Photon emission from dense quark matter Original Research Article

Thermal emission rates and mean free paths of photons in a color-flavor locked (CFL) phase of quark matter at high densities and moderate temperatures are evaluated. Our calculations are based on a low-energy effective theory for CFL matter describing Goldstone boson excitations and their electromagnetic as well as strong interactions. In-medium coupling strengths of vector mesons are estimated to be smaller than in vacuum. As a consequence of in-medium modified pion dispersion relations, novel processes such as π+π−→γ and γ→π+π− become possible. The total photon emissivity is found to be very large, exceeding contributions from thermal e+e− annihilation above temperatures of about 5 MeV. At the same time, the corresponding mean free paths become very small. Our results imply that the photon flux from the surface of a (hypothetical) CFL star in its early hot stages saturates the black-body limit. Schematic estimates for the early thermal evolution of the star are also presented.