Dense Baryonic Matter and Strangeness in Neutron Stars

Recent developments of chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) applications to nuclear and neutron matter are summarized, with special emphasis on a (non-perturbative) extension using functional renormalisation group methods. Topics include: nuclear thermodynamics, extrapolations to dense baryonic matter and constraints from neutron star observables. Hyperon-nuclear interactions derived from SU(3) will be discussed with reference to the "hyperon puzzle" in neutron star matter.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures; invited talk at the Int. Conf. on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP 2018), Tsukuba, Japan; to appear in JPS Conf. Pro

Yukawa's Pion, Low-Energy QCD and Nuclear Chiral Dynamics

A survey is given of the evolution from Yukawa's early work, via the understanding of the pion as a Nambu-Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in QCD, to modern developments in the theory of the nucleus based on the chiral effective field theory representing QCD in its low-energy limit.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures. Proc. Yukawa-Tomonaga Symposium, Kyoto, Dec.06; to be publ. in Progr. Theor. Phys. Suppl. (Kyoto

Chiral Dynamics in Nuclear Systems

A survey is given on selected topics concerning the role of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in low-energy QCD, and its dynamical implications for nuclear systems. This includes aspects of chiral thermodynamics (the temperature and density dependence of the chiral condensate). It also includes an update on the theory of low-energy (s-wave) pion-nuclear interactions relevant for deeply-bound states of pionic atoms and the quest for possible fingerprints of chiral symmetry restoration in nuclear systems.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings CHIRAL 02, Kyoto, Japa

British literature since World War II : a selected bibliography of secondary sources with special reference to drama/theatre and narrative prose (period covered : mid-1940 to 2000)

British literature since world war II : a selected bibliography of secundary sources with special reference to drama/theatre and narrative prose (period covered : mid-1940 to 2000). Part I: Integrated alphabetical index. Part II: Specific bibliographies (as to author and subject

Exploring the nucleus in the context of low-energy QCD

These lecture notes address a central problem of theoretical nuclear physics: how to establish a relationship between low-energy, non-perturbative QCD and nuclear phenomenology which includes both nuclear matter and finite nuclei. We develop a microscopic covariant description of nuclear many-body dynamics constrained by chiral symmetry and in-medium QCD sum rules. A relativistic point-coupling model is derived, based on an effective Lagrangian with density-dependent contact interactions between nucleons. These interactions are constructed from chiral one- and two-pion exchange, combined with the large isoscalar nucleon self-energies that arise through changes in the quark condensate and the quark density at finite baryon density. Nuclear binding and saturation are almost completely generated by chiral (two-pion exchange) fluctuations in combination with Pauli effects, whereas strong scalar and vector fields of about equal magnitude and opposite sign, induced by changes of the QCD vacuum in the presence of baryonic matter, generate the large effective spin-orbit potential in finite nuclei. Promising results are found for the nuclear matter equation of state and for the bulk and single-nucleon properties of finite nuclei.Comment: 50 pages, 11 figures, invited lecture at 307. WE-Heraeus-Seminar, "Relativistic Structure Models for the Physics of Radioactive Nuclear Beams," May 12-16, 2003, Bad Honnef, German

Dense baryonic matter: constraints from recent neutron star observations

Updated constraints from neutron star masses and radii impose stronger restrictions on the equation of state for baryonic matter at high densities and low temperatures. The existence of two-solar-mass neutron stars rules out many soft equations of state with prominent "exotic" compositions. The present work reviews the conditions required for the pressure as a function of baryon density in order to satisfy these new constraints. Several scenarios for sufficiently stiff equations of state are evaluated. The common starting point is a realistic description of both nuclear and neutron matter based on a chiral effective field theory approach to the nuclear many-body problem. Possible forms of hybrid matter featuring a quark core in the center of the star are discussed using a three-flavor Polyakov--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model. It is found that a conventional equation of state based on nuclear chiral dynamics meets the astrophysical constraints. Hybrid matter generally turns out to be too soft unless additional strongly repulsive correlations, e.g. through vector current interactions between quarks, are introduced. The extent to which strangeness can accumulate in the equation of state is also discussed.Comment: v2; substantial revisions with respect to v1; 17 pages, 15 figure

Chiral Constituent quarks and their role in quark distribution functions of nucleon and pion

We investigate the structure of constituent quarks and study implications for quark distribution functions of hadrons. Constituent quarks are constructed by dressing bare quarks with Goldstone bosons using the chiral quark model. We calculate resulting corrections to the twist-2 structure functions $f_1(x)$, $g_1(x)$ and $h_1(x)$. The Goldstone boson fluctuations produce a flavor asymmetry of the quark distribution in the nucleon in agreement with experimental data. They also generate significant depolarization effects which reduce the fraction of the nucleon spin carried by quarks. Corrections to the transversity spin structure function $h_1(x)$ differ from those to $g_1(x)$, and in particular we find a large reduction (40%) of the $d$-quark tensor charge, which is consistent with recent lattice calculations. We also study the pion structure function and find the momentum fraction carried by the sea quarks in the pion to be considerably larger than that in the nucleon.Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX with epsfig.sty, 6 PostScript figure

Shear viscosity from Kubo formalism: NJL-model study

A large-$N_{\rm c}$ expansion is combined with the Kubo formalism to study the shear viscosity $\eta$ of strongly interacting matter in the two-flavor NJL model. We discuss analytical and numerical approaches to $\eta$ and investigate systematically its strong dependence on the spectral width and the momentum-space cutoff. Thermal effects on the constituent quark mass from spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking are included. The ratio $\eta/s$ and its thermal dependence are derived for different parameterizations of the spectral width and for an explicit one-loop calculation including mesonic modes within the NJL model.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Revision includes additionally the spectral width at one-loop level (chapter V) and Appendix A. Matches published versio