Quarks and light (pseudo-)scalar mesons at finite chemical potential

• Published in: The European physical journal. A, Hadrons and nuclei Hadrons and nuclei, 2019-09, Vol.55 (9), p.1-10, Article 169
• Main Authors: Gunkel, Pascal J., Fischer, Christian S., Isserstedt, Philipp
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bethe-Salpeter equation; Chemical potential; Conjugation; Constants; Decay rate; Flavor (particle physics); Gluons; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Mesons; Nuclear Fusion; Nuclear Physics; Organic chemistry; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Phase transitions; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum chromodynamics; Quarks; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Wave functions
• ISSN: 1434-6001; 1434-601X
• DOI: 10.1140/epja/i2019-12868-1

. We investigate the properties of light scalar and pseudoscalar mesons at finite (light) quark chemical potential. To this end we solve a coupled set of (truncated) Dyson-Schwinger equations for the quark and gluon propagators in Landau-gauge QCD and extend earlier results for N f = 2 + 1 dynamical quark flavors to finite chemical potential at zero temperature. We then determine the meson bound state masses, wave functions, and decay constants for chemical potentials below the first-order phase transition from their homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation. We study the changes in the quark dressing functions and Bethe-Salpeter wave functions with chemical potential. In particular, we trace charge-conjugation parity breaking. Furthermore, we confirm the validity of the Silver-Blaze property: all dependencies of colored quantities on chemical potential cancel out in observables and we observe constant masses and decay constants up to and into the coexistence region of the first-order chiral phase transition.