BCS theory

Derivation of the gap equation

We start with a general Hamiltonian that describes many-fermion system interacting via a
spin-independent interaction potential V (x),
H =

_
d
3
x

(x)
_

2
2m

_

(x)+
1
2

_
d
3
xd
3
x

V (xx

(x)

(x

(x

(x).
Going to the momentum space in nite volume, i.e., substituting
(x) =
1

k
a
k
e
ikx
, V (x) =
1

q
e
iqx

V
q
,
we nd
H =

k
a

k
a
k
+
1
2

k,k

,q

V
q
a

k+q,
a

q,

a
k

a
k
.
Restricting to pairing of fermions with zero total momentum and opposite spin, we get the BCS
Hamiltonian,
H =

k
a

k
a
k
+
1

k,k

V
kk
a

a
k
a
k
.
At nite temperature, we linearize the Hamiltonian by replacing the bilinear a
k
a
k
with its
thermal average,
a
k
a
k

k
2E
k
tgh
E
k
2
. (1)
Introducing the coecients
c
k

1
2

V
kk

E
k

tgh
E
k

2
, (2)
we nd
H =

k
a

k
a
k
+

k
c
k
a

k
a

k
+ H.c.
The spectrum of this Hamiltonian is found by the Bogolyubov transformation of the Nambu
spinor, dened as
A
k
=
_
a
k
a

k
_
.
Subtracting an irrelevant constant, the Hamiltonian reads
H =

k
A

k
_

k
c
k
c
k

k
_
A
k
.
The eigenvalues are E
k

_

2
k
+ c
2
k
and the Hamiltonian is diagonalized by the unitary
transformation,
H =

k
E
k
A

k
U
k

3
U

k
A
k
, U
k
=
_
cos
k
sin
k
sin
k
cos
k
_
.
The eigenstate condition for the + eigenstate reads
k
cos
k
+c
k
sin
k
= E
k
cos
k
. From here
we obtain tg
k
= (E
k

k
)/c
k
, or
tg 2
k
=
c
k

k
. (3)
The gap equation for the gap parameters
k
is found by calculating the anomalous average in
Eq. (1). To that end, we write
U

A
k
=
_

k

k
_
,
where
k
,
k
are the annihilation operators of the particle/hole excitations above the BCS
ground state. From here we readily get
a
k
=
k
cos
k

k
sin
k
, a
k
=

k
sin
k
+
k
cos
k
.
The inverse of these transformations dene the annihilation operators of the Bogolyubov quasi-
particles, which generate the BCS ground state from the Fock vacuum,

k
= a
k
cos
k
+ a

k
sin
k
,
k
= a

k
sin
k
+ a
k
cos
k
.
The self-consistency condition (1) now becomes

k
2E
k
tgh
E
k
2
= a
k
a
k

= (1 + n
,k
+ n
,k
. .
2f(E
k
)
) sin
k
cos
k
=
1
2
sin 2
k
tgh
E
k
2
.
Using Eq. (3) we nd sin 2
k
= c
k
/E
k
and the gap equation becomes simply c
k
=
k
, or
equivalently

k

1

V
kk

2E
k

tgh
E
k

2
, E
k
=
_

2
k
+
2
k
. (4)
Solution of the gap equation
Take the innite-volume limit and the high-density approximation,
1

_
d
3
k
(2)
3
=
_
k
2
d|k|
2
2
d
k
4
N
_
+

d
k
d
k
4
, where N
mk
F
2
2
is the density of states at the Fermi surface, and is an UV cuto on the radial integration.
Assuming that the interaction potential varies slowly enough within the layer of thickness 2
around the Fermi surface (i.e., V (x) has short range), we can treat
k
merely as a function of
the direction of momentum, n.
Considering now just spin-zero pairing,
n
will actually be isotropic,
n
= . The angular
integration is then trivial and gives rise to the eective attractive coupling,
V
e
=
_
d
n

V
nn
.
The gap equation thus becomes
1 = NV
e
_

0
d
_

2
+
2
tgh

_

2
+
2
2
. (5)
At zero temperature, the gap equation can be easily solved since
_

0
d
_

2
+
2
0
= arcsinh

0
log
2

0
, (6)
so that the asymptotic form of the gap at weak coupling is

0
= 2exp
_

1
NV
e
_
.
At the critical temperature, the gap equation (5) reduces to
1
NV
e
=
_

0
d

tgh

c

2
=
_ c
2
0
dx
tgh x
x
log

c

2
+ + log
4

= log
2
c
e

, (7)
which is the formula (32) in the appendix. Comparing this to Eq. (6), we obtain the universal
BCS relation between the gap at zero temperature and the critical temperature,
T
c
=
0
e

. (8)
GinzburgLandau free energy
The static part of the GL functional is derived (up to an overall factor) by expansion of the gap
equation (5) in powers of
2
,
tgh

2
+
2
2
_

2
+
2
=
tgh

2

+

2
2||
d
dx
tgh
x
2
x

x=||
,
the latter derivative being
d
dx
tgh
x
2
x
=
1
x
2
tgh
x
2
+

2x
1
cosh
2 x
2
=
x sinh x
2x
2
cosh
2 x
2
.
The GL gap equation thus acquires the form,
1
NV
e
=
_
2
0
dx
tghx
x
+
_

4
_
2
_
2
0
dx
2x sinh 2x
x
3
cosh
2
x
, (9)
which is rewritten using the above evaluated integrals as
log
T
T
c
=
_

4
_
2
_

0
dx
2x sinh 2x
x
3
cosh
2
x
=
_

4
_
2
2
_

0
dx
_
1
x
2
cosh
2
x

tgh x
x
3
_
. (10)
The last integral is rewritten using integration per partes in such a way that the cancelation of
the IR divergence at x 0 is manifest,

dx
tghx
x
3
=
_
tgh x
2x
2
_

dx
1
2x
2
cosh
2
x
=
1
2

_

dx
1
2x
2
cosh
2
x
+O(),
_

dx
1
2x
2
cosh
2
x
=
_

1
2xcosh
2
x
_

dx
sinh x
xcosh
3
x
=
1
2

_

dx
sinh x
xcosh
3
x
+O(),
so that we nd
_

0
dx
2x sinh 2x
x
3
cosh
2
x
= 2
_

0
dx
sinh x
xcosh
3
x
=
14(3)

2
.
Near the critical temperature, where the gap is expected to be small, we may approximate
log
T
T
c

T
T
c
1 =
T T
c
T
c
t.
The GL equation then becomes
t =
7(3)
8
2
T
2
c

2
. (11)
This GL equation derives from the GL free energy functional, determined up to an overall factor,
F Nt||
2
+
7(3)mk
F
32
4
T
2
c
||
4
. (12)
Alternative derivation
Referring to the Matsubara formalism, we make use of the identity
T

n
1

2
n
+ x
2
=
1
2x
tgh
x
2
,
n
= (2n + 1)T, (13)
and rewrite the gap equation (5) as
1
NV
e
= 2T

n
_

0
d
1

2
n
+
2
+
2
.
The expansion in powers of
2
is now straightforward,
1
NV
e
= 2T

n
_

0
d
_
1

2
n
+
2


2
(
2
n
+
2
)
2
_
.
The rst term gives, after performing the Matsubara sum, back the rst integral on the r.h.s.
of Eq. (9). In the second term, we rst integrate over (taking ) and obtain
2T
2

n
_

0
d
(
2
n
+
2
)
2
=
T
2
2

n
1
|
n
|
3
=

2

2
T
2

n=0
1
(2n + 1)
3
=
7(3)
8
2
T
2

2
. (14)
This, up to a sign redenition, exactly reproduces the r.h.s. of the GL equation (11). For later
reference, the formula just derived is recorded as Eq. (33) in the appendix.
Derivation of the full GinzburgLandau functional
Free energy
Consider a theory dened by the (Euclidean) Lagrangian
L =

(x)
_

2
2m

_

(x) V
e

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x). (15)
The four-fermion interaction may be decoupled using the HubbardStratonovich transformation,
i.e., by adding to the Lagrangian the term
L =
1
V
e
| V
e

|
2
,
so that the Lagrangian becomes
L =
||
2
V
e

G
1
,
where (

)
T
is the Nambu spinor, and G is the corresponding Nambu-space fermion
propagator, dened by G
1
= G
1
0
+ , where
G
1
0
=
_

+

2
2m
+ 0
0

2
2m

_
, =
_
0

0
_
.
The mean-eld expression for the free energy density is then obtained upon integrating out the
fermions,
F =
1

_
1
V
e
_
d
3
x||
2
T Tr log G
1
_
. (16)
Expansion near critical temperature
To derive the GL functional, we expand the logarithm in Eq. (16) in powers of the symmetry-
breaking self-energy and keep terms up to fourth order,
log G
1
= log(G
1
0
+ ) = log G
1
0
+ log(1 + G
0
) = log G
1
0
+

n=1
(1)
n+1
n
(G
0
)
n
.
The odd-n terms have vanishing trace over the Nambu space. After subtracting the free energy
of the normal phase, F
n
, we arrive at
F F
n
=
1

_
1
V
e
_
d
3
x||
2
+ T Tr
_
1
2
(G
0
)
2
+
1
4
(G
0
)
4
__
. (17)
We rst calculate the fourth-order piece where we can assume that the pairing eld is uni-
form. The trace over the Nambu space yields merely a factor of 2 and the space-time trace
may be performed straightforwardly in the momentumfrequency representation, using the free
propagator
G
1
0
(i
n
, k) =
_
i
n

k
0
0 i
n
+
k
_
.
The quartic part of the GL potential thus becomes
T
4
Tr(G
0
)
4
=
||
4
2
T

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
[G
0,11
(i
n
, k)G
0,22
(i
n
, k)]
2
=
||
4
2
T

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
1
(
2
n
+
2
k
)
2
.
In the high-density approximation, this integral is evaluated in Eq. (33) in the appendix, so
that we can immediately write down the result,
T
4
Tr(G
0
)
4
=
7(3)N
8
2
T
2
||
4
2
=
7(3)mk
F
32
4
T
2
c
||
4
. (18)
Now we concentrate on the quadratic part of the free energy (17), allowing the pairing eld to
vary in space. In this case, we get from the denition of the propagator in the coordinate space,
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T

Tr
_
1

+

2
2m
+
(x)
1

2
2m

(x)
_
.
Inserting two partitions of unity in terms of the momentum eigenstates normalized to one in
nite volume, yields
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T

k,k

|k||k

|
2
(i
n

k
)(i
n
+
k
)
.
(Since the pairing eld is assumed to be time-independent, the trace over the imaginary time
may be simply performed by introducing a single Matsubara frequency
n
.) The matrix element
of is merely its corresponding Fourier component,
k||k

=
1

_
d
3
xe
i(k

k)x
(x)
kk
. (19)
Next we switch to the new momentum variables, p =
k+k

2
, q = k k

. Note that the Jacobian

of this transformation is unity, or equivalently, the number of discrete momentum states remains
unchanged. The momentum summations now partially factorize,
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T

q
|
q
|
2

p
1
(i
n

p+
q
2
)(i
n
+
p
q
2
)
.
Not surprisingly, the large fraction (summed over p and n) is precisely the mean-eld fermion-
loop contribution to the propagator of the pairing eld at zero frequency and momentum q.
The ratio of the gradient and the static piece of the quadratic part of the GL functional could
therefore be determined by inspection of the collective mode propagator. Starting from the free
energy as here allows us to x the overall numerical factor.
In order to account for slow variations of the order parameter, we next make a Taylor expansion
in q up to second order. To this end, we write
1
i
n

p
q
2
=
1
i
n

pq
2m

q
2
8m
=
1
i
n

p
_
1 +
pq
2m

q
2
8m
i
n

p
+
_
pq
2m
_
2
(i
n

p
)
2
+O(q
3
)
_
. (20)
Multiplying the Taylor expansions of the two propagators gives, to second order in q,
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T

q
|
q
|
2

p
1

2
n
+
2
p
_
_
1 +
pq
2m
+
q
2
8m
i
n

p
. .
+
_
pq
2m
_
2
(i
n

p
)
2
+
+
pq
2m

q
2
8m
i
n
+
p
. .
+
_
pq
2m
_
2
(i
n
+
p
)
2
+
_
pq
2m
_
2
(i
n

p
)(i
n
+
p
)
_
_
.
The underbraced expressions drop out from the problem: The terms linear in p vanish in the
momentum integral, while the other two terms combine to an expression odd in
p
, i.e., they
vanish in the high-density approximation. In the remaining terms, we perform the angular
average, which is eectively done by the replacement p
i
p
j

1
3

ij
p
2
,
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T

q
|
q
|
2

p
1

2
n
+
2
p
_
1 +
p
2
q
2
12m
2
_
1
(i
n

p
)
2
+
1
(i
n
+
p
)
2

1

2
n
+
2
p
__
.
Now we analyze separately the static and gradient pieces, i.e., the zeroth and second order in
q. In the static part, we may directly perform the sum over q,

q
|
q
|
2
=
1

_
d
3
x|(x)|
2
= ||
2
.
The remaining sum-integral is already well known and is given by Eq. (32) in the appendix.
Together with the condensate term in the free energy (17), this yields
||
2
_
1
V
e
N log
2e

_
= ||
2
N log
T
T
c
Nt||
2
, (21)
where we used Eq. (7) to eliminate the coupling in favor of the critical temperature. In fact,
Eq. (21) may be viewed as an alternative to our previous derivation of the critical temperature.
The gradient part of the quadratic term is, upon some manipulation and taking the high-density
limit, cast in the form
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
grad
=
T
12m
2

q
q
2
|
q
|
2

n
_
d
3
p
(2)
3
p
2
_
3
(
2
n
+
2
p
)
2
+
4
2
p
(
2
n
+
2
p
)
3
_
=
=
Nk
2
F
12m
2

q
q
2
|
q
|
2
T

n
_
+

d
_
3
(
2
n
+
2
)
2
+
4
2
(
2
n
+
2
)
3
_
.
The two integrals involved (one of which has actually already been evaluated in Eq. (14)) read
_
+

d
1
(
2
n
+
2
)
2
=

2|
n
|
3
,
_
+

d

2
(
2
n
+
2
)
3
=

8|
n
|
3
.
The calculation thus eectively reduces to twice the sum-integral in Eq. (32). We thus arrive
at the nal formula for the gradient part of the GL functional,
T
2
Tr(G
0
)
2
grad
=
Nk
2
F
12m
2
7(3)
4
2
T
2

q
q
2
|
q
|
2
=
7(3)k
3
F
96
4
mT
2
c
1

_
d
3
x||
2
. (22)
Putting all the pieces (18), (21), and (22) together, the complete GinzburgLandau free energy
density acquires the form
F F
n
=
7(3)k
3
F
96
4
mT
2
c
||
2
+Nt||
2
+
7(3)mk
F
32
4
T
2
c
||
4
. (23)
GinzburgLandau functional for a relativistic superconductor
Now we will generalize the previous results to relativistic systems with several degrees of freedom.
Our starting assumption will be that the system can be described by a model of the Nambu
Jona-Lasinio type with a contact, momentum-independent interaction. The starting point will
be the formula (16), which now becomes
F =
T
2
Tr log G
1
,
where G is the fermion propagator in the Nambu space, (,
C
)
T
; the extra factor
1
2
comes
from the doubling of the number of degrees of freedom. Note that we have also omitted the
condensate contribution as this merely serves to make the coecient of the mass term in the
GL functional vanish at the critical temperature.
The inverse fermion propagator takes in general the form
G
1
(p) =
_
/
p m +
0

/
p m
0
_
,
where is the gap matrix and

=
0

0
. (The interchange of and

as compared to the
nonrelativistic case is just a convention used in literature on color superconductivity.) According
to our assumption, can be written as =
a
T
a
, where T
a
is a set of momentum independent
matrices in the Dirac and avor space. Slow variations of the order parameters
a
(x) may then
be taken into account by the same strategy as above.
In the high density approximation, we will now neglect the contributions of antiparticles. The
free fermion propagator in the imaginary time thus takes the form
G
0
(i
n
, k) =
_

+
k

0
in
k
0
0

k

0
in+
k
_
.
The quasiparticle excitation energy
k
is again measured with respect to the Fermi level and is
now dened as
k
=
k
,
k
=
_
k
2
+ m
2
. The standard energy projectors

k
are dened as

k
=
1
2
_
1
1

0
( k + m)
_
. (24)
Finally, we just note that with the above modications, Eq. (17) becomes simply
F F
n
=
T
2
Tr
_
1
2
(G
0
)
2
+
1
4
(G
0
)
4
_
, =
_
0

0
_
,
and we are ready to set on the calculation.
We rst evaluate the quartic term. The trace over the Nambu space is trivial and gives just a
factor of two, the rest being
T
4

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
Tr(G
0,11

G
0,22
)
2
=
T
4

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
Tr(
+
k

0
)
2
(
2
n
+
2
k
)
2
.
Using Eq. (33) to evaluate the sum-integral, the property of the energy projectors,

0
=

k
,
and inserting the denition of the gap matrix, we arrive at the most general result,
quartic term =
7(3)
32
2
T
2
c
N

Tr(
+
k
T

k
T
b

+
k
T

k
T
d
)
_
k
. (25)
The angular brackets denote averaging over the direction of the indicated momentum. Note
that the energy
k
and momentum k in the projectors here are understood as being replaced
with their values on the Fermi surface, that is, and p
F

k, where p
F
is the Fermi momentum.
The density of states in a relativistic system is given by
N =
p
F
2
2
.
Next we concentrate on the quadratic part of the free energy. Inserting as in the nonrelativistic
calculation the momentum eigenstates, introducing the Fourier components of the order param-
eter as in Eq. (19), and performing the change of variables to the total and relative momentum,
one obtains
T
4
Tr(G
0
)
2
=
T
2

k,k

Tr(
+
k

kk

k
)
(i
n

k
)(i
n
+
k
)
=
=
T
2

a,q

b,q

p
Tr
_

+
p+
q
2
T

p+
q
2
T
b
_
(i
n

p+
q
2
)(i
n
+
p
q
2
)
. (26)
The static mass term follows immediately upon setting q = 0 and performing the sum-integral
using Eq. (32),
mass term =
1
2
Nt

Tr(
+
p
T

p
T
b
)
_
p
. (27)
To see how the gradient term, i.e., the second-order term in the Taylor expansion of Eq. (26) in
powers of q, will look like, needs a bit thinking. The denominator is apparently even separately
in both p and q, since any change of sign of the momentum can be undone by the change of sign
of the frequency. In order to make the same assertion about the trace in the numerator, we now
make the assumption that the pairing is of even parity. The parity transformation changes the
sign of all momenta, and transforms the gap matrix as
q

0

0
. Eq. (26) thus becomes
T
2

a,q

b,q

p
Tr
_

+
p
q
2

0
T

p
q
2

0
T
b

0
_
(i
n

p
q
2
)(i
n
+
p+
q
2
)
=
=
T
2

a,q

b,q

p
Tr
_

+
p
q
2
T

p
q
2
T
b
_
(i
n

p+
q
2
)(i
n
+
p
q
2
)
.
(In the second step, we changed the sign of the summation variable q and again used the
symmetry of the denominator.) We thus conclude that for parity-even pairing channels, the
trace in the numerator is also even in q. In the following, we shall neglect the second-order
term coming from the expansion of the trace for the following reason. Such a term would be
evaluated with the help of Eq. (32) and would therefore be logarithmically divergent. In spite
of that, it can be seen that this divergent term is, at the critical temperature, negligible as
compared to the nite term in Eq. (22). Indeed, the divergent term is proportional to
logarithm of critical temperature, i.e., by Eq. (7) goes as 1/V
e
in the weak-coupling limit. On
the other hand, the nite term goes as 1/T
2
c
exp
_
2
NV
e
_
!
The dominant term coming from the denominator is evaluated along the same line as in the
nonrelativistic case, only the Taylor expansion (20) becomes slightly more involved,
1
i
n

p
q
2
=
1
i
n

pq
2p

q
2
8p

(pq)
2
8
3
p
=
1
i
n

p
_
_
1 +
pq
2p

q
2
8p

(pq)
2
8
3
p
i
n

p
+
_
pq
2p
_
2
(i
n

p
)
2
_
_
.
Multiplying the Taylor expansions of the two propagators, we realize that the extra term in the
relativistic Taylor expansion does not contribute for the same reason as several other terms. We
are thus left with
gradient term =
T
2

a,q

b,q

p
Tr(
+
p
T

p
T
b
)

2
n
+
2
p
_
p q
2
p
_
2
_
3
(
2
n
+
2
p
)
2
+
4
2
p
(
2
n
+
2
p
)
3
_
.
Using the sum-integral (33), this can be nally reexpressed as
gradient term =
7(3)p
2
F
32
2

2
T
2
c
N

q
q
2

a,q

b,q

( p q)
2
Tr(
+
p
T

p
T
b
)
_
p
. (28)
Equations (25), (27), and (28) represent the general GL functional for a relativistic supercon-
ductors. It is instructive to check them on a simple example. Let us therefore consider the
relativistic generalization of the BCS model (15). It has a single order parameter and the
Dirac structure T =
5
, corresponding to positive parity. Using the identity

5
=

k
,
we can see that all required Dirac traces are simply equal to two. The only nontrivial angular
average will be ( p q)
2
=
1
3
. The whole GL functional thus reduces to
F =
7(3)p
3
F
96
4
T
2
c
||
2
+Nt||
2
+
7(3)p
F
32
4
T
2
c
||
4
,
which is identical to Eq. (23) up to a redenition of the density of states.
GL function for spin-one color superconductors
As a nontrivial application of the above general formulas, we shall now calculate the traces and
averages explicitly for spin-one pairing patterns. We will initially assume that the gap matrix
has the structure
=
ai
Q
a

i
,
without specifying the avor matrices Q
a
. They will only be required to be normalized as
Tr(Q
a
Q

b
) =
ab
.
The gradient and mass terms contain the same Dirac trace which is evaluated using the explicit
expression for the energy projectors (24),
Tr(
+
p
T

ai

p
T
bj
) =
ab
Tr
D
(
+
p

j
) =
=
1
4

ab
_
Tr
D
(
i

j
) + Tr
D
_
1

0
( p + m)
i
1

0
( p + m)
j
__
=
=
1
4

ab
_
4
ij
+
1

2
p
Tr
D
[( p + m)
i
( p + m)
j
]
_
=
=
ab
_

ij
+
1

2
p
(2p
i
p
j
p
2

ij
m
2

ij
)
_
2
ab
_

ij

p
2
F

2
p
i
p
j
_
.
With this trace, we immediately obtain upon angular averaging (Eq. (34))
mass term = Nt
_
1
p
2
F
3
2
_

a
. (29)
The gradient term follows similarly using both Eqs. (34) and (35),
gradient term =
7(3)p
3
F
64
4
T
2
c

a,q

b,q
q
k
q
l
_
2 p
k
p
l

ab
_

ij

p
2
F

2
p
i
p
j
__
p
=
=
7(3)p
3
F
32
4
T
2
c

a,q

a,q
q
k
q
l
_
1
3

ij

kl

p
2
F
15
2
(
ij

kl
+
ik

jl
+
il

jk
)
_
,
gradient term =
7(3)p
3
F
96
4
T
2
c
__
1
p
2
F
5
2
_
|
i

a
|
2

2p
2
F
5
2
|

a
|
2
_
. (30)
Note that formulas (29) and (30) are valid for arbitrary quark mass. To evaluate the Dirac trace
in the quartic term, we resort to the ultrarelativistic limit. In this case, the energy projectors
reduce the spatial -matrices to their transversal parts,

i
= P
ij

j
, P
ij
=
ij
p
i
p
j
,
thanks to the identities

k
,

k
.
The Dirac trace thus simplies to
1
2
Tr
D
(
i

l
) = 2(P
ij
P
kl
P
ik
P
jl
+P
il
P
jk
).
Using the identity (35) we calculate the average of a product of two projectors,
P
ij
P
kl

p
= (
ij
p
i
p
j
)(
kl
p
k
p
l
)
p
=
ij

kl

1
3

ij

kl

1
3

ij

kl
+ p
i
p
j
p
k
p
l

p
=
=
1
15
(6
ij

kl
+
ik

jl
+
il

jk
),
From here,
2 P
ij
P
kl
P
ik
P
jl
+P
il
P
jk

p
=
4
15
(3
ij

kl
2
ik

jl
+ 3
il

jk
),
and we nally get
quartic term =
7(3)p
F
240
4
T
2
c
(3
ij

kl
2
ik

jl
+ 3
il

jk
)

ai

bj

ck

dl
Tr
F
(Q

a
Q
b
Q

c
Q
d
). (31)
Last, we calculate the remaining avor trace for the single-avor, color-antitriplet color super-
conductor, for which the color matrices have the explicit form
(Q
a
)
bc
=
i

abc
.
After a simple manipulation, we get
Tr
F
(Q

a
Q
b
Q

c
Q
d
) =
1
4

aij

bjk

ckl

dli
=
1
4
(
ak

ib

ab

ik
)(
ci

kd

cd

ik
) =
=
1
4
(
ad

bc

ab

cd

ab

cd
+ 3
ab

cd
) =
1
4
(
ab

cd
+
ad

bc
).
Inserting this in Eq. (31), we get the ultimate result
quartic term =
7(3)p
F
480
4
T
2
c
_
3(

a
)
2
+ 3|

b
|
2
2|

b
|
2
_
.
Appendix: Some useful formulas
Matsubara sums:
T

n
log(
2
n
+ x
2
) = x + 2T log
_
1 + e
x
_
,
T

n
1

2
n
+ x
2
=
1
2x
tgh
x
2
,
T

n
1
(
2
n
+ x
2
)
2
=
1
4x
2
_
tgh
x
2
x


2 cosh
2 x
2
_
.
Sum-integrals in the high-density approximation:
T

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
1

2
n
+
2
k
= N log
2e

, (32)
T

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
1
(
2
n
+
2
k
)
2
=
7(3)
8
2
T
2
N, (33)
T

n
_
d
3
k
(2)
3
1
(i
n

k
)
3
(i
n
+
k
)
=
7(3)
16
2
T
2
N.
Angular averages of products of momentum components:
p
i
p
j

p
=
1
3

ij
, (34)
p
i
p
j
p
k
p
l

p
=
1
15
(
ij

kl
+
ik

jl
+
il

jk
). (35)