Do we need to use regularization on the thermal part in the NJL model?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the necessity of applying regularization to the thermal part in the NJL model, finding that it depends on the physical quantity being calculated, with implications for modeling non-perturbative strong interactions.

Contribution

It clarifies when regularization should be applied to the thermal component in the NJL model, based on different physical quantities, across multiple regularization schemes.

Findings

Regularization is necessary for chiral condensate calculations regardless of scheme.

No regularization is needed for grand potential calculations.

The choice depends on the physical quantity of interest.

Abstract

The Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model is one of the most useful tools to study non-perturbative strong interaction matter. Because it is a nonrenormalizable model, the choosing of regularization is a subtle issue. In this paper, we discuss one of the general things of the regularization in the NJL model, which is whether we need to use the regularization on the thermal part by evaluating the quark chiral condensate and thermal properties in the two-flavor NJL model. The calculations in this work include three regularization schemes that contain both gauge covariant and invariant schemes. We found no matter which regularization scheme we choose, it is necessary to use the regularization on the thermal part when calculating the chiral condensate related physics quantities and do not use the regularization on the thermal part when calculating the grand potential related physical quantities.