Crystalline Phases in QCD

Abstract

For decades now, low-energy models of QCD have shown indications that a crystalline quark phase could be stable at high chemical potentials. Beyond models, however, there are numerous difficulties in investigating such a hypothesis in full QCD, such as the sign problem. Functional methods do not suffer from the sign problem, and thus, can access the high--$\hat{I}¼$ side of the QCD phase diagram. The main tool used to look for signs of inhomogeneous/crystalline phases in low-energy models is the so-called ``stability analysis''. In this talk, I show how the standard stability analysis was generalised to be applicable in any theory, including QCD.

Proceedings of the XVIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference (QCHSC24), Cairns, Australia, 19-24 August 2024