D mesons in asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures

Arvind Kumar, Amruta Mishra

Published 2009-12-13Version 1

We study the in-medium properties of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons in isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures using an effective chiral SU(4) model. The interactions of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons with nucleons, scalar isoscalar meson $\sigma$, and scalar iso-vector meson $\delta$ are taken into consideration. It is found that as compared to the $\bar{D}$ mesons, the properties of the $D$ mesons are observed to be quite sensitive to the isospin-asymmetry at high densities. At finite densities, the masses of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons observed at finite temperatures are seen to be higher in comparison to the zero temperature case. The present study of the in-medium properties of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons will be of relevance for the experiments in the future facility of the FAIR, GSI, where the compressed baryonic matter at high densities and moderate temperatures is expected to be produced. The mass modifications of $D$ and $\bar{D}$ mesons in hot nuclear medium can lead to decay of the charmonium states ($\Psi^{'}, \chi_{c}, J/\Psi$) to $D\bar{D}$ pairs in dense hadronic matter. The isospin-asymmetric effects on the properties of the open charm mesons for the doublets $D=(D^0,D^+)$ and $\bar D=(\bar D^0,D^-)$ should show in observables like their production and collective flow in asymmetric heavy-ion collisions. The small attractive potentials observed for the $\bar{D}$ mesons may also lead to formation of the $\bar{D}$ mesic nuclei.