arXiv · nucl-th/9311005
Medium Modification to the $Ω$-Meson Mass in the Walecka Model
Abstract
We calculate the effective mass of the $ω$ meson in nuclear matter in a relativistic random-phase approximation to the Walecka model. The dressing of the meson propagator is driven by its coupling to particle-hole pairs and nucleon-antinucleon ($N\bar{N}$) excitations. We report a reduction in the $ω$-meson mass of about 170~MeV at nuclear-matter saturation density. This reduction arises from a competition between the density-dependent (particle-hole) dressing of the propagator and vacuum polarization ($N\bar{N}$ pairs). While density-dependent effects lead to an increase in the mass proportional to the classical plasma frequency, vacuum polarization leads to an even larger reduction caused by the reduced effective nucleon mass in the medium.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
H. -C. Jean, J. Piekarewicz, A. G. Williams. 1993-11-05. Medium Modification to the $Ω$-Meson Mass in the Walecka Model. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.49.1981
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.