Magnetism in Dense Quark Matter

We review the mechanisms via which an external magnetic field can affect the ground state of cold and dense quark matter. In the absence of a magnetic field, at asymptotically high densities, cold quark matter is in the Color-Flavor-Locked (CFL) phase of color superconductivity characterized by three scales: the superconducting gap, the gluon Meissner mass, and the baryonic chemical potential. When an applied magnetic field becomes comparable with each of these scales, new phases and/or condensates may emerge. They include the magnetic CFL (MCFL) phase that becomes relevant for fields of the order of the gap scale; the paramagnetic CFL, important when the field is of the order of the Meissner mass, and a spin-one condensate associated to the magnetic moment of the Cooper pairs, significant at fields of the order of the chemical potential. We discuss the equation of state (EoS) of MCFL matter for a large range of field values and consider possible applications of the magnetic effects on dense quark matter to the astrophysics of compact stars.Comment: To appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye

On the Low Surface Magnetic Field Structure of Quark Stars

Following some of the recent articles on hole super-conductivity and related phenomena by Hirsch \cite{H1,H2,H3}, a simple model is proposed to explain the observed low surface magnetic field of the expected quark stars. It is argued that the diamagnetic moments of the electrons circulating in the electro-sphere induce a magnetic field, which forces the existing quark star magnetic flux density to become dilute. We have also analysed the instability of normal-superconducting interface due to excess accumulation of magnetic flux lines, assuming an extremely slow growth of superconducting phase through a first order bubble nucleation type transition.Comment: 24 pages REVTEX, one .eps figure, psfig.sty is include