TY - JOUR
T1 - The phases of deuterium at extreme densities
AU - Bedaque, Paulo F.
AU - Buchoff, Michael I.
AU - Cherman, Aleksey
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - We consider deuterium compressed to higher than atomic, but lower than nuclear densities. At such densities deuterium is a superconducting quantum liquid. Generically, two superconducting phases compete, a " ferromagnetic" and a "nematic" one. We provide a power counting argument suggesting that the dominant interactions in the deuteron liquid are perturbative (but screened) Coulomb interactions. At very high densities the ground state is determined by very small nuclear interaction effects that probably favor the ferromagnetic phase. At lower densities the symmetry of the theory is effectively enhanced to SU(3), and the quantum liquid enters a novel phase, neither ferromagnetic nor nematic. Our results can serve as a starting point for investigations of the phase dynamics of deuteron liquids, as well as exploration of the stability and dynamics of the rich variety of topological objects that may occur in phases of the deuteron quantum liquid, which range from Alice strings to spin skyrmions to ℤ2 vortices.
AB - We consider deuterium compressed to higher than atomic, but lower than nuclear densities. At such densities deuterium is a superconducting quantum liquid. Generically, two superconducting phases compete, a " ferromagnetic" and a "nematic" one. We provide a power counting argument suggesting that the dominant interactions in the deuteron liquid are perturbative (but screened) Coulomb interactions. At very high densities the ground state is determined by very small nuclear interaction effects that probably favor the ferromagnetic phase. At lower densities the symmetry of the theory is effectively enhanced to SU(3), and the quantum liquid enters a novel phase, neither ferromagnetic nor nematic. Our results can serve as a starting point for investigations of the phase dynamics of deuteron liquids, as well as exploration of the stability and dynamics of the rich variety of topological objects that may occur in phases of the deuteron quantum liquid, which range from Alice strings to spin skyrmions to ℤ2 vortices.
KW - Global symmetries
KW - Spontaneous symmetry breaking
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U2 - 10.1007/JHEP04(2011)094
DO - 10.1007/JHEP04(2011)094
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053159602
SN - 1126-6708
VL - 2011
JO - Journal of High Energy Physics
JF - Journal of High Energy Physics
IS - 4
M1 - 94
ER -