Strongly Coupled Condensate of High Density Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes that high-density neutral matter like helium and carbon can form a quantum liquid with unique properties, including a mass gap and gapless quasifermions, affecting thermodynamics and stellar cooling.

Contribution

It introduces an effective field theory for a novel condensate phase of high-density matter and explores its implications for static potentials and astrophysical phenomena.

Findings

The condensate exhibits a mass gap and gapless quasifermions.

The static potential shows long-range oscillations due to low-energy excitations.

Implications for white dwarf star cooling are discussed.

Abstract

Arguments are summarized, that neutral matter made of helium, carbon, etc., should form a quantum liquid at the above-atomic but below-nuclear densities for which the charged spin-0 nuclei can condense. The resulting substance has distinctive features, such as a mass gap in the bosonic sector and a gap-less spectrum of quasifermions, which determine its thermodynamic properties. I discuss an effective field theory description of this substance, and as an example, consider its application to calculation of a static potential between heavy charged impurities. The potential exhibits a long-range oscillatory behavior in which both the fermionic and bosonic low-energy degree of freedom contribute. Observational consequences of the condensate for cooling of helium-core white dwarf stars are briefly discussed.