Partial restoration of chiral symmetry inside hadrons

TL;DR

This study uses eigenmodes of the overlap-Dirac operator to analyze how chiral symmetry is partially restored inside hadrons and nuclear matter, revealing flux-tube structures and reduced condensate magnitude.

Contribution

It provides the first lattice QCD evidence of partial chiral symmetry restoration inside hadrons and in nuclear matter using eigenmode analysis.

Findings

Flux-tube structures indicate linear confinement.

Chiral condensate is reduced inside flux tubes.

Partial chiral symmetry restoration occurs in hadrons and nuclear matter.

Abstract

By using the overlap-Dirac operator eigenmodes, we investigate spatial distribution of the chiral condensate around static color sources for both quark-antiquark and three quark systems. In the presence of color sources, a characteristic flux-tube structure appears among them, suggesting a linear confining potential. We show that the magnitude of the condensate is reduced inside the color flux, which indicates the partial restoration of chiral symmetry inside the "hadrons." Considering a periodic box containing a static baryon source, which mimics the "nuclear matter," we estimate the chiral symmetry restoration in the presence of finite baryon number density.