Gluonic phase versus LOFF phase in two-flavor quark matter

We study the gluonic phase in a two-flavor color superconductor as a function of the ratio of the gap over the chemical potential mismatch, Δ/δμ. We find that the gluonic phase resolves the chromomagnetic instability encountered in a two-flavor color superconductor for Δ/δμ<2. We also calculate approximately the free energies of the gluonic phase and the single plane-wave LOFF phase and show that the former is favored over the latter for a wide range of coupling strengths.