Chiral gap effect in curved space

TL;DR

This paper explores a novel QCD phenomenon called the chiral gap effect in curved space, where a chiral invariant mass-gap persists despite the melting of the chiral condensate at high curvature, affecting quark confinement and phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of the chiral gap effect in curved space and analyzes its implications for quark deconfinement and black hole physics.

Findings

Chiral condensate melts at large positive curvature.

A chiral invariant mass-gap remains in curved space.

Implication of a first-order QCD phase transition near black holes.

Abstract

We discuss a new type of QCD phenomenon induced in curved space. In the QCD vacuum, a mass-gap of Dirac fermions is attributed to the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. If the curvature is positive large, the chiral condensate melts but a chiral invariant mass-gap can still remain, which we name the chiral gap effect in curved space. This leads to decoupling of quark deconfinement which implies a view of black holes surrounded by a first-order QCD phase transition.