BCS versus Overhauser pairing in dense (2+1)-dimensional QCD - art. no. 014035

We compare the BCS and Overhauser effect as competing mechanisms for the de stabilization of the quark Fermi surface at an asymptotically large chemica l potential, for the special case of 2 space and 1 time dimensions. We use the framework of perturbative one-gluon exchange, which dominates the pairi ng at mu /g(2)>>1. With screening in matter, we show that in the weak coupl ing limit the Overhauser effect can compete with the BCS effect only for a sufficiently large number of colors. Both the BCS and the Overhauser gaps a re of order g(4)/mu in the Landau gauge.