Quark matter in neutron stars

Abstract

According to quantum chromodynamics, matter at ultra-high density and low temperature is a quark liquid, with a condensate of Cooper pairs of quarks near the Fermi surface ("color superconductivity"). This paper reviews the physics of color superconductivity, and discusses some of the proposed signatures by which we might detect quark matter in neutron stars.

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures; To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennessee. v2: typo corrected, line numbers removed