Color superconductivity in dense quark matter

Mark G. Alford, Andreas Schmitt, Krishna Rajagopal, and Thomas Schäfer
Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1455 – Published 11 November 2008

Abstract

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.

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    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.80.1455

    ©2008 American Physical Society

    Authors & Affiliations

    Mark G. Alford* and Andreas Schmitt

    • Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA

    Krishna Rajagopal

    • Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

    Thomas Schäfer§

    • Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA

    • *alford@wuphys.wustl.edu
    • aschmitt@wuphys.wustl.edu
    • krishna@lns.mit.edu
    • §tmschaef@unity.ncsu.edu

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    Issue

    Vol. 80, Iss. 4 — October - December 2008

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