Mark Alford

Washington University, St Louis

Bulk viscosity in ultra-dense quark matter


The densest predicted state of matter is color-superconducting quark matter, in which quarks near the Fermi surface form a condensate of Cooper pairs. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is an ongoing enterprise. I will review the essentials of color superconductivity, then discuss how it affects the bulk viscosity of quark matter, and how the bulk viscosity of the interior of a compact star can be related, via r-modes, to the star's astronomically observable properties.


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