The axial anomaly in QCD at finite temperature

1996/08/20 by Thomas Schäfer, Thomas Schaefer
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-lat #hep-ph #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0370-2693(96)01324-x

published as Phys.Lett. B389 (1996) 445-451 · 11 pages, 5 figures

arxiv created 1996/08/20 · openalex publication_date 1996/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study flavor mixing and the axial anomaly in QCD at zero and finite temperature. Using the instanton liquid model, we show that the strength of the anomaly is essentially unchanged near the critical temperature for chiral symmetry restoration. We demonstrate that nevertheless, chiral symmetry restoration has important consequences for the eta and eta prime. In particular, the strange and non-strange components of the eta unmix near T_c. The anomaly does not affect the strange eta, so we expect a light purely strange pseudoscalar meson near the phase transition.

Citations

• Topological charge and U(1)A symmetry in the high temperature phase of QCD
• QCD and instantons at finite temperature