Nuclear matter in the chiral limit and the in-medium chiral condensate

TL;DR

This paper explores how nuclear matter properties and the in-medium chiral condensate behave in the chiral limit using chiral EFT interactions, finding stability in bulk properties and minimal impact of short-distance physics on the condensate.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of nuclear matter and the in-medium chiral condensate in the chiral limit using chiral EFT, including the effects of short-distance physics.

Findings

Nuclear bulk properties remain stable in the chiral limit.

The in-medium scalar condensate shows minimal dependence on short-distance physics.

The reduction of the nucleon mass has little effect on the chiral condensate.

Abstract

We investigate nuclear matter, i.e. the nuclear equation-of-state (EOS) as well as the relativistic mean fields in the chiral limit. The investigations are based on a chiral nucleon-nucleon EFT interaction where the explicit and implicit pion mass dependence is known up to next-to-leading order. The nuclear bulk properties are found to remain fairly stable in the chiral limit. Based on the same interaction the in-medium scalar condensate is derived, both in Hartree-Fock approximation as well as from the Brueckner G-matrix, making thereby use of the Hellman-Feynman theorem. Short distance physics which determines the reduction of the in-medium nucleon mass is found to play only a minor role for the reduction of the chiral condensate.