Andreas Schmitt

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Spin-1 color superconductors and pulsar kicks


A neutron star core which contains color-superconducting quark matter in the A phase provides a natural mechanism for pulsar kicks. The A phase is a specific phase in which quarks of the same flavor form Cooper pairs with total spin one. An introduction to these spin-one phases and a discussion of their gaps and transition temperatures is given. Special emphasis is put on anisotropies in these phases, which, in the case of the A phase, leads to an asymmetric neutrino emission which is responsible for the proposed pulsar kick mechanism.

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