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The European Physical Journal A
ISSN: 1434-6001 (printed version)
ISSN: 1434-601X (electronic version)
Abstract Volume 1 Issue 2 (1998) pp 205-220
hadron physics: Chiral phase transition at finite temperature in the linear sigma model
Heui-Seol Roh, T. Matsui (*)
Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan
Recieved: 19 September 1997 / Revised version: 30 October 1997
Abstract: We study the chiral phase transition at finite temperature in the linear sigma model by employing a self-consistent Hartree approximation. This approximation is introduced by imposing self-consistency conditions on the effective meson mass equations which are derived from the finite temperature one-loop effective potential. It is shown that in the limit of vanishing pion mass, namely when the chiral symmetry is exact, the phase transition becomes a weak first order accompanying a gap in the order parameter as a function of temperature. This is caused by the long range fluctuations of meson fields whose effective masses become small in the transition region. It is shown, however, that with an explicit chiral symmetry breaking term in the Lagrangian which generates the realistic finite pion mass the transition is smoothed out irrespective of the choice of coupling strength.
PACS: 25.75.-q Relativistic heavy-ion collisions - 11.30.Rd Chiral symmetries - 12.39.-x Phenomenological quark models
(*) Postdoctoral fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Communicated by F. Lenz
Present address: Physics Department, Sung Kyun Kwan Univ., Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea
Online publication: February 17, 1998
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