Dice Question Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Color-superconducting phase realized by gapping in cosmological quark clusters

Ascertain whether diquark pairing in cosmological quark clusters leads directly to the Color–Flavor–Locked color-superconducting phase or instead to a crystalline color-superconducting phase, and determine the resulting charge-neutrality properties relevant for dark matter phenomenology.

Information Square Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Background

Stabilization of large quark clusters against rapid evaporation may require color-superconducting gaps, but the specific pairing pattern depends on the microphysics and could occur near the deconfinement temperature in confining models.

The phase realized (CFL versus crystalline) has direct consequences: CFL matter is electrically neutral, while crystalline phases require electrons for neutrality, thus affecting interaction signatures and detection strategies for strangelet dark matter.

References

We do not know if the gapping will directly produce Color-Flavor-Locked quark matter, or if it will form, at least as an intermediate step, a crystalline phase as the one described in Anglani et al. Notice that the knowledge of which gapping pattern will actually take place is important also for the phenomenology of dark matter, since Color-Flavor-Locked quark matter is totally neutral, while a crystalline phase needs the presence of electrons to achieve charge neutrality.

— Strange quark matter as dark matter: 40 years later, a reappraisal (2404.12094 - Clemente et al., 18 Apr 2024) in Subsection "Rephrasing Witten with a modern language" (Section 3)