Color superconductivity in dense quark matter

Journal Article · Wed Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Reviews of Modern Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/REVMODPHYS.80.1455· OSTI ID:22038465

Alford, Mark G; Schmitt, Andreas; Rajagopal, Krishna; Schaefer, Thomas ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 (United States)

Matter at high density and low temperature is expected to be a color superconductor, which is a degenerate Fermi gas of quarks with a condensate of Cooper pairs near the Fermi surface that induces color Meissner effects. At the highest densities, where the QCD coupling is weak, rigorous calculations are possible, and the ground state is a particularly symmetric state, the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase. The CFL phase is a superfluid, an electromagnetic insulator, and breaks chiral symmetry. The effective theory of the low-energy excitations in the CFL phase is known and can be used, even at more moderate densities, to describe its physical properties. At lower densities the CFL phase may be disfavored by stresses that seek to separate the Fermi surfaces of the different flavors, and comparison with the competing alternative phases, which may break translation and/or rotation invariance, is done using phenomenological models. We review the calculations that underlie these results and then discuss transport properties of several color-superconducting phases and their consequences for signatures of color superconductivity in neutron stars.

• OSTI ID: 22038465
• Journal Information: Reviews of Modern Physics, Journal Name: Reviews of Modern Physics Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 80; ISSN RMPHAT; ISSN 0034-6861
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BCS THEORY
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
COLOR MODEL
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COOPER PAIRS
EXCITATION
FERMI GAS
FERMI LEVEL
FLAVOR MODEL
GROUND STATES
NEUTRON STARS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARK MATTER
QUARKS
SUPERCONDUCTORS
SUPERFLUID MODEL
SUPERFLUIDITY
SYMMETRY BREAKING