Baryons as linked vortices in QCD matter with isospin asymmetry

Abstract

We investigate a baryonic structure in low-energy QCD via a model-independent way using the chiral perturbation theory at the leading order, in the presence of the baryon chemical potential $\mu_B$, the isospin chemical potential $\mu_I$, and the electromagnetic coupling. For such a scenario in the chiral limit, it has been known that the neutral pion winds like in the chiral soliton lattice, confined within an Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen (ANO) vortex of the charged pions. This structure undergoes a drastic transformation when the pion mass is introduced, i.e., both charged and neutral pions condense in the bulk, allowing two distinct types of vortices: the charged pions constitute a local ANO-like vortex, while the neutral pion configures a global vortex which is further attached to a domain wall also known as the chiral soliton. Remarkably, the ANO vortex forms a topological linking with the closed global vortex line, when $\mu_B$ exceeds its critical value as a function of $\mu_I$. The linking number has the physical meaning of the baryon number in view of the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. In this sense, the linked configuration realizes a stable Skyrmion-type solution, but innovatively without the Skyrme term. We therefore propose a novel phase of dense baryonic matter comprised of such vortices, which shall play a role in the low-energy QCD phase diagram.