arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Horst Stöcker.
We derive the kinetic equation for pure gluon QCD plasma in a general way, applying the background field method. We show that the quantum kinetic equation contains a term as in the classical case, that describes a color charge precession of partons moving in the gauge field. We emphasize that this new term is necessary for the gauge covariance of the resulting equation.
We investigate in stable strange hadronic matter (SHM) the modification of the masses of the scalar ($σ$, $σ^*$) and the vector ($ω$, $ϕ$) mesons. The baryon ground state is treated in the relativistic Hartree approximation in the nonlinear $σ$-$ω$ and linear $σ^*$-$ϕ$ model. In stable SHM, the masses of all the mesons reveal considerable reduction due to large vacuum polarization contribution from the hyperons and small density dependent effects caused by larger binding.
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 $ρ$ meson in matter seems to be consistent with some current interpretations of the $e^+ e^-$ mass spectra measured at the CERN/SPS.
The modification of the width of rho mesons due to in-medium decays and collisions is evaluated. The decay width is calculated from the imaginary part of the one-loop self-energy at finite temperature. The collision width is related to the cross sections of the $ρ$ + pion and the $ρ$ + nucleon reactions. A calculation based on an effective Lagrangian shows the importance of including the direct $ρπ\toρπ$ scattering which is dominated by the $a_1$ exchange. A large broadening of the spectral function is found, accompanied by a strength suppression at the pole.