Instability of a gapless color superconductor with respect to inhomogeneous fluctuations

Abstract

We systematically apply density functional theory to determine the kind of inhomogeneities that spontaneously develop in a homogeneous gapless phase of neutral two-flavor superfluid quark matter. We consider inhomogeneities in the quark and electron densities and in the phases and amplitude of the order parameter. These inhomogeneities are expected to lead the gapless phase to a BCS-normal coexisting phase, a Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) state with phase oscillations alone, and a LOFF state with amplitude oscillations. We find that which of them the homogeneous system tends towards depends sensitively on the chemical potential separation between up and down quarks and the gradient energies.