the gap equation by a reduced effective one.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures; explanations on the role of the Meissner effect
added; 2 references added; accepted for publication in PR
Superfluidity in a Model of Massless Fermions Coupled to Scalar Bosons
We study superfluidity in a model of massless fermions coupled to a massive
scalar field through a Yukawa interaction. Gap equations for a condensate with
total spin J=0 are solved in the mean-field approximation. For the Yukawa
interaction, the gaps for right- and left-handed fermions are equal in
magnitude and opposite in sign, so that condensation occurs in the J^P = 0^+
channel. At finite scalar mass, there are two different gaps for fermions of a
given chirality, corresponding to condensation of particle pairs or of
antiparticle pairs. These gaps become degenerate in the limit of infinite
scalar mass.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX, epsf and psfig style files required.
Revised version, discussion of the excitation spectrum extended, Fig. 2 adde
Debye screening and Meissner effect in a two-flavor color superconductor
I compute the gluon self-energy in a color superconductor with two flavors of
massless quarks, where condensation of Cooper pairs breaks SU(3)_c to SU(2)_c.
At zero temperature, there is neither Debye screening nor a Meissner effect for
the three gluons of the unbroken SU(2)_c subgroup. The remaining five gluons
attain an electric as well as a magnetic mass. For temperatures approaching the
critical temperature for the onset of color superconductivity, or for gluon
momenta much larger than the color-superconducting gap, the self-energy assumes
the form given by the standard hard-dense loop approximation. The gluon
self-energy determines the coefficient of the kinetic term in the effective
low-energy theory for the condensate fields.Comment: 29 pages, RevTe
Asymptotic deconfinement in high-density QCD
We discuss QCD with two light flavors at large baryon chemical potential mu.
Color superconductivity leads to partial breaking of the color SU(3) group. We
show that the infrared physics is governed by the gluodynamics of the remaining
SU(2) group with an exponentially soft confinement scale Lambda_QCD'
Delta*exp[-a*mu/(g*Delta)], where Delta<<mu is the superconducting gap, g is
the strong coupling, and a=0.81... We estimate that at moderate baryon
densities Lambda_QCD' is O(10 MeV) or smaller. The confinement radius increases
exponentially with density, leading to "asymptotic deconfinement." The velocity
of the SU(2) gluons is small due to the large dielectric constant of the
medium.Comment: 4 pages; restructured, published versio
Color superconductivity in weak coupling
We derive perturbatively the gap equations for a color-superconducting
condensate with total spin J=0 in dense QCD. At zero temperature, we confirm
the results of Son for the dependence of the condensate on the coupling
constant, and compute the prefactor to leading logarithmic accuracy. At nonzero
temperature, we find that to leading order in weak coupling, the temperature
dependence of the condensate is identical to that in BCS-like theories. The
condensates for total spin J=1 are classified; to leading logarithmic accuracy
these condensates are of the same order as those of spin J=0.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX, epsf and psfig style files require
On the Applicability of Weak-Coupling Results in High Density QCD
Quark matter at asymptotically high baryon chemical potential is in a color
superconducting state characterized by a gap Delta. We demonstrate that
although present weak-coupling calculations of Delta are formally correct for
mu -> Infinity, the contributions which have to this point been neglected are
large enough that present results can only be trusted for mu >> mu_c ~ 10^8
MeV. We make this argument by using the gauge dependence of the present
calculation as a diagnostic tool. It is known that the present calculation
yields a gauge invariant result for mu -> Infinity; we show, however, that the
gauge dependence of this result only begins to decrease for mu > mu_c, and
conclude that the result can certainly not be trusted for mu < mu_c. In an
appendix, we set up the calculation of the influence of the Meissner effect on
the magnitude of the gap. This contribution to Delta is, however, much smaller
than the neglected contributions whose absence we detect via the resulting
gauge dependence.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, uses LaTeX2e and ReVTeX, updated figures, made
minor text change
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