Quark Stars as Hideouts For Color-spin-locked Quark Matter: Implications for Powering High-energy Electromagnetic Emissions

The ground state of moderately dense cold quark matter is investigated within the framework of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. It is found that in the regime of weak and intermediate diquark coupling strength, the color-spin-locked (CSL) phase could be most favored, and the density range where CSL phase survives is determined by two quark chemical potentials: one corresponding to the chiral phase transition and the other for the emergence of the gapless color-flavor-locked (CFL) condensate. Based on the theoretical hypothesis that the quark star could be the hideout for CSL quark matter, an interesting scenario is proposed that the phase transition to the CSL phase could occur in the cooling process of a proper quark star. The CSL quark matter is an electromagnetic superconductor of Type-I, and a complete Meissner effect is expected. However, the analysis for this sizable superconductor indicates that most of the magnetic field is frozen inside the star with a critical strength, while in some special cases, a small fraction could be expelled from a thin layer near the surface in a short time. An analysis on energetics and time scale is performed to investigate if this expulsion of magnetic flux could power or induce high-energy electromagnetic emissions.
Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; comments and suggetions are welcome