Chiral phase transition and instanton--anti-instanton molecules

Journal Article · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.51.1267· OSTI ID:6853330

Schaefer, T; Shuryak, E V; Verbaarschot, J J.M. ^[1]

---

1. Department of Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794 (United States)

In this paper we explore the idea that the chiral phase transition in QCD can be described as a transition from a disordered instanton liquid to a strongly correlated phase of polarized instanton--anti-instanton molecules. We calculate the degree of polarization of the molecules as a function of the temperature and show that the resulting [ital T] dependence of the fermion determinant drives the chiral phase transition. We also show how the polarization of the molecules can lead to a nontrivial behavior of the energy density and pressure. Finally, we study the effect of the presence of molecules on the propagation of quarks at [ital T][similar to][ital T][sub [ital c]]. We derive the corresponding effective interaction and find that the strength in the scalar-pseudoscalar channel is four times the strength in the vector--axial-vector channel which agrees with recent lattice QCD simulations. We give results for the quark condensates as well as mesonic and baryonic correlation functions and find that the screening masses'' of chiral partners become equal for [ital T][gt][ital T][sub [ital c]], where we still observe substantial attraction in the scalar-pseudoscalar meson channels.

• DOE Contract Number: FG02-88ER40388
• OSTI ID: 6853330
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 51:3; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
INSTANTONS
MOLECULES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
BARYONS
CONDENSATES
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
ENERGY DENSITY
MESONS
POLARIZATION
QUARKS
SCREENING
SIMULATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
BOSONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
HADRONS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUASI PARTICLES
SYMMETRY
662230* - Quantum Chromodynamics- (1992-)
662110 - General Theory of Particles & Fields- Theory of Fields & Strings- (1992-)
662240 - Models for Strong Interactions- (1992-)