Ginzburg–Landau approach to the three flavor LOFF phase of QCD

Abstract

We explore, using a Ginzburg–Landau expansion of the free energy, the Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell (LOFF) phase of QCD with three flavors, using the NJL four-fermion coupling to mimic gluon interactions. We find that, below the point where the QCD homogeneous superconductive phases should give way to the normal phase, Cooper condensation of the pairs u–s and d–u is possible, but in the form of the inhomogeneous LOFF pairing.