Chiral condensate in nuclear matter with vacuum corrections

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vacuum corrections from the nucleon Dirac sea influence the chiral condensate in nuclear matter, showing they soften the equation of state and promote chiral symmetry restoration at high densities.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic Hartree approach with density-dependent parameters that respect the chiral limit, incorporating vacuum corrections to study chiral symmetry.

Findings

Vacuum corrections soften the equation of state.

Vacuum corrections favor chiral symmetry restoration at high densities.

Abstract

Within the relativistic Hartree approach using a Lagrangian with density-dependent parameters respecting the chiral limit, it is found that the vacuum corrections from the nucleon Dirac sea soften the equation of state and favor the chiral symmetry restoration at high densities.