Magnetic phases in three-flavor color superconductivity
- Department of Physics, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois 61455 (United States)
The best natural candidates for the realization of color superconductivity are quark stars--not yet confirmed by observation--and the extremely dense cores of compact stars, many of which have very large magnetic fields. To reliably predict astrophysical signatures of color superconductivity, a better understanding of the role of the star's magnetic field in the color-superconducting phase that is realized in the core is required. This paper is an initial step in that direction. The field scales at which the different magnetic phases of a color superconductor with three quark flavors can be realized are investigated. Going from weak to strong fields, the system first undergoes a symmetry transmutation from a color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase to a magnetic-CFL (MCFL) phase, and then a phase transition from the MCFL phase to the paramagnetic-CFL (PCFL) phase. The low-energy effective theory for the excitations of the diquark condensate in the presence of a magnetic field is derived using a covariant representation that takes into account all the Lorentz structures contributing at low energy. The field-induced masses of the charged mesons and the threshold field at which the CFL{yields} MCFL symmetry transmutation occurs are obtained in the framework of this low-energy effective theory. The relevance of the different magnetic phases for the physics of compact stars is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 21027635
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 76, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.76.045011; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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