Euclidean dense matter generically suffers from the fermion sign problem. However, we argue that the sign problem is absent if one considers only low-energy degrees of freedom. Specifically, the low energy effective theory of dense QCD has positive Euclidean path integral measure, which allows one to establish rigorous inequalities showing that the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase is the true vacuum of three flavor, massless QCD. We then describe a method for simulating dense QCD on the lattice. We also discuss applications to electronic systems in condensed matter, such as generalized Hubbard models.
Categories: hep-lat hep-ph hep-th