Abstract
The transition in quantum chromodynamics from hadronic matter to the quark-gluon plasma at high temperatures and/or net-baryon densities is associated with the restoration of chiral symmetry and can be investigated in the laboratory via heavy-ion collisions. We study this chiral transition within the functional renormalization group approach applied to the two-flavor version of the extended linear sigma model (eLSM). The eLSM is an effective model for the strong interaction and features besides scalar and pseudoscalar degrees of freedom also vector and axial-vector mesons. We discuss the impact of the quark masses and the axial anomaly on the order of the chiral transition. We also confirm the degeneracy of the masses of chiral partners above the transition temperature. We find that the mass of the meson ( meson) decreases (increases) towards the chiral transition.
- Received 10 September 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.096008
© 2015 American Physical Society