Electromagnetically superconducting phase of vacuum in strong magnetic field: structure of superconductor and superfluid vortex lattices in the ground state

TL;DR

This paper explores the structure of a novel electromagnetic superconducting phase of vacuum induced by strong magnetic fields, revealing vortex lattices of charged and neutral rho mesons with complex arrangements.

Contribution

It demonstrates the formation of a vortex lattice in the superconducting and superfluid condensates of the vacuum under strong magnetic fields, detailing their geometric organization.

Findings

Vortices form an equilateral triangular lattice similar to type-II superconductors.

Each superconducting vortex is accompanied by three superfluid vortices and antivortices.

The combined vortex pattern exhibits a honeycomb structure.

Abstract

Recently it was shown that vacuum in a background of strong enough magnetic field becomes an electromagnetic superconductor due to interplay between strong and electromagnetic forces. The superconducting ground state of the vacuum is associated with a spontaneous emergence of quark-antiquark condensates which carry quantum numbers of charged rho mesons. The rho-meson condensate is an inhomogeneous structure made of the so-called rho vortices, which are parallel to the magnetic field axis. The condensation of the charged rho mesons induces a (much weaker) superfluid-like condensate with quantum numbers of the neutral rho mesons. In this paper we show that the vortices in the superconducting condensate organize themselves in an equilateral triangular lattice similarly to an ordinary type-II superconductor. We show that each of these superconductor vortices is accompanied by three superfluid vortices and three superfluid antivortices made of the neutral rho meson condensate. The superconductor vortex overlaps with one of the superfluid vortices. The superposition of the superconducting and superfluid vortex lattices has a honeycomb pattern.