Studying pion effects on the chiral phase transition

TL;DR

This paper explores how pions influence the chiral phase transition at finite temperature using Dyson-Schwinger equations, revealing a modest 5% shift in critical temperature without altering the transition's mean-field nature.

Contribution

It introduces a truncation scheme that incorporates mesonic degrees of freedom, specifically pions, into the Dyson-Schwinger framework for studying the phase transition.

Findings

Pions cause a 5% increase in the critical temperature.

The mean-field character of the transition remains unchanged.

Mesonic effects can be systematically included in Dyson-Schwinger studies.

Abstract

We investigate the chiral phase transition at finite temperatures and zero chemical potential with Dyson-Schwinger equations. Our truncation for the quark-gluon interaction includes mesonic degrees of freedom, which allows us to study the impact of the pions on the nature of the phase transition. Within the present scheme we find a five percent change of the critical temperature due to the pion backreaction whereas the mean field character of the transition is not changed.