Using results from the chiral perturbation theory for the s-wave interaction and the delta-resonance model for the p-wave interaction of pions with nucleons, we have evaluated the spectral functions of pions in asymmetric nuclear matter with unequal proton and neutron densities. We find that in hot dense neutron-rich matter the strength of the spectral function of positively charged pion at low energies is somewhat larger than that of negatively charged pion. In a thermal model, this isospin-dependent effect slightly reduces the ratio of negatively charged to positively charged pions that are produced in heavy ion collisions induced by radioactive beams. Relevance of our results to the determination of the nuclear symmetry energy from measured ratio of negatively to positively charged pions produced in heavy ion collisions is discussed.
It is shown that isospin-breaking corrections to the pion-deuteron scattering length can be very large, because of the vanishing of the isospin-symmetric contribution to this scattering length at leading order in chiral perturbation theory. We further demonstrate that these corrections can explain the bulk of the discrepancy between the recent experimental data on pionic hydrogen and pionic deuterium. We also give the first determination of the electromagnetic low-energy constant f1.
Recent measurements have revealed a significant suppression of multipion Bose-Einstein correlations in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The suppression may be explained by postulating coherent pion emission. Typically, the suppression of Bose-Einstein correlations due to coherence is taken into account with the coherent state formalism in quantum optics. However, since charged pion correlations are most often measured, the additional constraint of isospin conservation, which is absent in quantum optics, needs to be taken into account. As a consequence, correlations emerge between pions of oppo…
In recent years, high-accuracy data for pionic hydrogen and deuterium have become the primary source of information on the pion-nucleon scattering lengths. Matching the experimental precision requires, in particular, the study of isospin-breaking corrections both in pion-nucleon and pion-deuteron scattering. We review the mechanisms that lead to the cancellation of potentially enhanced virtual-photon corrections in the pion-deuteron system, and discuss the subtleties regarding the definition of the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in the presence of electromagnetic interactions by comparing to …
We study the effect of isospin projections on a two source picture of coherent pions coming from nucleon-antinucleon annihilation. We show that important Hanbury-Brown Twiss correlations among like charge pion pairs compared with unlike arise from these isospin projections.
The statistical system of pions with zero total isospin is studied. The suppression effects for the average yields due to isospin conservation are the same for $π^0$, $π^+$ and $π^-$. However, a behavior of the corresponding particle number fluctuations are different. For neutral pions there is the enhancement of the fluctuations, whereas for charged pions the isospin conservation suppresses fluctuations. The correlations between the numbers of charged and neutral pions are observed for finite systems. This causes a maximum of the total pion number fluctuations for small systems. The thermodyn…
We use the method of QCD sum rules in the presence of an external pion field to investigate isospin symmetry breakings in pion-nucleon couplings. Possible manifestations of such isospin symmetry breaking are examined in the context of low-energy nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) scattering. We discuss numerical results in relation to both the existing data and other theoretical predictions.
Based on the framework of an extended multiphase transport model with mean-field potentials in both the partonic phase and the hadronic phase, we explain the elliptic flow difference between $π^+$ and $π^-$ in the beam-energy scan program at the relativistic heavy-ion collider by incorporating the vector-isovector potential for quarks and antiquarks with different isospins. It is found that the isospin splitting of pion elliptic flow favors a strong vector-isovector interaction, and thus serves as a probe of the quark matter equation of state as well as the QCD phase structure at finite baryon…
The importance of a isospin dependent nuclear mean field (IDMF) in regard to the pion production mechanism is studied for the reaction $Au+Au$ at 1 GeV/nucleon using the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model. In particular, the effect of the IDMF on pion spectra and the charged pion ratio are analyzed. It is found that the inclusion of a IDMF considerably suppresses the low$-p_t$ pions, thus, leading to a better agreement with the data on pion spectra. Moreover, the rapidity distribution of the charged pion ratio appears to be sensitive to the isospin dependence of the nuclear mean field.
We examine the effect of isospin-violating meson-nucleon coupling constants on low-energy pion-nucleon scattering. We compute the couplings in the context of a nonrelativistic quark model. The difference between the up and down constituent masses induces a coupling of the neutral pion to the proton that is slightly larger than the corresponding one for the neutron. This difference generates a large isospin-violating correction---proportional to the isospin-even contribution arising from the nucleon Born terms---to the charge-exchange ($π^{-}p \rightarrow π^{0}n$) amplitude. In contrast to the …
Using a pair of the lightest mirror nuclei, $^3$He and $^3$H, we study the effect of the medium modification of pion fields on the flavor non-singlet structure function. The change of the pion fields leads to an enhancement of the flavor asymmetry of the antiquark distributions in a nucleus.
We analyze isospin breaking through quark mass differences and virtual photons in the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in all physical channels in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory.
Based on the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model, the impacts of momentum dependent interaction, symmetry energy and near-threshold $NN\to NΔ$ cross sections on isospin sensitive collective flow and pion observables are investigated. Our results confirm that the elliptic flow of neutrons and charged particles, i.e. $v_2^n$ and $v_2^{ch}$, are sensitive to the strength of momentum dependence interaction and the elliptic flow ratio, i.e., $v_2^n/v_2^{ch}$, is sensitive to the stiffness of symmetry energy. For describing the pion multiplicity near the threshold energy, acc…
We construct the complete effective chiral pion-nucleon Lagrangian in the presence of virtual photons to one loop. As an application, we consider strong and electromagnetic isospin violation for scattering of neutral pions off nucleons. We show that for the scattering lengths these isospin violating terms are of the same size as the purely hadronic ones. We also analyze isospin-violating effects for the $σ$--term. These can be as large as 10% for the absolute value but are negligible for the shift to the Cheng-Dashen point.
We present an analysis of isospin-breaking effects in threshold pion-nucleon scattering due to the light quark mass difference and the dominant virtual photon effects. We discuss the deviation from various relations, which are exact in the isospin limit. The size of the isospin-violating effects in the relations involving the isovector $πN$ amplitudes is typically of the order of one percent. We also find a new remarkably large effect $(\sim 40%)$ in an isoscalar triangle relation connecting the charged and neutral pion scattering off protons.
We analyze isospin breaking through quark mass differences and virtual photons in the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in all physical channels in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. The so-called triangle relation is found to be violated by about 1.5 %. We encounter a substantial isospin-breaking correction to neutral-pion-nucleon scattering beyond Weinberg's prediction due to a cusp effect. Finally, the application to hadronic atoms is briefly discussed.
I discuss low-energy pion-nucleon scattering in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. I argue that using this theoretical method one is able to handle the in some cases tremendous experimental accuracy (for the low partial waves). I then show how strong and electromagnetic isospin violation can be treated simultaneously. Some first results for neutral pion scattering and the $σ$-term are given.
The nuclear density functional framework, based on chiral dynamics and the symmetry breaking pattern of low-energy QCD, is extended to the description of collective nuclear excitations. Starting from the relativistic point-coupling Lagrangian previously introduced [Nucl. Phys. A770 (2006) 1], the proton-neutron (quasiparticle) random phase approximation is formulated and applied to investigate the role of chiral pion-nucleon dynamics in excitation modes involving spin and isospin degrees of freedom, e.g. isobaric analog states and Gamow-Teller resonances.
Equation of state and electric (isospin) charge fluctuations are studied for matter composed of interacting pions. The pion matter is described by self interacting scalar fields via a $ϕ^4-ϕ^6$ type Lagrangian. The mean-field approximation is used, and interaction parameters are fixed by fitting lattice QCD results on the isospin density as a function of the isospin chemical potential at zero temperature. Two scenarios for fixing the model parameters -- with and without the first order phase transition -- are considered, both yielding a satisfactory description of the lattice data. Thermodynam…
In this paper, we consider two-flavor QCD at zero temperature and finite isospin chemical potential ($μ_I$) using a model-independent analysis within chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order. We calculate the effective potential, the chiral condensate and the pion condensate in the pion-condensed phase at both zero and nonzero pionic source. We compare our finite pionic source results for the chiral condensate and the pion condensate with recent (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD results and find that they are in excellent agreement.
We investigate isospin breaking in low-energy pion-nucleon scattering in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. This work extends the systematic analysis of [1] to the energy range above threshold. Various relations, which identically vanish in the limit of isospin symmetry, are used to quantify isospin breaking effects. We study the energy dependence of the S- and P-wave projections of these ratios and find dramatic effects in the S-waves of those two relations which are given in terms of isoscalar quantities only. This effect drops rather quickly with growing center-of-mass energy.
We make a complete dynamical study of Isotopic spin conservation effects on the multiplicity distributions of both hard and soft pions emitted in a quark gluon plasma undergoing a non-equilibrium phase transition.
Using a self-consistent delta-hole model the pion propagation in isospin asymmetric nuclear matter is studied. In neutron-rich matter, corresponding to heavy nuclei, a significant difference in positive and negative pion light-cone distributions is obtained leading to a nuclear enhancement of up antiquark distribution compared to the down antiquark one. This means that the sea-quark asymmetry in the free nucleon cannot be extracted model independently from an experiment on a neutron-rich nucleus.
We calculate isospin breaking in pion-nucleon scattering in the threshold region in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. All effects due to quark mass differences as well as real and virtual photons are consistently included. As an application, we discuss the energy dependence of the triangle relation that connects elastic scattering on the proton pi+- p --> pi+- p with the charge exchange reaction pi- p --> pi0 n.
We consider strong and electromagnetic isospin violation in near-threshold pion-kaon scattering. At tree level, such effects are small for all physical channels. We work out the complete one-loop corrections to the process pi^- K^+ -> pi^0 K^0. They come out rather small. We also show that the corresponding radiative cross section is highly suppressed at threshold.
We investigate pion superfluidity and its effect on meson properties and equation of state at finite temperature and isospin and baryon densities in the frame of standard flavor SU(2) NJL model. In mean field approximation to quarks and random phase approximation to mesons, the critical isospin chemical potential for pion superfluidity is exactly the pion mass in the vacuum, and corresponding to the isospin symmetry spontaneous breaking, there is in the pion superfluidity phase a Goldstone mode which is the linear combination of the normal sigma and charged pion modes. We calculate numerically…
We use QCD sum rules for the three point function of a pseudoscalar and two nucleonic currents in order to estimate the charge dependence of the pion nucleon coupling constant coming from isospin violation in the strong interaction. The effect can be attributed primarily to the difference of the quark condensates <ubar u> and <dbar d>. Assuming that the pi0 is a pure isostate we obtain for the splitting between the coupling of proton and neutron to the neutral pion an interval of [0.008 ; 0.023], the uncertainties coming mainly from the input parameters. In order to obtain the coupling to a ph…
We compare the virtues of two options for the isospin (I=1 or 2) of the apparently exotic dibarion resonance d_1^*(1956), as it is noticed by the DIB2gamma Collaboration (JINR) in the reaction pp -> 2 gamma X below the pion threshold, and using recent results following from the RMC Collaboration (TRIUMF) measurement of the relative probability of the double-photon pion capture in the pi-mesic deuterium atoms.
We study the influence of the isospin asymmetry on the phase structure of strongly interacting quark matter near the tricritical point (TCP) using a generalized Ginzburg-Landau approach. The effect has proven to be so drastic, not only bringing about the shift of the location of TCP, but resulting in a rich fine structure at the vicinity of TCP. In particular, we find that an arbitrary small perturbation due to isospin density lifts the degeneracy of TCP making it split into four independent multicritical points. Accordingly, the homogeneous pion condensate and its solitonic counterpart come t…
Based on a chiral approach to nuclear matter, we calculate the quartic term in the expansion of the equation of state of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. The contributions to the quartic isospin asymmetry energy $A_4(k_f)$ arising from $1π$-exchange and chiral $2π$-exchange in nuclear matter are calculated analytically together with three-body terms involving virtual $Δ(1232)$-isobars. From these interaction terms one obtains at saturation density $ρ_0 = 0.16\,$fm$^{-3}$ the value $A_4(k_{f0})= 1.5\,$MeV, more than three times as large as the kinetic energy part. Moreover, iterated $1π$-exch…
We study the behavior of the non-ideal pion gas with the dynamically fixed number of particles, formed on an intermediate stage in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The pion spectrum is calculated within the self-consistent Hartree approximation. General expressions are derived for cross-covariances of the number of various particle species in the pion gas of an arbitrary isospin composition. The behavior of the cross-variances is analyzed for the temperature approaching from above the maximal critical temperature of the Bose-Einstein condensation for the pion species $a=\pm,0$, i.e. fo…
Applying the Hellmann-Feynman theorem to a charged pion gas, the quark and gluon condensates at low isospin density are determined by precise pion properties. At intermediate density around $ f_π^2m_π$, from both the estimation for the dilute pion gas and the calculation with Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, the quark condensate is strongly and monotonously suppressed, while the gluon condensate is enhanced and can be larger than its vacuum value. This unusual behavior of the gluon condensate is universal for Bose condensed matter of mesons. Our results can be tested by lattice calculations at finit…
I discuss recent progress made in calculating electromagnetic corrections in the framework of the effective field theory of QCD. In the case of elastic pion-pion scattering, strong interaction predictions have been worked out to two loop accuracy. I present first results for the electromagnetic corrections in the case of neutral pions. Here, the only sizeable effect comes from the charged to neutral pion mass difference. In the presence of nucleons, isospin violation can be measured in threshold pion photoproduction. I review the present status of the theoretical predictions and the experiment…
Partition functions, multiplicity distributions, and isospin fluctuations are calculated for canonical ensembles in which additive quantum numbers as well as total isospin are strictly conserved. When properly accounting for Bose-Einstein symmetrization, the multiplicity distributions of neutral pions in a pion gas are significantly broader as compared to the non-degenerate case. Inclusion of resonances compensates for this broadening effect. Recursion relations are derived which allow calculation of exact results with modest computer time.
Dynamics of the nuclear fragmentations and the charge exchange reactions in pion-nucleus collisions near the $Δ$(1232) resonance energies has been investigated within the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model. An isospin, momentum and density-dependent pion-nucleon potential is implemented in the model, which influences the pion dynamics, in particular the kinetic energy spectra, but weakly impacts the fragmentation mechanism. The absorption process in pion-nucleon collisions to form the $Δ$(1232) resonance dominates the heating mechanism of target nucleus. The excitation e…
QCD at finite isospin chemical potential mu_I is studied. This theory has no fermion sign problem and can be simulated on the lattice using present-day techniques. We solve this theory analytically in two limits: low mu_I where chiral perturbation theory is applicable, and asymptotically high mu_I where perturbative QCD is at work. At low isospin density the ground state is a superfluid pion condensate. At very high density it is a Fermi liquid with Cooper pairing. The pairs carry the same quantum numbers as the pions. Motivated by this observation, we put forward a conjecture that the transit…
We report variational calculations of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter, using the new Argonne v18 two-nucleon and Urbana IX three-nucleon interactions. At the equilibrium density of 0.16 fm^-3 the two-nucleon densities in symmetric nuclear matter are found to exhibit a short-range spin-isospin structure similar to that found in light nuclei. We also find that both symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter undergo transitions to phases with pion condensation at densities of 0.32 fm^-3 and 0.2 fm^-3, respectively. Neither transtion occurs with the Urbana v14 two-nucleon in…
We use QCD sum rules for the three point function of a pseudoscalar and two nucleonic currents in order to estimate the charge dependence of the pion nucleon coupling constant $g_{NNπ}$ coming from isospin violation in the strong interaction. The effect can be attributed primarily to the difference of the quark condensates $<{\bar u}u>$ and $<{\bar d}d>$. For the splitting $(g_{ppπ_0} - g_{nnπ_0}) / g_{NNπ}$ we obtain an interval of $1.2 * 10^{-2}$ to $3.7 * 10^{-2}$, the uncertainties coming mainly from the input parameters. The charged pion nucleon coupling is found to be the average of $g_{…
Unambiguous isospin violation in the strong interaction sector is a key issue in low energy hadronic physics, both experimentally and theoretically. Bernstein has employed the Fermi-Watson theorem to demonstrate that pion photoproduction is a process where isospin violation in the pi N system can be revealed, an approach we review here. Here we propose a general operator approach to the phenomenon in pion photoproduction, thereby providing an analogue for the framework that was proposed for pi N scattering by Kaufmann and Gibbs. The resulting set of amplitudes could form the basis for determin…
Pion-pion elastic scattering in the isospin I=2 channel is investigated in two-flavor dynamical lattice QCD. Six ensembles are used with lattices elongated in one of the spatial dimensions at two quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of 315 MeV and 226 MeV. The energy of the low-lying states below the inelastic threshold are extracted in each case using the standard variational method.The extracted finite-volume spectrum is fitted by the inverse amplitude method simultaneously for both quark masses and extrapolated thereafter to the physical point. The resulting phase-shifts and scattering…
In the frame of flavor SU(2) Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with $U_A(1)$ breaking term we found that, the structure of two chiral phase transition lines does not exist at low isospin density in real world, and the critical isospin chemical potential for pion superfluidity is exactly the pion mass in the vacuum.
Magnetic field effect on pion superfluid phase transition is investigated in frame of a Pauli-Villars regularized NJL model. Instead of directly dealing with charged pion condensate, we apply the Goldstone's theorem (massless Goldstone boson $π^+$) to determine the onset of pion superfluid phase, and obtain the phase diagram in magnetic field, temperature, isospin and baryon chemical potential space. At weak magnetic field, it is analytically proved that the critical isospin chemical potential of pion superfluid phase transition is equal to the mass of $π^+$ meson in magnetic field. The pion s…
The influence of the isospin-independent, isospin- and momentum-dependent equation of state (EoS), as well as the Coulomb interaction on the pion production in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions (HICs) is studied for both isospin-symmetric and neutron-rich systems. The Coulomb interaction plays an important role in the reaction dynamics, and strongly influences the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of charged pions. It even leads to the $π^-/π^+$ ratio deviating slightly from unity for isospin-{\it symmetric} systems. The Coulomb interaction between mesons and baryons is als…
We show that there exist two types of universal phenomena for three-boson systems with isospin degrees of freedom. In the isospin symmetric limit, there is only one universal three-boson bound state with the total isospin one, whose binding energy is proportional to that of the two-boson bound state. With large isospin symmetry breaking, the standard Efimov states of three identical bosons appear at low energies. Both phenomena can be realized by three pions with the pion mass appropriately tuned in lattice QCD simulations, or by spin-one bosons in cold atom experiments. Implication to the in-…
We study the phase diagram of QCD at finite isospin density using two flavors of staggered quarks. We investigate the low temperature region of the phase diagram where we find a pion condensation phase at high chemical potential. We started a basic analysis of the spectrum at finite isospin density. In particular, we measured pion, rho and nucleon masses inside and outside of the pion condensation phase. In agreement with previous studies in two-color QCD at finite baryon density we find that the Polyakov loop does not depend on the density in the staggered formulation.
We determine the mass and width of the $Δ^{++}\ (Δ^0)$ resonance from data on $π^+ p\ (π^- p)$ scattering both, in the pole of the $S$-matrix and conventional Breit-Wigner approaches to the scattering amplitude. We provide a simple formula that relates the two definitions for the parameters of the $Δ$. Isospin symmetry breaking in the $\d0-\dm$ system depends on the definition of the resonant properties: we find $M_0-M_{++} = 0.40 \pm 0.57\ {\rm MeV},\ Γ_0 -Γ_{++} = 6.89 \pm 0.95\ {\rm MeV}$ in the pole approach while $\wt{M}_0-\wt{M}_{++} = 2.25 \pm 0.68\ {\rm MeV},\ \wtΓ_0 - \wtΓ_{++} = 8.45…
The first attempt is made to provide a quantitative theoretical interpretation of the WASA-at-COSY experimental data on the basic double-pion production reactions $pn \to d π^0π^0$ and $pn \to d π^+π^-$ in the energy region $T_p =1$ - $1.3$ GeV [P. Adlarson et al., Phys. Lett. B 721, 229 (2013)]. The data are analyzed within a model based on production and decay of an intermediate $I(J^P)=0(3^+)$ dibaryon resonance $\mathcal{D}_{03}$ (denoted also as $d^*(2380)$). The observed decrease of the near-threshold enhancement (the so-called ABC effect) in the reaction $pn \to d π^+π^-$ in comparison …
It is possible that isospin violating dynamical effects are amplified due to coherence if a disoriented chiral condensate (or other source of a coherent pion state) is formed in a heavy ion collison. It is shown explicitly that altering the isospin of the coherent state by order of one unit can change the number of $π^0$'s in the condensate by some finite fraction of the total number. A possible signature of such amplified isospin violating effects is that the ratio of neutral to total low $p_T$ pions averaged over many events may differ markedly from 1/3. Such a signal would not be washed out…
In this paper we investigate in the large-$N_c$ limit ($N_c$ is the number of colored quarks) the phase structure of a massless (1+1)-dimensional quark model with four-quark interaction and in the presence of baryon ($μ_B$), isospin ($μ_I$) and chiral isospin ($μ_{I5}$) chemical potentials as well as at nonzero temperature. It is established that chiral isospin chemical potential leads to the generation of charged pion condensation (PC) in dense (nonzero baryon density) and chiral asymmetric quark matter for a wide range of isospin densities. It is shown that there exists a duality corresponde…
The extraction of meson-baryon scattering parameters from lattice QCD is complicated by the necessity, in some channels, of including annihilation diagrams. We consider a strategy to avoid the need for these extremely costly and noisy contributions. The strategy is based on simulations with an isospin chemical potential which, contrary to a baryon chemical potential, has no sign problem. When the isospin chemical potential is larger than a critical value, a charged pion condensate forms. Baryons propagating in the pion condensate will have their masses modified by pion-baryon scattering parame…
QCD at finite isospin chemical potential $μ_{\text I}$ possesses a positively definite fermion determinant and the lattice simulation can be successfully performed. While the two-flavor effective models may be sufficient to describe the phenomenon of pion condensation, it is interesting to study the roles of the strangeness degree of freedom and the U$_{\rm A}(1)$ anomaly. In this paper, we present a systematic study of the three-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with a Kobayashi-Maskawa-'t Hooft (KMT) term that mimics the U$_{\rm A}(1)$ anomaly at finite isospin chemical potential. In the mean…
We present calculations of the $S$-wave isospin-zero and isospin-two pion-pion scattering lengths within a nucleon-meson model with parity doubling. Both scattering lengths are computed in various approximations, ranging from a mean-field (MF) calculation towards the inclusion of loop corrections by means of the functional renormalization group (FRG). The bosonic part of the investigated nucleon-meson model is formulated in terms of stereographic projections as a "natural" set of coordinates on the respective vacuum manifold. We thereby elucidate subtleties concerning the truncation of the eff…
This work elaborates on former remarks of ours regarding two sets of predictions for the observables of the charge-exchange reaction $π^- p \to π^0 n$ at low energy (pion laboratory kinetic energy $T \leq 100$ MeV). The first prediction is obtained via the triangle identity from the results of fits to low-energy $π^\pm p$ elastic-scattering data, whereas the second is based on the same analysis of the combined low-energy $π^+ p$ and charge-exchange databases. Assuming the integrity of the data used in our fits (i.e., the absence of significant systematic effects in the determination of the abs…
We examine the validity of the notion of the coherent state for pions and the quantum scattering effect in the final state of pion emission. When the number of particles is large, the effect caused by the small but finite mass difference between the neutral and charged pions can add up substantially in the quantum evolution of an initially coherent state. As a result, the states with quite different numbers of neutral or charged pions are essentially incoherent. The importance of the quantum scattering in the final-state isospin charge distribution of a disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) is i…
We calculate the density-dependent spin-isospin asymmetry energy $J(k_f)$ of nuclear matter in the three-loop approximation of chiral perturbation theory. The interaction contributions to $J(k_f)$ originate from one-pion exchange, iterated one-pion exchange, and irreducible two-pion exchange with no, single, and double virtual $Δ$-isobar excitation. We find that the approximation to $1π$-exchange and iterated $1π$-exchange terms (which leads already to a good nuclear matter equation of state by adjusting an emerging contact-term) is spin-isospin stable, since $J(k_{f0})\simeq 24 {\rm MeV}>0$. …
We investigate the phase structure of strongly interacting matter at non-vanishing isospin before the onset of pion condensation in the framework of the unquenched Polyakov-Quark-Meson model with 2+1 quark flavors. We show results for the order parameters and all relevant thermodynamic quantities. In particular, we obtain a moderate change of the pressure with isospin at vanishing baryon chemical potential, whereas the chiral condensate decreases more appreciably. We compare the effective model to recent lattice data for the decrease of the pseudo-critical temperature with the isospin chemical…
