2024-03-20 15:00  P7F Seminar Room

Chiral anomaly induces superconducting baryon crystal, part 2: 3D crystals

Dr. Geraint Evans

Chiral Perturbation Theory is a useful tool to study the low-energy phase structure of QCD. Including the effects of the chiral anomaly at finite baryon chemical potential and large magnetic fields, one can show that neutral pions form an inhomogeneous phase called the Chiral Soltion Lattice (CSL) above a certain critical magnetic field. At low temperature, there is a second critical magnetic field above which this phase becomes unstable to the condensation of charged pions.

Last time, I demonstrated using techniques originally used by Abrikosov, one can construct a superconducting phase of charged pions which is preferred over the CSL beyond this instability when the pions are massless. The baryon number density of this phase is inhomogeneous and periodic in two spatial dimensions. This time, I will present new results from the same calculation with massive pions, in which case the baryon number density of the phase varies in all three spatial dimensions. The implications of this new phase on the baryon chemical potential-magnetic field phase diagram at zero temperature will also be briefly discussed.