Thermal Pions at Finite Isospin Chemical Potential

M. Loewe, C. Villavicencio

Published 2002-12-18, updated 2003-01-21Version 4

The density corrections, in terms of the isospin chemical potential $\mu_I$, to the mass of the pions are studied in the framework of the SU(2) low energy effective chiral lagrangian. The pion decay constant $f_{\pi}(T, \mu_{I})$ is also analized. As a function of temperature for $\mu_I =0$, the mass remains quite stable, starting to grow for very high values of $T$, confirming previous results. However, there are interesting corrections to the mass when both effects (temperature and chemical potential) are simultaneously present. At zero temperature the $\pi ^{\pm}$ should condensate when $\mu_{I} = \mp m_{\pi}$. This is not longer valid anymore at finite $T$. The mass of the $\pi_0$ acquires also a non trivial dependence on $\mu_I$ due to the finite temperature.