Is chiral symmetry manifested in nuclear structure?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether direct evidence of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry can be observed in nuclear structure data, despite the challenges posed by current phenomenological models lacking explicit pions.

Contribution

The study explores potential signatures of chiral symmetry in nuclei and discusses the limitations of existing models in revealing these effects.

Findings

No definitive smoking guns identified for chiral symmetry in nuclei

Highlights the need for models with explicit pions to detect chiral effects

Provides a framework for future experimental and theoretical investigations

Abstract

Spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is an established property of low-energy quantum chromodynamics, but finding direct evidence for it from nuclear structure data is a difficult challenge. Indeed, phenomenologically successful energy-density functional approaches do not even have explicit pions. Are there smoking guns for chiral symmetry in nuclei?