Probing the strange quark condensate by di-electrons from Φ-meson decays in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies


Probing the strange quark condensate by di-electrons from Φ-meson decays in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies

Kämpfer, B.; Pavlenko, O. P.; Zschocke, S.

QCD sum rules predict that the change of the strange quark condensate ‹ss› in hadron matter at finite baryon density causes a shift of the peak position of the di-electron spectra from Φ- meson decays.
Due to the expansion of hadron matter in heavy-ion collisions, the Φ peak suffers a smearing governed by the interval of density in the expanding fireball, which appears as effective broadening of the di-electron spectrum in the Φ region. The width of the emerging broadening is sensitive to in-medium change of ‹ss›. This allows to probe directly in-medium modifications of ‹ss› via di-electron spectra in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies with HADES.

Keywords: heavy-ion collisions; di-electrons; in-medium modifications of vector mesons

  • Eur. Phys. J. A 17(1): 119-132 May 2003

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-5055
Publ.-Id: 5055