The Crystallography of Strange Quark Matter

Abstract

Cold three-flavor quark matter at large (but not asymptotically large) densities may exist as a crystalline color superconductor. We explore this possibility by calculating the gap parameter Delta and free energy Omega(Delta) for possible crystal structures within a Ginzburg-Landau approximation, evaluating Omega(Delta) to order Delta^6. We develop a qualitative understanding of what makes a crystal structure stable, and find two structures with particularly large values of Delta and the condensation energy, within a factor of two of those for the CFL phase known to characterize QCD at asymptotically large densities. The robustness of these phases results in their being favored over wide ranges of density and though it also implies that the Ginzburg-Landau approximation is not quantitatively reliable, previous work suggests that it can be trusted for qualitative comparisons between crystal structures. We close with a look ahead at the calculations that remain to be done in order to make contact with observed pulsar glitches and neutron star cooling.

arXiv comment6 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of Strangeness in Quark Matter 2006, UCLA. Talk given by Rishi Sharma

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Color superconductivity in dense quark matter
• The rigidity of crystalline color superconducting quark matter
• Are neutron stars with crystalline colour superconducting cores interesting for the LIGO experiment?
• Bulk viscosity in kaon-condensed color-flavor locked quark matter
• Phase diagram of chiral quark matter: Fulde-Ferrell pairing from weak to strong coupling
• Axisymmetric deformations of neutron stars and gravitational-wave astronomy
• The r-mode instability in strange stars with a crystalline crust
• Spherically symmetric elastic bodies in general relativity
• Phase diagram of chiral quark matter: color and electrically neutral Fulde-Ferrell phase
• Inhomogeneous phase of a Gluon Plasma at finite temperature and density
• Compact elastic objects in general relativity
• Inhomogeneous color superconductivity and the cooling of compact stars
• The rigidity of three flavor quark matter