Breached pairing superfluidity: Possible realization in QCD

Abstract

We propose a wide universality class of gapless superfluids, and analyze a limit that might be realized in quark matter at intermediate densities. In the breached pairing color superconducting phase heavy $s$-quarks, with a small Fermi surface, pair with light $u$ or $d$ quarks. The groundstate has a superfluid and a normal Fermi component simultaneously. We expect a second order phase transition, as a function of increasing density, from the breached pairing phase to the conventional color-flavor locked (CFL) phase.