Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: We show that while the zero temperature induced fermion number in a chiral sigma model background depends only on the asymptotic values of the chiral field, at finite temperature the induced fermion number depends also on the detailed shape of the chiral background. We resum the leading low temperature terms to all orders in the derivative expansion, producing a simple result that can be interpreted physically as the different effect of the chiral background on virtual pairs of the Dirac sea and on the real particles of the thermal plasma. By contrast, for a kink background, not of sigma model form, the finite T induced fermion number is temperature dependent but topological.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: I. J. R. Aitchison, G. V. Dunne
Institutions: University of Oxford, The University of Adelaide
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2154121193