• Accepted Paper

Neutrino absorption in two-flavor color-superconducting quark matter

M. G. Alford, L. Brodie, M. Buballa, H. Gholami, A. Haber, and M. Hofmann

Phys. Rev. C - Accepted 20 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dg6d-6cv3

Abstract

We calculate the absorption mean free paths of electron and muon neutrinos in two-flavor colorsuperconducting (2SC) quark matter in the density and temperature range that is relevant to binary neutron star mergers. We model the strong interaction between quarks using a Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, performing calculations self-consistently in the mean-field approximation. Since the 2SC gap is large we restrict our analysis to the contribution of unpaired quarks. We find that at low temperatures absorption by a down quark ν + d → u + e−/µ− is kinematically not allowed, so absorption by a strange quark ν + s → u + e−/µ− dominates the mean free path. As temperature or neutrino energy rises, the d quark absorption channel becomes active, and the mean free path shrinks. We find that in equilibrated 2SC matter with an electron lepton fraction YLe = 0.1, the neutrinos form a degenerate gas with a mean free path of meters or less, independent of the temperature.

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