Anomalous Electromagnetic Transport in Compact Stars

Authors

Efrain J. Ferrer, CUNY Graduate Center
Vivian de la Incera, CUNY Graduate Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-12-2018

Abstract

We study the anomalous electromagnetic transport properties of a quark-matter phase that can be realized in the presence of a magnetic field in the low-temperature/moderate-high-density region of the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase map. In this so-called Magnetic Dual Chiral Density Wave phase, an inhomogeneous condensate is dynamically induced producing a nontrivial topology, a consequence of the asymmetry of the lowest Landau level modes of the quasiparticles in this phase. The nontrivial topology manifests in the electromagnetic effective action via a chiral anomaly term θF^µνF˜_µν, with an axion field θ given by the phase of the Dual Chiral Density Wave condensate. The coupling of the axion with the electromagnetic field leads to several macroscopic effects that include, among others, an anomalous, non-dissipative Hall current, an anomalous electric charge, magnetoelectricity, and the formation of a hybridized propagating mode known as an axion polariton. The possible existence of this phase in the inner core of neutron stars opens a window to search for signals of its anomalous transport properties.

Comments

This article was originally published in Universe, available at https://doi.org/10.3390/universe4030054

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).