Directional dependence of color superconducting gap in two-flavor QCD in a magnetic field

Lang Yu, Igor A. Shovkovy

Published 2012-02-04, updated 2012-04-10Version 2

We study the effect of a magnetic field on the pairing dynamics in two-flavor color superconducting dense quark matter. The study is performed in the weakly coupled regime of QCD at asymptotically high density, using the framework of the Schwinger-Dyson equation in the improved rainbow approximation. We show that the superconducting gap function develops a directional dependence in momentum space. Quasiparticles with momenta perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field have the largest gaps, while quasiparticles with momenta parallel to the field have the smallest gaps. We argue that the directional dependence is a consequence of a long-range interaction in QCD. The quantitative measure of the ellipticity of the gap function is determined by a dimensionless ratio, proportional to the square of the magnetic field and inversely proportional to the fourth power of the quark chemical potential. For magnetic fields in stars, $B\lesssim 10^{18} G$, the corresponding ratio is estimated to be less than about $10^{-2}$, justifying the use of the weak magnetic field limit in all stellar applications.