We investigate the properties of the pion quasiparticle in the
low-temperature phase of two-flavor QCD on the lattice with support from chiral
effective theory. We find that the pion quasiparticle mass is significantly
reduced compared to its value in the vacuum, by contrast with the static
screening mass, which increases with temperature. By a simple argument, near
the chiral limit the two masses are expected to determine the quasiparticle
dispersion relation. Analyzing two-point functions of the axial charge density
at non-vanishing spatial momentum, we find that the predicted dispersion
relation and the residue of the pion pole are simultaneously consistent with
the lattice data at low momentum. The test, based on fits to the correlation
functions, is confirmed by a second analysis using the Backus-Gilbert method.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
