Meson correlation functions in a QCD plasma

The temporal pseudoscalar meson correlation function in a QCD plasma is investigated in a range of temperatures exceeding T_c and yet of experimental interest. Only the flavour-singlet channel is considered and the imaginary time formalism is employed for the finite temperature calculations. The behaviour of the meson spectral function and of the temporal correlator is first studied in the HTL approximation, where one replaces the free thermal quark propagators with the HTL resummed ones. This procedure satisfactory describes the soft fermionic modes, but its application to the propagation of hard quarks is not reliable. An improved version of the so-called NLA scheme, which allows a better treatment of the hard fermionic modes, is then proposed. The impact of the improved NLA on the pseudoscalar temporal correlator is investigated.     

Asymptotic deconfinement in high-density QCD

We discuss QCD with two light flavors at large baryon chemical potential micro. Color superconductivity leads to partial breaking of the color SU(3) group. We show that the infrared physics is governed by the gluodynamics of the remaining SU(2) group with an exponentially soft confinement scale Lambda(')(QCD) approximately Deltaexp[-a(mu)/(gDelta)], where Delta< mu is the superconducting gap, g is the strong coupling, and a = 2sqrt[2] pi/11. We estimate that, at moderate baryon densities, Lambda(')(QCD) is O(10 MeV) or smaller. The confinement radius increases exponentially with density, leading to "asymptotic deconfinement." The velocity of the SU(2) gluons is small due to the large dielectric constant of the medium.     

Meson correlation function and screening mass in thermal QCD

Analytical results for the spatial dependence of the correlation functions for all meson excitations in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, the lowest order, are calculated. The meson screening mass is obtained as a large distance limit of the correlation function. Our analysis leads to a better understanding of the excitations of Quark Gluon Plasma at sufficiently large temperatures and may be of relevance for future numerical calculations with fully interacting Quantum Chromodynamics.     

Domain walls of high-density QCD

We show that in very dense quark matter there must exist metastable domain walls where the axial U(1) phase of the color-superconducting condensate changes by 2pi. The decay rate of the domain walls is exponentially suppressed and we compute it semiclassically. We give an estimate of the critical chemical potential above which our analysis is under theoretical control.     

Magnetic color-flavor locking phase in high-density QCD

We investigate the effects of an external magnetic field in the gap structure of a color superconductor with three massless quark flavors. Using an effective theory with four-fermion interactions, inspired by one-gluon exchange, we show that the long-range component B of the external magnetic field that penetrates the color-flavor locked phase modifies its gap structure, producing a new phase of lower symmetry. A main outcome of our study is that the B field tends to strengthen the gaps formed by Q-charged and Q-neutral quarks that coupled among themselves through tree-level vertices. These gaps are enhanced by the field-dependent density of states of the Q-charged quarks on the Fermi surface. Our considerations are relevant for the study of highly magnetized compact stars.     

Rho Meson Distribution Amplitudes from QCD Sum Rules with Nonlocal Condensates

The leading-twist distribution amplitude for the longitudinal rho-meson was studied using QCD Sum Rules with nonlocal condensates and a spectral density which includes next-to-leading order radiative corrections. The obtained profile is compared with results from standard QCD sum rules, lattice QCD, holographic QCD, a light-front quark model, and the instanton liquid model. Preliminary estimates for the first two moments of the transverse ρ-meson distribution amplitude are also given.     

Meson screening masses at high temperature in quenched QCD with improved Wilson Quarks

We report on a lattice investigation of improved quenched Wilson fermions above and below the confinement-deconfinement phase transition. Results on meson screening masses as well as spatial wave functions are presented. Moreover, the meson dispersion relation is studied. Below the critical temperature we do not observe any significant temperature effect while above the data are consistent with a leading free quark behavior. Received: 2 April 2001 / Published online: 8 June 2001     

Meson spectrum in quenched QCD on a 164 lattice

The masses of pseudoscalar and vector mesons and their radial excitations are measured in the quenched approximation to QCD by a 32nd-order numerical hopping-parameter expansion on a 16⁴ lattice. Scaling behaviour, finite-size effects and the influence of statistics are studied.     

A Light-Cone QCD Inspired Meson Model with a Relativistic Confining Potential in Momentum Space

For describing the radial excited states a relativistic confining potential in momentum space is included in the meson effective light-cone Hamiltonian. The meson eigen equations are transformed from the front form to the instant form and formulated in total angular representation. Details about numerically solving these equations are discussed, mainly focusing on treating singularities arising from one-gluon exchange interactions and confinement. The results of pseudo-scalar mesons indicate that the improved meson effective light-cone Hamiltonian can describe the ground states and radial excited states well. Some radial excited states are also predicted and waiting for experimental test.     

Meson screening masses from lattice QCD with two light quarks and one strange quark

We present results for screening masses of mesons built from light and strange quarks in the temperature range of approximately between 140 MeV to 800 MeV. The lattice computations were performed with 2+1 dynamical light and strange flavors of improved (p4) staggered fermions along a line of constant physics defined by a pion mass of about 220 MeV and a kaon mass of 500 MeV. The lattices had temporal extents N _τ =4, 6 and 8 and aspect ratios of N _s /N _τ ≥4. At least up to a temperature of 140 MeV the pseudo-scalar screening mass remains almost equal to the corresponding zero temperature pseudo-scalar (pole) mass. At temperatures around 3T _c (T _c being the transition temperature) the continuum extrapolated pseudo-scalar screening mass approaches very close to the free continuum result of 2πT from below. On the other hand, at high temperatures the vector screening mass turns out to be larger than the free continuum value of 2πT. The pseudo-scalar and the vector screening masses do not become degenerate even for a temperature as high as 4T _c . Using these mesonic spatial correlation functions we have also investigated the restoration of chiral symmetry and the effective restoration of the axial symmetry. We have found that the vector and the axial-vector screening correlators become degenerate, indicating chiral symmetry restoration, at a temperature which is consistent with the QCD transition temperature obtained in previous studies. On the other hand, the pseudo-scalar and the scalar screening correlators become degenerate only at temperatures larger than 1.3T _c , indicating that the effective restoration of the axial symmetry takes place at a temperature larger than the QCD transition temperature.     

Coupling Constant of a Vector Meson with Delta Baryons in the Soft-Wall Ads/QCD Model

Russian Physics Journal - The coupling constant of a vector meson with delta baryons in the AdS/QCD model is investigated. A pseudoscalar field is introduced inside the anti-de Sitter (AdS) space...     

Revisiting the Twist-3 Distribution Amplitudes of K Meson Within the QCD Background Field Approach

In the present paper, we investigate the kaon twist-3 distribution amplitudes (DAs) φ p,σ K within the QCD background field approach. The SU f (3)-breaking effects are studied in detail under a systematical way, especially the sum rules for the moments of φ K p,σ are obtained by keeping all the mass terms in the s-quark propagator consistently. After adding all the uncertainties in quadrature, the first two Gegenbauler moments of φp,σ K are a K,p 1 (1 GeV)=0.376-0.148+0.103, a K,p 2(1 GeV) =0.701-10.491+0.48 , a K,σ1 (1 GeV) = 0.160-0.074+0.051, and a K,σ 2(1 GeV)=0.369-0.149+0.163 , respectively. Their normaliza- tion parameters μ K p |1 GeV=1.188-0.043+0.039 GeV and μ K σ |1 GeV=1.021-0.055+0.036 GeV. A detailed discussion on the properties of φ p,σ K moments shows that the higher-order s-quark mass terms can indeed provide sizable contributions. Furthermore, based on the newly obtained moments, a model for the kaon twist-3 wavefunction Ψ p,σ K (x, k ⊥ ) with a better end-point behavior is constructed, which shall be useful for perturbative QCD calculations. As a byproduct, we make a discussion on the properties of the pion twist-3 DAs.