Inhomogeneous phases near the chiral critical point in NJL-type models

TL;DR

This paper explores the significance of inhomogeneous phases near the chiral critical point in NJL-type models, revealing that the critical point is a Lifshitz point where different phases converge, supported by mean-field calculations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the chiral critical point in NJL models is a Lifshitz point and extends lower-dimensional results to 3+1 dimensions using mean-field analysis.

Findings

The critical point is a Lifshitz point with inhomogeneous phases.

Mean-field calculations confirm the phase structure.

Results extend to the quark meson model.

Abstract

In this talk we discuss the role of inhomogeneous phases in the phase diagram of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and the quark meson (QM) model. By means of a generalized Ginzburg-Landau (GL) expansion it is concluded that the critical point in the mean-field phase diagram of the NJL model is in fact a Lifshitz point where homogeneous spontaneously broken, inhomogeneous and restored phases meet. This picture is confirmed by a mean-field calculation for inhomogeneous phases with a one-dimensional modulation. For the latter it is shown that recent results within lower dimensional models can be extended to 3+1 dimensions. Also the respective phase diagram for the QM model is presented.