Open-Charm Vector Mesons in Hot and Dense Nuclear Matter

2026/08/04 by N. Er, K. Azizi
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-ph #hep-ex #hep-lat

paper · pdf

15 Pages, 10 Figures and 1 Table

arxiv created 2026/08/04 · arxiv updated 2026/08/06

Abstract

We investigate the in-medium properties of the open-charm vector mesons D_s^* and D^* in hot and dense nuclear matter within the framework of finite-temperature and finite-density QCD sum rules. The analysis incorporates temperature- and density-dependent quark and gluon condensates together with an in-medium continuum threshold constrained by the light-quark condensate. By solving the resulting QCD sum rules, we determine the in-medium masses and leptonic decay constants of the D_s^*± and D^*± mesons over a broad region of the (T,ρ) plane. Both vector mesons undergo substantial in-medium softening, with their masses and leptonic decay constants decreasing as the baryon density increases. The masses exhibit a non-monotonic dependence on baryon density, whereas the leptonic decay constants decrease monotonically throughout the investigated density range. Increasing temperature generally weakens the density-induced modifications, although baryon density remains the dominant driver of the in-medium evolution. The largest mass shifts occur at intermediate-to-high densities, reaching approximately -413~MeV for the D_s^*- meson and -207~MeV for the D^*- meson, while the leptonic decay constants are reduced by more than 68% in both channels at the highest densities considered. We further investigate the particle--antiparticle splittings of the masses and leptonic decay constants induced by finite baryon density. Finite baryon density lifts the vacuum degeneracy between the charge-conjugate states, while increasing temperature generally suppresses the resulting asymmetries. Although the strange and non-strange channels exhibit similar qualitative behavior, quantitative differences emerge in both the in-medium modifications and the particle--antiparticle splittings. ....

Citations

• Hot and Dense Medium Effects on the B_s^* and B^* Multiplets
• Heavy-heavy and heavy-light mesons in cold nuclear matter
• Mapping the Phases of Quantum Chromodynamics with Beam Energy Scan
• From hadrons to quarks in neutron stars: a review
• Finite Temperature QCD Sum Rules: a Review
• Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR
• Modifications on nucleon parameters at finite temperature
• More about the B and D mesons in nuclear matter
• Heavy Scalar, Vector and Axial-Vector Mesons in Hot and Dense Nuclear Medium
• Chiral QCD sum rules for open charm mesons
• Fluctuations as probe of the QCD phase transition and freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC
• The phase diagram of dense QCD
• Strange and charm mesons at FAIR
• QCD sum rules for D and B mesons in nuclear matter
• QCD equation of state with almost physical quark masses
• Heavy-light quark pseudoscalar and vector mesons at finite temperature
• Lattice QCD at High Temperature and Density
• QCD Sum Rules, a Modern Perspective
• Mass modification of D-meson at finite density in QCD sum rule
• Chiral Symmetry Restoration and Dileptons in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
• J/psi and eta_c in the nuclear medium: QCD sum rule approach
• On QCD sum rules for vector mesons in nuclear medium
• New QCD Sum Rules for Nucleons in Nuclear Matter