Anisotropic Optical Response of Dense Quark Matter under Rotation: Compact Stars as Cosmic Polarizers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that dense quark matter in the CFL phase, with quantum vortices, exhibits anisotropic optical properties, acting as a cosmic polarizer for certain photon wavelengths due to charged zero modes on vortices.

Contribution

It reveals that orientational zero modes on vortices in the CFL phase are electromagnetically charged, leading to novel optical polarization effects in dense quark matter.

Findings

Vortices in CFL phase carry electromagnetic charge.

A vortex lattice can polarize photons with specific wavelengths.

Dense quark matter can influence photon propagation through vortex-induced anisotropy.

Abstract

Quantum vortices in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase of QCD have bosonic degrees of freedom, called the orientational zero modes, localized on them. We show that the orientational zero modes are electromagnetically charged. As a result, a vortex in the CFL phase nontrivially interacts with photons. We show that a lattice of vortices acts as a polarizer of photons with wavelengths larger than some critical length.