Rho Meson Broadening in Hot and Dense Hadronic Matter

The modification of the rho-meson self-energy due to the coupling to in-medium pions is calculated consistently at finite baryon density and temperature, keeping the full 3-momentum dependence in a gauge invariant way. As a function of nucleon density, the rho-meson spectral function is strongly enhanced in the invariant mass region M < 650 MeV, while the maximum, i.e. the pole mass, is slightly shifted upwards. As a function of temperature, for fixed nucleon density, the ima...

The modification of the width of the rho meson due to in-medium decays and collisions is evaluated. In high temperature and/or high density hadronic matter, the collision width is much larger than the one-loop decay width. The large width of the $\rho$ meson in matter seems to be consistent with some current interpretations of the $e^+ e^-$ mass spectra measured at the CERN/SPS.

The rho-meson mass shift, width broadening, and spectral density at finite temperature and nucleon density are estimated using a general formula which relates the self-energy to the real and imaginary parts of the forward scattering amplitude on the constituents of the medium. We saturate the scattering amplitude at low energies with resonances, while at high energies a Regge approach is taken in combination with vector meson dominance; experimental data is used wherever poss...

The spectral function of rho meson in hot/dense hadronic matter is studied by taking into account the nucleon-loop on quantum hadrondynamics model level. Different from the hot pion gas effect which changes the spectral function slightly, the nucleon-antinucleon polarization (Dirac sea) makes the spectral function very sharp and shifted towards the low invariant mass region significantly due to the decreasing effective nucleon mass.

Using effective meson Lagrangians we study the interaction of rho mesons in a hot baryon-free system. Various mesonic resonances in direct $s$-channel reactions are investigated employing standard self-energy techniques, including new reactions that have up to now not been considered in a self-consistent approach at finite temperature. The importance of subthreshold resonances, which are readily accounted for through off-shell effects within our framework, is emphasized. Spec...

The mass shift, width broadening, and spectral density for the $\rho$ and $\omega$ mesons in a heat bath of nucleons and pions are calculated using a general formula which relates the self-energy to the real and imaginary parts of the forward scattering amplitude. We use experimental data to saturate the scattering amplitude at low energies with resonances and include a background Pomeron term, while at high energies a Regge parameterization is used. The real part obtained di...

Vector mesons containing light quarks are thought to have their masses reduced in dense nuclear matter, sacrificing some of their energy to the scalar field which becomes appreciable at finite baryon density. Model calculations find masses which fall by a couple tens of percents in normal nuclear matter, and by several hundred MeV in dense matter. We estimate the collision rate for rho mesons in such a scenario and at finite temperature. Compared to its free-mass value, the c...

Within a field theoretical model where all damping width effects are treated self-consistently we study the changes of the spectral properties of rho-mesons due to the finite damping width of the pions in dense hadronic matter at finite temperature. The corresponding effects in the di-lepton yields are presented. Some problems concerning the self consistent treatment of vector or gauge bosons are discussed.

We study self-consistently the finite $T$ broadening of the $\rho$-meson and its implications for dilepton emission in heavy ion-collisions. For this purpose finite width effects at finite temperature due to the $\rho$-$\pi$ interaction are investigated in a self-consistent $\Phi$-functional approach. The temperature dependence of the $\rho$-meson and pion spectral functions and self-energies is discussed. The spectral functions show considerable broadening in comparison with...

The mass shift and width broadening of rho-mesons produced in heavy ion collisions is estimated using general formulae which relate the in-medium mass shift of a particle to the real part of the forward scattering amplitude of this particle on constituents of the medium and the width broadening to the corresponding cross section. It is found that the mass increases by some tens of MeV but, more importantly, the width becomes large, increasing by several hundred MeV at beam en...