Towards laboratory detection of topological vortices in superfluid phases of QCD

Abstract

Topological defects arise in a variety of systems, e.g. vortices in superfluid helium to cosmic strings in the early universe. There is an indirect evidence of neutron superfluid vortices from glitches in pulsars. One also expects that topological defects may arise in various high baryon density phases of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), e.g. superfluid topological vortices in the color flavor locked (CFL) phase. Though vastly different in energy/length scales, there are universal features, e.g. in the formation of all these defects. Utilizing this universality, we investigate the possibility of detecting these topological superfluid vortices in laboratory experiments, namely heavy-ion collisions. Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show that vortices can qualitatively affect the power spectrum of flow fluctuations. This can give unambiguous signal for superfluid transition resulting in vortices, allowing for check of defect formation theories in a relativistic quantum field theory system, and the detection of superfluid phases of QCD. Detection of nucleonic superfluid vortices in low energy heavy-ion collisions will give opportunity for laboratory controlled study of their properties, providing crucial inputs for the physics of pulsars.

arXiv comment6 pages, 3 figures, published version

References in corpus (16)

• Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
• Color superconductivity in dense quark matter
• Cosmological Experiments in Condensed Matter Systems
• Central Collisions of Au on Au at 150, 250 and 400 A MeV
• Excitation function of elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions and the nuclear matter equation of state
• Superfluid phases of quark matter. III. Supercurrents and vortices
• Super-horizon fluctuations and acoustic oscillations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Temperatures of Exploding Nuclei
• Effects of magnetic field on the plasma evolution in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Global Strings in High Density QCD
• Parity Asymmetry in the CMBR Temperature Power Spectrum
• Using CMBR analysis tools for flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Stability of superfluid vortices in dense quark matter
• Formation Time of QGP from Thermal Photon Elliptic Flow
• Effects of Phase Transition induced density fluctuations on pulsar dynamics
• Power spectrum of flow fluctuations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Formation of topological vortices during superfluid transition in a rotating vessel
• Initial fluctuations and power spectrum of flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Detecting superfluid transition in the pulsar core