Scalar fields in nuclear matter: The roles of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and nucleon structure

Journal Article · Sat Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.83.015204· OSTI ID:21499371

Chanfray, G; Ericson, M ^[1]

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1. IPN Lyon, Universite de Lyon, Univ. Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, UMR5822, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France)

Chiral theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking such as the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model lead to the existence of a scalar mode. We present in a detailed manner how the corresponding low-momentum effective Lagrangian involving the scalar field can be constructed starting from the NJL model. We discuss the relevance of the scalar mode for the problem of nuclear binding and saturation. We show that it depends on the nucleon mass origin with two extreme cases. If this origin is entirely due to confinement, the coupling of this mode to the nucleons vanishes, making it irrelevant for the nuclear binding problem. If instead it is entirely due to spontaneous symmetry breaking, it couples to the nucleons but nuclear matter collapses. It is only in the case of a mixed origin with spontaneous breaking that nuclear matter can be stable and reach saturation. We describe models of nucleon structure where this balance is achieved. We also show how chiral constraints and confinement modify the QCD sum rules for mass evolution in nuclear matter.

• OSTI ID: 21499371
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 83; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BARYONS
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
CHIRALITY
COUPLING
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
EVOLUTION
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
HADRONS
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
MASS
MATTER
NUCLEAR MATTER
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SATURATION
SCALAR FIELDS
SIMULATION
SUM RULES
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY BREAKING