Characterizing the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrel phase induced by the chromomagnetic instability

Abstract

We discuss possible destinations from the chromomagnetic instability in color superconductors with Fermi surface mismatch $\delta\mu$. In the two-flavor superconducting (2SC) phase we calculate the effective potential for color vector potentials $A_\alpha$ which are interpreted as the net momenta $q$ of pairing in the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrel (LOFF) phase. When $1/\sqrt{2}<\delta\mu/\Delta<1$ where $\Delta$ is the gap energy, the effective potential suggests that the instability leads to a LOFF-like state which is characterized by color-rotated phase oscillations with small $q$. In the vicinity of $\delta\mu/\Delta=1/\sqrt{2}$ the magnitude of $q$ continuously increases from zero as the effective potential has negative larger curvature at vanishing $A_\alpha$ that is the Meissner mass squared. In the gapless 2SC (g2SC) phase, in contrast, the effective potential has a minimum at $gA_\alpha\sim\delta\mu\sim\Delta$ even when the negative Meissner mass squared is infinitesimally small. Our results imply that the chromomagnetic instability found in the gapless phase drives the system toward the LOFF state with $q\sim\delta\mu$.