Transport coefficients of two-flavor superconducting quark matter

Understand

Background: The two-flavor color superconducting (2SC) phase of quark matter is a possible constituent of the core of neutron stars.

• To assess its impact on the observable behavior of the star one must analyze transport properties, which in 2SC matter are controlled by the scattering of gapless fermionic modes by each other and possibly also by color-magnetic flux tubes.
• Purpose: We determine the electrical and thermal conductivities and the shear viscosity of 2SC matter.
• Methods: We use a variational formulation of transport theory, treating the strong and electromagnetic interactions via a weak coupling expansion.