Phases and condensates in zero-temperature QCD at finite $\mu_I$ and $\mu_S$

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the phase structure of zero-temperature QCD with finite isospin and strangeness chemical potentials using three-flavor chiral perturbation theory, including electromagnetic effects and comparing with lattice results.

Contribution

It provides a detailed study of pion and kaon condensation phases in QCD at finite chemical potentials, incorporating electromagnetic effects and NLO corrections, with validation against lattice simulations.

Findings

Charged meson condensed phases become superconducting due to electromagnetic effects.

NLO corrections improve agreement with lattice simulations.

Light quark and pion condensates are characterized as functions of ta_I.

Abstract

I discuss pion and koan condensation and the the properties of the phases of QCD at finite isospin chemical potential $\mu_I$ and strangeness chemical potential $\mu_S$ at zero temperature using three-flavor chiral perturbation theory. Electromagnetic effects are included in the calculation of the phase diagram, which implies that the charged meson condensed phases become superconducting phases of QCD with a massive photon via the Higgs mechanism. Without electromagnetic effects, we show results for the light quark condensate and the pion condensate as functions of $\mu_I$ at next-to-leading (NLO) order in the low-energy expansion. The results are compared with recent lattice simulations and by including the NLO corrections, one obtains very good agreement.