Vorticity and Λ polarization in baryon rich matter

The polarization of Λ hyperons due to axial chiral vortical effect is discussed. The effect is proportional to (strange) chemical potential and is pronounced at lower energies in baryon-rich matter. The polarization of ¯ has the same sihn and larger magnitude. The emergence of vortical structures is observed in kinetic QGSM models. The hydrodynamical helicity separation receives the contribution of longitudinal velocity and vorticity implying the quadrupole structure of the latter. The transition from the quark vortical effects to baryons in confined phase may be achieved by exploring the axial charge. At the hadronic level the polarization corresponds to the cores of quantized vortices in pionic superfluid. The chiral vortical effects may be also studied in the frmework of Wigner function establishing the relation to the thermodynamical approach to polarization.

An update of muon capture on hydrogen

The successful precision measurement of the rate of muon capture on a proton by the MuCap Collaboration allows for a stringent test of the current theoretical understanding of this process. Chiral perturbation theory (χPT), which is a low-energy effective field theory (EFT) that preserves the symmetries and the pattern of symmetry breaking in the underlying theory of QCD, offers a systematic framework for describing μp capture and provides a basic test of QCD at the hadronic level. We describe how this effective theory with no free parameters reproduces the measured capture rate. A recent study has addressed new sources of uncertainties that were not considered in the previous works, and we review to what extent these uncertainties are now under control. Finally, the rationale for studying muon capture on the deuteron and some recent theoretical developments regarding this process are discussed.

CHIRAL PARTNERS IN A CHIRALLY BROKEN WORLD

The isovector–vector and the isovector–axial-vector current are related by a chiral transformation. These currents can be called chiral partners at the fundamental level. In a world where chiral symmetry was not broken, the corresponding current-current correlators would show the same spectral information. In the real world chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken. A prominent peak — the ρ-meson — shows up in the vector spectrum (measured in e+e--collisions and τ-decays). On the other hand, in the axial-vector spectrum a broad bump appears — the a1-meson (also accessible in τ-decays). It is tempting to call ρ and a1 chiral partners at the hadronic level. Strong indications are brought forward that these "chiral partners" do not only differ in mass but even in their nature: The ρ-meson appears dominantly as a quark-antiquark state with small modifications from an attractive pion-pion interaction. The a1-meson, on the other hand, can be understood as a meson-molecule state mainly formed by the attractive interaction between pion and ρ-meson. A key issue here is that the meson-meson interactions are fixed by chiral symmetry breaking. It is demonstrated that one can understand the vector and the axial-vector spectrum very well within this interpretation. It is also shown that the opposite cases, namely ρ as a pion-pion molecule or a1 as a quark-antiquark state lead to less satisfying results. Finally speculations on possible in-medium changes of hadron properties are presented.

THE PROBLEM OF BOSONIZATION OF LOCAL FOUR-QUARK OPERATORS

The problem of bosonization of standard local four-quark operators, by involving the penguin operator, with ΔI = 1/2 and ΔS = 1 selection rules, is studied. We show that the well-known Cronin's operator determined within the effective chiral Lagrangian approach with nonlinear realization of chiral SU (3) × SU (3) symmetry (so-called chiral perturbation theory at the hadronic level) can realize the hadronic level description of local four-quark operators with (V − A) × (V − A) quark structure only. Also, it is shown that any attempts to apply Cronin's operator for bosonization of the penguin operator, possessing (V − A) × (V + A) quark structure, are doomed to failure. The latter is explained by the inability of Cronin's operator to describe correctly the s-wave final-state interaction, which is very important for transitions governed by the penguin operator. The asymmetry of quark condensate is calculated. The sign of this asymmetry is opposite to that one assumed in the framework of QCD sum rules.

IS THE CRONIN’S REPRESENTATION CORRECT FOR THE PENGUIN OPERATOR?

It is shown that the Cronin’s operator, being used for a phenomenological description of non-loptonic K-meson decays within the effective chiral Lagrangian approach with non-linear realization of chiral SU (3)× SU (3) symmetry (so-called, chiral perturbation theory at the hadronic level), cannot be applied to the determination of the Penguin-operator (O5-operator) at the hadronic level. The affirmation is based on the proof of the violation of the low-energy theorem [Formula: see text] which is valid within the framework of the Cronin’s representation. The violation of this low-energy theorem is obtained at the quark level and connected with the account of the low-energy interactions of pions caused by the overlap of wave functions of pions in the |π+π−> state in the low-energy limit p+→0. The chiral transformation properties of the normal-ordered Penguin operator are studied.