Vacuum structure and effective potential at finite temperature: a variational approach

We compute the effective potential for $\phi^4$ theory with a squeezed coherent state type of construct for the ground state. The method essentially consists in optimising the basis at zero and finite temperatures. The gap equation becomes identical to resumming the infinite series of daisy and super daisy graphs while the effective potential includes multiloop effects and agrees with that obtained through composite operator formalism at finite temperature.Comment: 15 pages, Revtex, No figures, to appear in Jou. of Phys.G(Nucl. and Part. Phys.

Strong CP violation and chiral symmetry breaking in hot and dense quark matter

We investigate chiral symmetry breaking and strong CP violation effects in the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. We demonstrate the effect of strong CP violating terms on the phase structure at finite temperature and densities in a 3-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model including the Kobayashi-Maskawa-t'Hooft (KMT) determinant term. This is investigated using an explicit structure for the ground state in terms of quark-antiquark condensates for both in the scalar and the pseudoscalar channels. CP restoring transition with temperature at zero baryon density is found to be a second order transition at $\theta = \pi$ while the same at finite chemical potential and small temperature turns out to be a first order transition. Within the model, the tri-critical point turns out to be $(T_c,\mu_c)\simeq(273,94)$ MeV at $\theta = \pi$ for such a transition.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Pion Wave Function

We consider here chiral symmetry breaking through nontrivial vacuum structure with quark antiquark condensates. We then relate the condensate function to the wave function of pion as a Goldstone mode. This simultaneously yields the pion also as a quark antiquark bound state as a localised zero mode in vacuum. We illustrate the above with Nambu Jona-Lasinio model to calculate different pionic properties in terms of the vacuum structure for breaking of exact or approximate chiral symmetry, as well as the condensate fluctuations giving rise to $\sigma$ mesons.Comment: latex, revtex, 16 page

Isospin dependent kaon and antikaon optical potentials in dense hadronic matter

Isospin effects on the optical potentials of kaons and antikaons in dense hadronic matter are investigated using a chiral SU(3) model. These effects are important for asymmetric heavy ion collision experiments. In the present work the dispersion relations are derived for kaons and antikaons, compatible with the low energy scattering data, within our model approach. The relations result from the kaonic interactions with the nucleons, vector mesons and scalar mesons in the asymmetric nuclear matter. The isospin asymmetry effects arising from the interactions with the vector-isovector $\rho$- meson as well as the scalar isovector $\delta$ mesons are considered. The density dependence of the isospin asymmetry is seen to be appreciable for the kaon and antikaon optical potentials. This can be particularly relevant for the future accelerator facility FAIR at GSI, where experiments using neutron rich beams are planned to be used in the study of compressed baryonic matter.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Spin-Charge Decoupling and Orthofermi Quantum Statistics

Currently Gutzwiller projection technique and nested Bethe ansatz are two main methods used to handle electronic systems in the $U$ infinity limit. We demonstrate that these two approaches describe two distinct physical systems. In the nested Bethe ansatz solutions, there is a decoupling between the spin and charge degrees of freedom. Such a decoupling is absent in the Gutzwiller projection technique. Whereas in the Gutzwiller approach, the usual antisymmetry of space and spin coordinates is maintained, we show that the Bethe ansatz wave function is compatible with a new form of quantum statistics, viz., orthofermi statistics. In this statistics, the wave function is antisymmetric in spatial coordinates alone. This feature ultimately leads to spin-charge decoupling.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex Journal_ref: A slightly abridged version of this paper has appeared as a brief report in Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 63, 132405 (2001

D mesons and charmonium states in asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures

We investigate the in-medium masses of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons in the isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures arising due to the interactions with the nucleons, the scalar isoscalar meson $\sigma$, and the scalar iso-vector meson $\delta$ within a SU(4) model. The in-medium masses of $J/\psi$ and the excited charmonium states ($\psi(3686)$ and $\psi(3770)$) are also calculated in the hot isospin asymmetric nuclear matter in the present investigation. These mass modifications arise due to the interaction of the charmonium states with the gluon condensates of QCD, simulated by a scalar dilaton field introduced to incorporate the broken scale invariance of QCD within the effective chiral model. The change in the mass of $J/\psi$ in the nuclear matter with the density is seen to be rather small, as has been shown in the literature by using various approaches, whereas, the masses of the excited states of charmonium ($\psi(3686)$ and $\psi(3770)$) are seen to have considerable drop at high densities. The present study of the in-medium masses of $D$ ($\bar{D}$) mesons as well as of the charmonium states will be of relevance for the observables from the compressed baryonic matter, like the production and collective flow of the $D$ ($\bar D$) mesons, resulting from the asymmetric heavy ion collision experiments planned at the future facility of the FAIR, GSI. The mass modifications of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons as well as of the charmonium states in hot nuclear medium can modify the decay of the charmonium states ($\Psi^{'}, \chi_{c}, J/\Psi$) to $D\bar{D}$ pairs in the hot dense hadronic matter. The small attractive potentials observed for the $\bar{D}$ mesons may lead to formation of the $\bar{D}$ mesic nuclei.Comment: 61 pages, 19 figues, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Interior gap superfluidity in a two-component Fermi gas of atoms

A new superfluid phase in Fermi matter, termed as "interior gap" (IG) or "breached pair", has been recently predicted by Liu and Wilczek [Phys.Rev.Lett. {\bf 90}, 047002 (2003)]. This results from pairing between fermions of two species having essentially different Fermi surfaces. Using a nonperturbative variational approach, we analyze the features, such as energy gap, momentum distributions, and elementary excitations associated with the predicted phase. We discuss possible realization of this phase in two-component Fermi gases in an optical trap.Comment: 5 page