Two-colour QCD at finite fundamental quark-number density and related theories

Abstract

We are simulating SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with four flavours of dynamical quarks in the fundamental representation of SU(2) `colour' at finite chemical potential, mu for quark number, as a model for QCD at finite baryon number density. In particular we observe that for mu large enough this theory undergoes a phase transition to a state with a diquark condensate which breaks quark-number symmetry. In this phase we examine the spectrum of light scalar and pseudoscalar bosons and see evidence for the Goldstone boson associated with this spontaneous symmetry breaking. This theory is closely related to QCD at finite chemical potential for isospin, a theory which we are now studying for SU(3) colour.