Chiral Phase Structure and In-Medium Modifications of Charmed Meson Masses within SU(4) extended Linear-Sigma Models
Abstract
We extend the Polyakov-loop-enhanced linear-sigma model to encompass four flavors and utilize it to analyze the light, strange, and charmed meson mass spectrum as it transitions from the vacuum into a hot and dense medium. Within the mean-field approximation, we determine the masses of scalar (0++), pseudoscalar (0−+), vector (1−−), and axial-vector (1++) meson states, encompassing both open- and hidden-charm constituents, as functions of temperature T and baryon chemical potential μB. With parameters calibrated to the vacuum spectrum, the charm degree of freedom proves essential for an accurate description of observed masses, and charmed states acquire their in-medium modifications from the light and strange condensates that modify their valence quarks. Each species seems to undergo melting along its distinct trajectory, yet all transitions occur within a narrow band surrounding the chiral transition. The open-charm D-meson functions as a precise indicator of chiral restoration: its mass increases substantially across the transition and reflects the non-strange condensate, whereas hidden-charm states remain largely unaffected and serve as reference standards for the surrounding matter. We establish that transition points from three independent measurements delineate the chiral phase boundary (Tc, μB), whose curvature matches lattice-QCD predictions and which persists as a crossover throughout the examined range, exhibiting no critical endpoint.
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BibTeX
@misc{rfeek2026chiral,
title = {{Chiral Phase Structure and In-Medium Modifications of Charmed Meson Masses within SU(4) extended Linear-Sigma Models}},
author = {Nourhan M. Rfeek and Alexandra Friesen and Yuri Kalinovsky and Saleh O. Allehabi and Azzah A. Alshehri and Ashraf F. El-Sherif and Abdel Nasser Tawfik},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.26817},
eprint = {2609.26817},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26817},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Chiral Phase Structure and In-Medium Modifications of Charmed Meson Masses within SU(4) extended Linear-Sigma Models
AU - Nourhan M. Rfeek
AU - Alexandra Friesen
AU - Yuri Kalinovsky
AU - Saleh O. Allehabi
AU - Azzah A. Alshehri
AU - Ashraf F. El-Sherif
AU - Abdel Nasser Tawfik
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.26817
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26817
AB - We extend the Polyakov-loop-enhanced linear-sigma model to encompass four flavors and utilize it to analyze the light, strange, and charmed meson mass spectrum as it transitions from the vacuum into a hot and dense medium. Within the mean-field approximation, we determine the masses of scalar (0^++), pseudoscalar (0^−+), vector (1^−−), and axial-vector (1^++) meson states, encompassing both open- and hidden-charm constituents, as functions of temperature T and baryon chemical potential μ_B. With parameters calibrated to the vacuum spectrum, the charm degree of freedom proves essential for an accurate description of observed masses, and charmed states acquire their in-medium modifications from the light and strange condensates that modify their valence quarks. Each species seems to undergo melting along its distinct trajectory, yet all transitions occur within a narrow band surrounding the chiral transition. The open-charm D-meson functions as a precise indicator of chiral restoration: its mass increases substantially across the transition and reflects the non-strange condensate, whereas hidden-charm states remain largely unaffected and serve as reference standards for the surrounding matter. We establish that transition points from three independent measurements delineate the chiral phase boundary (T_c, μ_B), whose curvature matches lattice-QCD predictions and which persists as a crossover throughout the examined range, exhibiting no critical endpoint.
ER -