Color-Superconducting Gap in the Presence of a Magnetic Field

Abstract

We explore the effects of an external magnetic field in the structure and magnitude of the diquark condensate in a three massless quark flavor color superconductor. It is shown that the long-range component $\tilde{B}$ of the external magnetic field that penetrates the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase modifies its gap structure, producing a new phase of lower symmetry. Our analysis is performed within an NJL effective field theory with four-fermion interactions, inspired by one-gluon exchange. Using Ritus' method, we compute the quark propagators in the presence of a background magnetic field, and derive the gap equations for arbitrary values of the field. An analytical solution is found for strong magnetic fields. A main outcome of our study is that the $\tilde{B}$ field tends to strengthen the gaps that get contributions from pairs of $\tilde{Q}$-charged quarks. These gaps are enhanced through the field-dependent density of states of the $\tilde{Q}$-charged quarks on the Fermi surface. Our considerations are relevant for the study of highly magnetized compact stars.

Version to appear in Nuclear Physics B. Typos and one reference corrected

References in corpus (2)

• Two lectures on color superconductivity
• Strange stars and superbursts at near-Eddington mass accretion rates

Cited by in corpus (19)

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