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We compute the vacuum polarization correction to the binding energy of nuclear matter in the Walecka model using a nonperturbative approach. We first study such a contribution as arising from a ground-state structure with baryon-antibaryon condensates. This yields the same results as obtained through the relativistic Hartree approximation of summing tadpole diagrams for the baryon propagator. Such a vacuum is then generalized to include quantum effects from meson fields through scalar-meson condensates which amounts to summing over a class of multiloop diagrams. The method is applied to study properties of nuclear matter and leads to a softer equation of state giving a lower value of the incompressibility than would be reached without quantum effects. The density-dependent effective sigma mass is also calculated including such vacuum polarization effects.

We evaluate the in-medium D and -meson masses in hot hadronic matter induced by interactions with the light hadron sector described in a chiral SU(3) model. The e ective Lagrangian approach is generalized to SU(4) to include charmed mesons. We find that the D-mass drops substantially at finite temperatures and densities, which open the channels of the decay of the charmonium states ( 2, c, J/ ) to D pairs in the thermal medium. The e ects of vacuum polarisations from the baryon sector on the medium modification of the D-meson mass relative to those obtained in the mean field approximation are investigated. The results of the present work are compared to calculations based on the QCD sum-rule approach, the quark-meson coupling model, chiral perturbation theory, as well as to studies of quarkonium dissociation using heavy quark potential from lattice QCD.

Abstract: The medium modification of kaon and antikaon masses, compatible with low energy KN scattering data, are studied in a chiral SU(3) model. The mutual interactions with baryons in hot hadronic matter and the e ects from the baryonic Dirac sea on the K( ¯K ) masses are examined. The in-medium masses from the chiral SU(3) e ective model are compared to those from chiral perturbation theory. Furthermore, the influence of these in-medium e ects on kaon rapidity distributions and transverse energy spectra as well as the K, ¯K flow pattern in heavy-ion collision experiments at 1.5 to 2 A·GeV are investigated within the HSD transport approach. Detailed predictions on the transverse momentum and rapidity dependence of directed flow v1 and the elliptic flow v2 are provided for Ni+Ni at 1.93 A·GeV within the various models, that can be used to determine the in-medium K± properties from the experimental side in the near future.

The in-medium properties of the vector mesons are known to be modified significantly in hot and dense hadronic matter due to vacuum polarisation e ects from the baryon sector in the Walecka model. The vector meson mass drops significantly in the medium due to the e ects of the Dirac sea. In the variational approach adopted in the present paper, these e ects are taken into account through a realignment of the ground state with baryon condensates. Such a realignment of the ground state becomes equivalent to summing of the baryonic tadpole diagrams in the relativistic Hartree approximation (RHA). The approximation scheme adopted here goes beyond RHA to include quantum e ects from the scalar meson and is nonperturbative and self consistent. It includes multiloop e ects, thus corresponding to a di erent approximation as compared to the one loop approximation of including scalar field quantum corrections. In the present work, we study the properties of the vector mesons in the hot and dense matter as modified due to such quantum correction e ects from the baryon as well as scalar meson sectors. These medium modifications of the properties of the vector mesons are reflected, through the shifting and broadening of the respective peaks, in the low mass dilepton spectra. There is broadening of the peaks due to corrections from scalar meson quantum e ects as compared to the relativistic Hartree approximation. It is seen to be rather prominent for the ! meson in the invariant mass plot. PACS number: 21.65.+f,12.40.Yx