Neutral Larkin--Ovchinnikov--Fulde--Ferrell state and chromomagnetic instability in two-flavor dense QCD

Abstract

In two-flavor dense quark matter, we describe the dynamics in the single plane wave Larkin--Ovchinnikov--Fulde--Ferrell (LOFF) state satisfying the color and electric neutrality conditions. We find that because the neutral LOFF state itself suffers from a chromomagnetic instability in the whole region where it coexists with the (gapped/gapless) two-flavor superconducting (2SC/g2SC) phases, it cannot cure this instability in those phases. This is unlike the recently revealed gluonic phase which seems to be able to resolve this problem.

Revtex4, 5 pages, 3 figures, clarifications added, to appear in Phys.Rev.Lett