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 absolute normalisation of the datasets) and the insignificance of residual effects in the electromagnetic corrections, a significant difference between these two sets of predictions may be interpreted as departure from the isospin invariance in the low-energy $πN$ interaction. We examine the sensitivity of the standard low-energy observables to the effect, and identify the kinematical regions which are promising for experimental survey. Accurate experiments under the suggested conditions will differentiate between the predictions, and thus provide an independent test of the isospin invariance in the low-energy $πN$ interaction.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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 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…
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…
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.
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…
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.
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 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_{…
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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 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 $\wt{M}_0-\wt{M}_{++} = 2.25 \pm 0.68\ {\rm MeV},\ \wtΓ_0 - \wtΓ_{++} = 8.45…
We examine the effect of isospin-violating meson-nucleon coupling constants on low-energy pion-nucleon scattering. We compute the couplings in the context of a nonrelativistic quark model. The difference between the up and down constituent masses induces a coupling of the neutral pion to the proton that is slightly larger than the corresponding one for the neutron. This difference generates a large isospin-violating correction---proportional to the isospin-even contribution arising from the nucleon Born terms---to the charge-exchange ($π^{-}p \rightarrow π^{0}n$) amplitude. In contrast to the …
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 …
I discuss isospin violation in an effective field theory appraoch of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. The observed leading order charge independence breaking is explained in terms of one-pion exchange together with a four-nucleon contact term. A general classification scheme of corrections to this leading order results is presented and an explanation is offered why charge-dependent pion-nucleon coupling constants can not play a role in the observed isospin violation in the NN scattering lengths. Charge symmetry breaking, the size of $πγ$-exchange graphs and the pionless theory are also discuss…
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…
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 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…
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 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…
S-wave pion-nucleon interactions in the linear sigma model, and in Manohar-Georgi and Gasser-Sainio-Svarc models with finite number of terms in Lagrangians, as well as in a general phenomenological approach are reviewed. Subtleties associated with the current algebra theorems and field redefinitions are discussed. In the first and third models most likely the s-wave pion condensation in the isospin-symmetric matter does not occur at least up to high densities, whereas within the second model it may appear already at moderate densities. In the phenomenological approach two parameterizations of …
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…
Dilepton Production as a Probe of Pion Condensation in Hot and Dense QCD Matter
University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学）；West University of Timişoara（蒂米什瓦拉西大学）；Aliah University（阿利亚大学）；Polish Academy of Sciences PAN（波兰科学院）；Hiroshima University（广岛大学）
We investigate meson mixing and meson coupling constants in pion superfluid in the framework of two flavor NJL model at finite isospin density. The mixing strength develops fast with increasing isospin chemical potential, and the coupling constants in normal phase and in the pion superfluid phase behave very differently.
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.
Speed of sound and trace anomaly in a unified treatment of the two-color diquark superfluid, the pion-condensed high-isospin matter, and the 2SC quark matter
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 investigate the thermodynamics of two-flavor quark matter in presence of nonzero isospin chemical potential and external magnetic field. It is known that at sufficiently high isospin chemical potential, charged pions undergo Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). The condensate behaves as a superconductor, exhibiting Meissner effect in weak external magnetic fields. Stronger fields stress the superconducting state, turning it first into an Abrikosov lattice of vortices, and eventually destroying the condensate altogether. On the other hand, for sufficiently strong magnetic fields and low-to-mode…
We consider two-flavor chiral perturbation theory ($χ$PT) at finite isospin chemical potential $μ_I$ and finite temperature $T$. We calculate the effective potential and the quark and pion condensates as functions of $T$ and $μ_I$ to next-to-leading order in the low-energy expansion in the presence of a pionic source. We map out the phase diagram in the $μ_I$--$T$ plane. Numerically, we find that the transition to the pion-condensed phase is second order in the region of validity of $χ$PT, which is in agreement with model calculations and lattice simulations. Finally, we calculate the pressure…
We construct the complete effective chiral pion-nucleon Lagrangian to third order in small momenta based on relativistic chiral perturbation theory. We then perform the so-called heavy baryon limit and construct all terms up-to-and-including order $1/m^2$ with fixed and free coefficients. As an application, we discuss in detail pion-nucleon scattering. In particular, we show that the $1/m$ expansion of the Born graphs calculated relativistically can be recovered exactly in the heavy baryon approach without any additional momentum-dependent wave function renormalization. We fit various empirica…
We investigate pion superfluidity in the frame of two flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model beyond mean field approximation. We calculate the thermodynamics to the next to leading order in an expansion in the inverse number of colors, including both quark and meson contributions at finite temperature and baryon and isospin density. Due to the meson fluctuations, the Sarma phase which exists at mean field level is washed away, and the Bose-Einstein condensation region at low isospin density is highly suppressed.
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 …
In this paper, we consider finite isospin chiral perturbation theory including the effects of the axial anomaly (through the Wess-Zumino-Witten term) in a strong magnetic field. We firstly prove that in a strong external magnetic field ($H_{\rm ext}$) or more precisely the Schwinger limit, where photon back-reactions are suppressed, only neutral pions can condense and the condensation of charged pions is forbidden. Secondly, we find that the $π^{0}$ domain wall is an example of a phase that can exist in a strong magnetic field and suggest the existence of a new phase transition line from the n…
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…
The phase diagram of finite isospin, zero temperature QCD with the pions coupled to photons in a uniform external magnetic field is explored in the low field, small isospin density regime for which chiral perturbation theory is a valid description. For realistic pion masses, the system behaves as a type-II superconductor: a uniform superconducting state is formed at low-enough magnetic fields, a vortex state for intermediate magnetic fields and finally a normal state for large magnetic fields. In each these phases (including the vortex phase), the $π^{0}$ remains uncondensed just as in the zer…
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 finite isospin chiral perturbation theory ($χ$PT) in a uniform external magnetic field and find the condensation energy of magnetic vortex lattices using the method of successive approximations (originally used by Abrikosov) near the upper critical point beyond which the system is in the normal vacuum phase. The difference between standard Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory (or equivalently the Abelian Higgs model) and $χ$PT arises due to the presence of additional momentum-dependent (derivative) interactions in $χ$PT and the presence of electromagnetically neutral pions that interact with t…
