Chiral symmetry breaking in hot matter

Abstract

This series of three lectures covers (a) a basic introduction to symmetry breaking in general and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD, (b) an overview of the present status of lattice data and the knowlegde that we have at finite temperature from chiral perturbation theory. (c) Results obtained from the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model describing static mesonic properties are discussed as well as the bulk thermodynamic quantities. Divergences that are observed in the elastic quark-antiquark scattering cross-section, reminiscent of the phenomenon of critical opalescence in light scattering, is also discussed. (d) Finally, we deal with the realm of systems out of equilibrium, and examine the effects of a medium dependent condensate in a system of interacting quarks.

62 LaTex pages, incorporating 23 figures. Lectures given at the eleventh Chris-Engelbrecht Summer School in Theoretical Physics, 4-13 February, 1998, to be published by Springer Verlag

References in corpus (6)

• Results on Finite Density QCD
• Pion Dynamics at Finite Temperature
• Derivation of transport equations for a strongly interacting Lagrangian in powers of $\hslash$ and $1/N_c$
• Application of the Heat Kernel Method to the Constituent Quark Model at Finite Temperature
• Critical Scattering and Two Photon Spectra for a Quark/Meson Plasma
• A Numerical Study of an Expanding Plasma of Quarks in a Chiral Model