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# 𝜌 propagation and dilepton production at finite pion density and temperature

## I Introduction

One of the most salient features of the low-mass dilepton spectra in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, from BEVALAC/SIS to SPS energies, is the enhancement in the production yields for invariant masses between 0.2 and 1 GeV, as compared to proton induced reactions experiments . Since dilepton final states are mediated by electromagnetic currents and these in turn are connected to vector mesons, dilepton pairs represent a prime tool to study the evolution of the dense and hot hadronic region formed in this kind of collisions. For low invariant masses, the vector mesons involved are the $`\rho `$, $`\omega `$ and $`\varphi `$. Among these, $`\rho `$ plays an special role given that its lifetime is smaller than the expected lifetime of the interacting region and thus is able to probe different stages during the collision of heavy systems.

The favored explanations, able to account for a great deal of the features of the measured low-mass dilepton spectra can be divided in two categories: the dropping $`\rho `$ mass and the melting of resonances scenarios Rapp . The first of these, connected to the Brwon-Rho scaling conjecture Brown  and the decrease of the quiral quark condensate with temperature and baryon density, states that the in-medium $`\rho `$ mass will sweep the entire low invariant mass region as the system cools down from its initially hot and dense state toward freeze-out. The second scenario Dominguez ; Asakawa  states that the in-medium spectral densities of the $`\rho `$ and its chiral partner, the $`a_1`$ (1260) become broad and structureless, merging into a flat continuum as the system approaches chiral symmetry restoration.

An important ingredient for the success of the two above mentioned scenarios is the presence of finite baryon density effects (see for example Ref. Chen ). In the first case, baryons act as the source of strongly attractive scalar fields. In the second case, interactions of the vector mesons with baryonic resonances, characterized by large coupling constants, overwhelm the relative strength of the interactions of $`\rho `$’s with pions, despite the fact that at SPS energies, the relative abundance of the latter is five times that of the former.

Nevertheless, at RHIC and moreover at LHC energies, the central rapidity region is expected to become baryon free with the relative abundance of pions being larger than at SPS energies. Consequently, at ultra-relativistic energies, it is important to include in the calculation of the dilepton spectrum the proper treatment of the large pion density, particularly during the hadronic phase of the collision.

Recall that strictly speaking, pion number is not a conserved quantity and that pion decay is driven by all the relevant interactions, namely, strong, weak and electromagnetic. However, the characteristic time for electromagnetic and weak pion number-changing reactions, is very large compared to the lifetime of the system created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and therefore, these processes are of no relevance for the propagation properties of pions within the lifetime of the collision. As for the case of strong processes, it is by now accepted that they drive pion number toward chemical freeze-out at a temperature considerably higher than the thermal freeze-out temperature and therefore, that from chemical to thermal freeze-out, the pion system evolves with the pion abundance held fixed Bebie ; Braun-Munzinger . Under these circumstances, it is possible to ascribe to the pion density a chemical potential and consider the pion number as conserved Hung ; Chungsik . In this context, the role of a finite pion chemical potential into a hadronic equation of state has been recently investigated in Refs. Teaney . The effects of a finite isospin chemical potential on the pion mass have also been recently studied in Refs. Loewe .

The description of hadronic degrees of freedom belongs to the realm of nonperturbative phenomena and therefore has necessarily to rely on effective approaches that implement the dynamical symmetries of QCD. In a series of recent papers Ayala ; Ayala2  it has been shown that the linear sigma model can be used as one of such effective approaches to describe the pion propagation properties within a pion medium at energies, temperatures and densities small compared to the sigma mass. The sigma degree of freedom can be integrated out in a systematic expansion to obtain an effective theory of like-isospin pions interacting among themselves through an effective quartic term with coupling $`\alpha =6(m_\pi ^2/2f_\pi ^2)`$, where $`m_\pi `$ and $`f_\pi `$ are the vacuum pion mass and decay constant, respectively.

In this paper we extend the use of such effective description to study the interaction of pions with the $`\rho `$ vector, paying particular attention to the effects that a finite pion density introduce on the propagation properties of $`\rho `$ at finite temperature. We find the finite density and temperature modifications to the $`\rho `$ mass, width and dispersion relation. By invoking vector dominance, we also study the effects that these modifications introduce on the production of $`e^+`$ $`e^{}`$ pairs near the $`\rho `$ peak.

The work is organized as follows: In Sec. II, we introduce the $`\rho `$ in the description by gauging the original effective Lagrangian. The theory thus obtained closely resembles scalar electrodynamics. We introduce a chemical potential associated to a conserved number of pions and construct the modifications to the pion propagator and $`\pi `$-$`\rho `$ vertex at finite density. In Sec. III, we use this effective Lagrangian to compute the pion self-energy and in Sec. IV the $`\rho `$ self-energy and from it, the modifications to its mass, width and dispersion curve at finite density and temperature. In Sec. V, we compute the dilepton rate assuming vector dominance. We finally summarize and conclude in Sec. V.

## II Effective Lagrangian

In Refs. Ayala  it has been shown that starting from the linear sigma model Lagrangian, including only meson degrees of freedom and working in the kinematical regime where the pion momentum, mass and temperature are small compared to the sigma mass, the two-loop pion self energy can be formally obtained by means of the effective Lagrangian

$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(^\mu \varphi \right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\pi ^2\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{4!}}\varphi ^4,`$ (1)
where $`\alpha =6(m_\pi ^2/2f_\pi ^2)`$ and the factor $`6`$ comes from considering the interaction of like-isospin pions in the vertex

$`i\mathrm{\Gamma }_4^{ijkl}=2i\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_\pi ^2}{2f_\pi ^2}}\right)\left(\delta ^{ij}\delta ^{kl}+\delta ^{ik}\delta ^{jl}+\delta ^{il}\delta ^{jk}\right).`$ (2)
In essence, the theory thus constructed and summarized by the effective Lagrangian in Eq. (1) can be thought of as a theory for the effective coupling $`\alpha `$ that encodes the dynamics of low energy pion interactions. It can also be checked that Eq. (1) reproduces the leading order modification to the pion mass at finite temperature obtained from chiral perturbation theory Gasser .

In order to introduce the $`\rho `$ field, we gauge the theory Gale ; Pisarski  described by the Lagrangian in Eq. (1) replacing the derivative $`^\mu `$ by the covariant derivative $`D^\mu `$ given by

$`^\mu \varphi D^\mu \varphi =(^\mu ig\rho ^\mu )\varphi ,`$ (3)
where we have introduced the $`\pi `$-$`\rho `$ coupling constant $`g`$. Also, by introducing the mass term and kinetic energy for the $`\rho `$ field, the Lagrangian in Eq. (1) becomes

$`^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(D^\mu \varphi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\pi ^2\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{4!}}\varphi ^4`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\rho ^2\rho ^\mu \rho _\mu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\rho _{\mu \nu }\rho ^{\mu \nu }.`$
Let us now pause briefly to describe the formalism that allows us to introduce a finite chemical potential associated to a conserved pion number. To this end, let us further modify the Lagrangian in Eq. (4), writing it in terms of a complex scalar field and regarding $`\varphi `$ and $`\varphi ^{}`$ as independent fields

$`^{}^{\prime \prime }`$ $`=`$ $`(D_\mu \varphi )(D^\mu \varphi ^{})m_\pi ^2\varphi \varphi ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{4}}(\varphi \varphi ^{})^2`$ (5)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\rho ^2\rho ^\mu \rho _\mu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\rho _{\mu \nu }\rho ^{\mu \nu }.`$
The effective Lagrangian in Eq. (5) resembles that of scalar electrodynamics with the photon field replaced by the massive $`\rho `$ field. Invariance under global phase transformations

$`\varphi \varphi ^{}=e^{i\lambda }\varphi `$ (6)
leads to the conserved current

$`J^\mu =i(\varphi ^{}^\mu \varphi \varphi ^\mu \varphi ^{})2g\rho ^\mu \varphi ^{}\varphi ,`$ (7)
and to the conserved charge $`N`$, that can be identified with the particle number, given by

$`N=i{\displaystyle d^3x(\varphi ^{}^0\varphi \varphi ^0\varphi ^{}+2ig\rho ^0\varphi ^{}\varphi )}.`$ (8)
Since $`N`$ is a conserved charge, there exists a chemical potential $`\mu `$ conjugate to $`N`$ so that the grand partition function is

$`Z(\beta ,\mu )=\text{Tr}e^{\beta (H\mu N)},`$ (9)
where $`\beta =1/T`$ is the inverse of the temperature $`T`$. From now on, let us work explicitly in the imaginary-time formalism of thermal field theory. It is straightforward to write a path integral representation in Euclidean space of the grand partition function $`Z(\beta ,\mu )`$. Care has to be taken by going through the Hamiltonian form since $`N`$ depends on the time derivative of $`\varphi `$ and $`\varphi ^{}`$. After integration over the conjugate fields $`\pi ^{}=^{\prime \prime }/(^0\varphi ^{})`$ and $`\pi =^{\prime \prime }/(^0\varphi )`$ one can check that in the exponent, there appear the combinations

$`\varphi ^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\tau ^2}}2\mu {\displaystyle \frac{}{\tau }}+\mu ^2m_\pi ^2\right)\varphi ,`$ (10)
$`ig\rho ^0\left(\varphi ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{\tau }}\varphi {\displaystyle \frac{\varphi ^{}}{\tau }}\right)2ig\mu \rho ^0\varphi ^{}\varphi ,`$ (11)
where $`\tau `$ is the Euclidean time. Going to frequency space the Euclidean time derivatives get replaced by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{\tau }}`$ $``$ $`i\omega _n\varphi `$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi ^{}}{\tau }}`$ $``$ $`i\omega _n^{}\varphi ^{},`$ (12)
where the periodicity of the fields in the interval $`0\tau \beta `$ makes the (Matsubara) frequencies $`\omega _n`$ and $`\omega _n^{}`$ be discrete and integer multiples of $`2\pi T`$. The combination in Eq. (10) translates into a modification of the Matsubara pion propagator which now reads as (hereafter capital letters are used to denote four-vectors whereas lower case letters are used do denote the components)

$`\mathrm{\Delta }(i\omega _n,p;\mu )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(i\omega _n+\mu )^2+p^2+m_\pi ^2}},`$ (13)
whereas the combination in Eq. (11) goes into a modification of the $`\pi `$-$`\rho `$ vertex which now becomes

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \rho }(P_\mu ,P_{}^{}{}_{\mu }{}^{};\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`ig\{[(i\omega _n+\mu ),𝐩]`$ (14)
$`+`$ $`[(i\omega _n^{}+\mu ),𝐩^{}]\},`$
The final outcome is that the introduction of a finite chemical potential translates into the substitution

$`i\omega _ni\omega _n+\mu `$ (15)
both when this frequency appears in internal pion lines either in the Matsubara propagator or in the the $`\pi `$-$`\rho `$ vertex. Notice that these substitutions agree with the weel known result for the periodicity of the Matsubara propagator in the mixed representation given by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }(\beta \tau ,E;\mu )=\mathrm{\Delta }(\tau ,E;\mu ).`$ (16)
## III $`\pi `$ self-energy

The effective Lagrangian in Eq. (5) describes the interactions between pions and $`\rho `$’s as well as among pions themselves. The one-loop diagrams for the pion and $`\rho `$ self-energies are depicted in Figs. 1 and 2. For the pion self-energy, the diagrams contain terms with internal $`\rho `$ propagators. Notice that since $`m_\rho m_\pi ,T`$, these diagrams are strongly suppressed at finite temperature compared to those made out exclusively of internal pion lines and can thus be neglected. This approximation goes along the lines of the reasoning used in Refs. Ayala  where the heavy internal sigma modes were systematically pinched to construct the effective vertices and propagators leading to the effective Lagrangian in Eq. (1). In this scheme, the pion and $`\rho `$ self-energies decouple and the former gets modified only by the diagram in Fig. 1a leading to a momentum independent correction of the pion mass. We can thus take one step further going beyond naive perturbation theory and adopt a resummation scheme for the pion self-energy to look for the modification of the pion mass beyond leading order. This can be implemented by writing the pion self-energy explicitly as

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_0={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{2}}T{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{K^2+m_\pi ^2+\mathrm{\Pi }_0}},`$ (17)
Equation (17) represents a self consistent relation for the temperature and density dependent quantity $`\mathrm{\Pi }_0`$. This is the well known resummation for the superdaisy diagrams which constitute the dominant contribution in the large-$`N`$ expansion Dolan  of the Lagrangian in Eq. (1). The solution to Eq. (17) is given by the transcendental equation

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_0`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha T}{4\pi ^2}}\right)\sqrt{m_\pi ^2+\mathrm{\Pi }_0}`$ (18)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}K_1\left({\displaystyle \frac{n\sqrt{m_\pi ^2+\mathrm{\Pi }_0}}{T}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cosh}(n\mu /T)}{n}}.`$
Figure 3 shows the behavior of the pion thermal mass $`\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi =\sqrt{m_\pi ^2+\mathrm{\Pi }_0}`$ as a function of $`(a)`$ $`T`$ for different values of $`\mu `$ and $`(b)`$ as a function of $`\mu `$ for different values of $`T`$. We use the values $`m_\pi =135`$ MeV, $`f_\pi =93`$ MeV. From Fig. 3, we notice that $`\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi `$ grows monotonically with both $`T`$ and $`\mu `$.

## IV $`\rho `$ self-energy

The explicit expression for the one-loop $`\rho `$ self-energy depicted in Fig. 2 is given by

$`\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`g^2T{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{(2P^\mu K^\mu )(2P^\nu K^\nu )}{(P^2+\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2)[(KP)^2+\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2]}}`$ (19)
$`+`$ $`\delta ^{\mu \nu }g^2T{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{P^2+\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2}},`$
where, according to the discussion in Sec. II, the internal pion momentum $`P^\mu `$ and the $`\rho `$ momentum $`K^\mu `$ are

$`P^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`[(i\omega _n+\mu ),𝐩]`$
$`K^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`(i\omega ,𝐤).`$ (20)
Equation (19) contains vacuum and matter contributions. It is well known that the infinities coming from the vacuum pieces can be reabsorbed into the redefinition of the bare masses and couplings Gale . For what follows, we will concentrate on the matter contributions.

For a massive vector field, the tensor structure of its self-energy can be written in terms of the longitudinal $`P_L^{\mu \nu }`$ and transverse $`P_T^{\mu \nu }`$ projection tensors

$`\mathrm{\Pi }^{\mu \nu }=F(K)P_L^{\mu \nu }+G(K)P_T^{\mu \nu }.`$ (21)
In Minkowski space, $`P_{T,L}^{\mu \nu }`$ are given by

$`P_T^{00}`$ $`=`$ $`P_T^{0i}=P_T^{i0}=0`$
$`P_T^{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`\delta ^{ij}k^ik^j/k^2`$
$`P_L^{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`g^{\mu \nu }+K^\mu K^\nu /K^2P_T^{\mu \nu }.`$ (22)
From the relation between the self-energy, and the full $`D^{\mu \nu }`$ and bare $`D_0^{\mu \nu }`$ $`\rho `$ propagators, we have, also in Minkowski space

$`iD^{\mu \nu }={\displaystyle \frac{P_L^{\mu \nu }}{K^2m_\rho ^2F}}+{\displaystyle \frac{P_T^{\mu \nu }}{K^2m_\rho ^2G}}+{\displaystyle \frac{K^\mu K^\nu }{m_\rho ^2K^2}}.`$ (23)
In order to identify the coefficients $`F`$ and $`G`$ of the longitudinal and transverse projectors, we take $`𝐤`$ along the $`z`$-axis. Thus, in Minkowski space, their expressions are

$`F(K)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K^2}{k_0k}}\mathrm{\Pi }^{03}`$
$`G(K)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{11},`$ (24)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{03}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{11}`$ are obtained from Eq. (19) with the analytical continuation

$`i\omega k_0+iϵ,`$ (25)
that give the retarded functions and that can be performed after carrying out the sum over the Matsubara frequencies.

The sum over frequencies can be obtained by standard techniques Kapusta ; LeBellac . Considering the effects of a finite chemical potential, the expressions of interest are

$`T{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }(i\omega _n,p)\mathrm{\Delta }(i(\omega \omega _n),|𝐤𝐩|)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s_1s_2=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{s_1s_2}{4E_pE_{|𝐤𝐩|}}}{\displaystyle \frac{[1+n(s_1E_p\mu )+n(s_2E_{|𝐤𝐩|}+\mu )]}{(i\omega s_1E_ps_2E_{|𝐤𝐩|})}}`$
$`T{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}i\omega _n\mathrm{\Delta }(i\omega _n,p)\mathrm{\Delta }(i(\omega \omega _n),|𝐤𝐩|)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s_1s_2=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{s_1s_2(s_1E_p\mu )}{4E_pE_{|𝐤𝐩|}}}{\displaystyle \frac{[1+n(s_1E_p\mu )+n(s_2E_{|𝐤𝐩|}+\mu )]}{(i\omega s_1E_ps_2E_{|𝐤𝐩|})}},`$ (26)
where

$`n(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta |x|}1}},`$ (27)
is the Bose-Einstein distribution, $`E_p=\sqrt{p^2+\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2}`$, $`E_{|𝐤𝐩|}=\sqrt{(𝐤𝐩)^2+\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2}`$ and the function $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is defined in Eq. (13).

Using Eq. (26) into Eq. (19) and by means of the analytical continuation in Eq. (25), the real and imaginary parts of $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{03}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{11}`$ are given by

$`\text{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }^{03}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{8\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑p\left({\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{E_p}}\right)\left[n(E_p\mu )+n(E_p+\mu )\right]\left[k_0(A_{}+A_+)2E_p(A_{}A_+)\right]`$
$`\text{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }^{03}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{16\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{k_0}{k^2}}\right)\{{\displaystyle _{\frac{k_0ak}{2}}^{\frac{k_0+ak}{2}}}dE_p(2E_pk_0)^2[1+2n(E_pk_0\mu )]\theta (k_0)`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _{\frac{k_0ak}{2}}^{\frac{k_0+ak}{2}}}dE_p(2E_p+k_0)^2[1+2n(E_p+k_0+\mu )]\theta (k_0)\}`$
$`\text{Re}\mathrm{\Pi }^{11}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{8\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑p\left({\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{E_p}}\right)\left[n(E_p\mu )+n(E_p+\mu )\right]\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2(k_0^2+k^2)}{k^2}}+(B_{}+B_+)\right]`$
$`\text{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }^{11}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{32\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{k^3}}\right)\{{\displaystyle _{\frac{k_0ak}{2}}^{\frac{k_0+ak}{2}}}dE_p[4p^2k^2(k^2k_0^2+2k_0E_p)^2][1+2n(E_pk_0\mu )]\theta (k_0)`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _{\frac{k_0ak}{2}}^{\frac{k_0+ak}{2}}}dE_p[4p^2k^2(k^2k_0^22k_0E_p)^2][1+2n(E_p+k_0+\mu )]\theta (k_0)\}`$
$`A_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2k^2p}}\left(4kp+[k_0^2\pm 2k_0E_p]\mathrm{ln}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{k_0^2k^2\pm 2k_0E_p2kp}{k_0^2k^2\pm 2k_0E_p+2kp}}\right|\right)`$
$`B_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{(k_0^2k^2\pm 2k_0E_p)^24k^2p^2}{4k^3p}}\right)\mathrm{ln}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{k_0^2k^2\pm 2k_0E_p2kp}{k_0^2k^2\pm 2k_0E_p+2kp}}\right|,`$ (28)
where the function $`a`$ is defined as

$`a=\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{4\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2}{(k_0^2k^2)}}}.`$ (29)
It is easy to check that in the limit $`\mu 0`$, Eqs. (28) reduce to the corresponding expressions found in Ref. Gale .

Figure 4 shows the behavior of the $`\rho `$ thermal mass obtained as the solution for $`k_0`$ of either

$`k_0^2m_\rho ^2\text{Re}\left\{\begin{array}{c}F(k_0,k=0)\\ G(k_0,k=0)\end{array}\right\}=0,`$ (32)
as a function of $`(a)`$ $`T`$ for different values of $`\mu `$ and $`(b)`$ as a function of $`\mu `$ for different values of $`T`$. We use the value $`g^2/4\pi =2.93`$ as determined by the $`\rho `$ width in vacuum. For $`k=0`$ there is no distinction between transverse and longitudinal modes and thus both Eqs. (32) lead to the same solution. For every value of $`(T,\mu )`$, the solution is computed with the corresponding value for $`\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi (T,\mu )`$. From Fig. 4, we see that the thermal $`\rho `$ mass grows monotonically with both $`T`$ and $`\mu `$ and that the growth is larger for larger values of $`\mu `$.

Figure 5 shows the behavior of the $`\rho `$ decay rate (or half width) obtained from either

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }={\displaystyle \frac{\text{Im}\left\{\begin{array}{c}F(m_\rho (T,\mu ),k=0)\\ G(m_\rho (T,\mu ),k=0)\end{array}\right\}}{2m_\rho (T,\mu )}}`$ (35)
as a function of $`(a)`$ $`T`$ for different values of $`\mu `$ and $`(b)`$ as a function of $`\mu `$ for different values of $`T`$. Again, for $`k=0`$ there is no distinction between transverse and longitudinal modes. This can be shown analytically from the explicit expressions of $`\text{Im}F`$ and $`\text{Im}G`$ in Eqs. (28) which for $`k=0`$ yield

$`\text{Im}F(k_0,k=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\text{Im}G(k_0,k=0)`$ (36)
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{48\pi }}\right)k_0^2\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{4\stackrel{~}{m}_\pi ^2}{k_0^2}}\right)^{3/2}`$
$`\times `$ $`\left[1+2n(k_0/2+\mu )\right].`$
For $`\mu =0`$, Eq. (36) coincides with the corresponding expression in Ref. Gale .

From Fig. 5a we see that for a given value of $`\mu `$ the $`\rho `$ width increases monotonically with temperature. From Fig. 5b we observe that the width reaches a minimum at a finite value of $`\mu `$ and that this value increases as the temperature increases. This behavior can be understood if we recall that when the density increases so does the pion mass and thus the phase space available for the decay products of $`\rho `$ narrows. The situation changes when the density is large enough so that the increase in the mass of the $`\rho `$ becomes steeper than the growth in the pion mass, widening the phase space available for the decay process.

Figure 6 shows the dispersion relation for $`(a)`$ longitudinal and $`(b)`$ transverse $`\rho `$ modes for different values of $`T`$ and $`\mu =100`$ MeV. The main difference between the curves in each set can be attributed to the increase of the $`\rho `$ mass with both $`\mu `$ and $`T`$.

## V Dilepton rate

The electromagnetic current can be identified with the underlying quark structure of hadrons. For invariant masses below the charm threshold, this current can be decomposed as

$`j_\mu ^{\text{em}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\overline{u}\gamma _\mu u{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\overline{d}\gamma _\mu d{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\overline{s}\gamma _\mu s.`$ (37)
Using the $`SU(3)`$ quark content of hadrons, this current, being vectorial in nature, can be in turn identified with the current constructed out of the vector mesons $`\rho `$, $`\omega `$ and $`\varphi `$.

$`j_\mu ^{\text{em}}=j_\mu ^\rho +j_\mu ^\omega +j_\mu ^\varphi ,`$ (38)
This is the well known conjecture named vector dominance model (VDM). Since the pion electromagnetic form factor is is almost totally dominated by the $`\rho `$ for invariant masses below 1 GeV, a simplified picture to study the decay of this electromagnetic current into low mass dilepton pairs is to consider that the current in Eq. (38) is totally dominated by the $`\rho `$. A further simplification stems from considering the spectral density of $`\rho `$ as a simple pole located at its peak which in turn dictates that the coupling of $`\rho `$ to the electromagnetic current is $`em_\rho ^2/g`$.

Under the assumption of VDM and $`\rho `$ saturation, the expressions for the thermal dilepton rates from longitudinal and transverse $`\rho `$ modes are given, respectively, by Gale

$`E_+E_{}{\displaystyle \frac{dR}{d^3p_+d^3p_{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^6}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{e^4}{g^2}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_\rho ^4}{M^4}}\right)\left[q^2{\displaystyle \frac{(𝐪𝐤)^2}{k^2}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Im}F}{(M^2m_\rho ^2\text{Re}F)^2+\text{Im}F^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta \omega _L}1}}\right),`$
$`E_+E_{}{\displaystyle \frac{dR}{d^3p_+d^3p_{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^6}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{e^4}{g^2}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_\rho ^4}{M^4}}\right)\left[2M^2q^2+{\displaystyle \frac{(𝐪𝐤)^2}{k^2}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Im}G}{(M^2m_\rho ^2\text{Re}G)^2+\text{Im}G^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta \omega _T}1}}\right),`$ (39)
where $`P_+^\mu =(E_+,𝐩_+)`$ and $`P_{}^\mu =(E_{},𝐩_{})`$ are the positron and electron four momenta, respectively, $`K^\mu =P_+^\mu +P_{}^\mu `$, $`Q^\mu =P_+^\mu P_{}^\mu `$, $`M^2=k_0^2k^2`$ is the pair invariant mass, $`\omega _{L,T}`$ are the longitudinal and transverse $`\rho `$ modes dispersion relations and we have neglected the electron mass.

Figures 7 and 8 show the dilepton production rates as functions of the pair invariant mass $`M`$ for $`𝐪𝐤=0`$ for fixed values of $`T=150`$ MeV and $`k`$ for two values of $`\mu =0,100`$ MeV for $`(a)`$ longitudinal and $`(b)`$ transverse modes. Figure 7 considers an small value of $`k=50`$ MeV and Fig. 8 a larger value $`k=250`$ MeV. In both cases we can see that the effect of the finite chemical potential is to moderately widen the distribution and to (also moderately) displace the position of the peak toward larger values of $`M`$. The most significant effect is however the lowering of the peak for finite $`\mu `$ which is in agreement with the analysis of Ref. Rapp2 .

## VI Summary and conclusions

In this paper we have considered the effects of a finite pion density on the propagation properties of $`\rho `$ mesons at finite temperature. The $`\rho `$ has been introduced by gauging an effective Lagrangian obtained from the linear sigma model in the kinematical regime where the pion mass and temperature are small compared to the sigma mass. The finite density is described in terms of a finite pion chemical potential associated to a conserved pion number. We have argued that such description is important for ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LCH energies where the central rapidity region is expected to become baryon free. In this situations, we expect that the influence of the dropping $`\rho `$ mass or melting or resonances scenarios to describe the dilepton spectra, which rely on the effects of a finite baryon density, become less important than the effects of the expected large pion density. This is so particularly during the hadronic phase of the reaction, between chemical and thermal freeze-out when the strong interaction drives pion-number to a fixed value.

We have found that the $`\rho `$ thermal mass increases monotonically with both the temperature and the pion density. However, the $`\rho `$ width as a function of $`\mu `$ and for fixed $`T`$ starts off by decreasing, reaching a minimum at a finite value of $`\mu `$. This behavior can be understood by noticing that as the density increases, the pion mass does too and the phase space available for the decay process $`\rho \pi \pi `$ narrows up to a –temperature dependent– value of $`\mu `$. From this value, the increase in the thermal $`\rho `$ mass is stronger than the increase in the thermal pion mass and this effect produces a widening of the phase space for the process, thus producing the $`\rho `$ width to rise.

Under the assumption of VDM and $`\rho `$ saturation, we have also computed the dilepton production rate as a function of the pair invariant mass. We have found that the finite pion density produces a moderate broadening of the distribution and a moderate increase of the position of the peak. The finite pion density also produces a decrease of the distribution at the position of the peak compared to the $`\mu =0`$ case.

The problem posed by the renormalization of theories involving resummation is by no means a simple one. In fact, in recent years this subject has been much actively pursued in the literature (see for example Refs. Hees ; Caldas ; Blaizot ). The consensus is that when the theory is vacuum renormalizable, it will still be renormalizable after resummation. The solution, which can be formulated using different languages, has been shown to require that the counterterms needed for vacuum renormalization in ordinary perturbation theory need also to receive the benefits of resummation and be considered self-consistently in the resummation procedure.

For the purposes of our work, let us stress that the resummation we have implemented for the pion self-energy corresponds to the tadpole approximation (see Sec III of Ref. Hees ). In fact, the gap equation that renders the finite temperature and density corrections to the pion mass in our work, Eq. (18), is identical to the thermal part of Eq. (24) of the above reference; we have just gone one step further, expanding the integrand as a series which allows us to analytically integrate each term. In Eq. (24) of Ref. Hees , the renormalization of the vacuum self energy and four-point function have been carried out on the physical mass-shell condition and have taken into account the self-consistency. In the language of this reference, this is so because in the tadpole approximation, the renormalized four-point function is constant and given just in terms of the original coupling constant on the mass-shell condition.

Had we gone beyond the tadpole approximation, the situation would have not be that straightforward. In fact, it has also been shown in Ref. Hees  that the self-consistent resummation scheme requires a more complicated renormalization of the four-point function to be taken into account alongside the renormalization procedure for the self-energy. The effects of this certainly more complete analysis might be interesting with regard to further thermal modifications to the pion mass in situations where the original coupling constant of the $`\varphi ^4`$ theory is much larger that one but is certainly beyond the scope of the present work where our coupling constant $`\alpha `$, as determined by the scale of the interactions, set by the vacuum pion mass, is of order 1 (in fact, what matters, as shown in Eq. (18) is the effective coupling constant given by $`\alpha /(4\pi ^2)`$ which is of order 0.1).

Finally, in order to predict the final dilepton spectra at RHIC and LHC energies, the results found in this work have to be placed into a model for the evolution of the collision and also possibly to include the effects of other vector or axial vector mesons. All this is for future.

## Acknowledgments

A. Ayala wishes to thank Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas for their kind hospitality during the time when part of this work was done. Support for this work has been received in part by DGAPA-UNAM under PAPIIT grant number IN108001 and CONACyT under grant numbers 32279-E and 40025-F.


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# Recent Advances in Dyson-Schwinger Studies1footnote 11footnote 1 Plenary talk given at NStar-2002, Pittsburgh PA, October 2002.

## I Introduction

The Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) are an infinite set of coupled integral equations that relate all of the dressed $`n`$-point functions of a quantum field theory to each other. These $`n`$-point functions (which take their enumeration from the number of space-time points they depend upon) determine all of the dynamics of the theory. With no external particle sources present, the most elementary of the $`n`$-point functions of QCD are the dressed quark and gluon propagators $`S(x_1x_2)`$ and $`D_{\mu \nu }(x_1x_2)`$.

A central aspect of QCD is that the elementary degrees of freedom appearing in the Lagrangian (quarks and gluons) are not simply related to the observed asymptotic degrees of freedom, the hadrons (mesons and baryons). This is referred to as confinement and understanding its origin represents one of the outstanding theoretical problems in physics. It then follows that knowledge of elementary two-point functions, the dressed quark and gluon propagators might not, by itself, be very useful since one can never observe quarks and gluons propagating directly. Clearly, $`n`$-point functions such as the fully-interacting quark-antiquark $`M(x_1,\mathrm{},x_4)`$ and three-quark scattering amplitudes $`H(x_1,\mathrm{},x_6)`$, which are related to meson and baryon observables, may be more interesting to explore. However, the self-coupled nature of the Dyson-Schwinger equations entails that these four-point and six-point functions are related to other $`n`$-point functions including the two-point dressed quark and gluon propagators $`S(x_1x_2)`$ and $`D_{\mu \nu }(x_1x_2)`$. Understanding the nature of this set of coupled, non-linear integral equations is a daunting task, but advances are continually being made. In the following, a summary of some of the most recent advances is provided.

One traces the study of the DSEs of QCD back to 1950s and 1960’s. These studies were crucial to understanding connections between field theories and observables, but applications to hadron phenomena were only moderately successful due to the lack of computational power available at the time. In the 1980’s, models formulated using the DSEs to describe the quark dynamics within hadrons, were found to provide good and compact descriptions of the light pseudoscalar and vector mesons. After these early phenomenological success, there followed a period of theoretical studies of the DSEs which explored the role of gluons, gauge invariance and confinement, which continues to this day Fischer ; GluonDSE .

However, since the mid 1990’s, much focus has turned to the study of physical processes which now permeates almost every subfield of hadron physics including: chiral physics and pion decays Review , $`\pi \pi `$ scattering Cotanch , electromagnetic form factors of the light pseudoscalar Tandy  and light-vector meson octets Hawes , inelastic scattering and quark-parton distributions Hecht , high-energy diffractive electroproduction and hadron scattering Lee , finite temperature studies of QCD Schmidt , exotic mesons BurdenPichowsky , baryon bound states, their properties and electromagnetic form factors Nucleon , low-energy meson photo-production Ahlig , and many others.

Yet, a complete understanding of some theoretical aspects of the framework has proven elusive. These unresolved questions include: How does one construct systematic and convergent expansions for the kernels of the DSEs? Are DSE and lattice QCD studies complementary approaches to the study of QCD phenomena? How does one calculate observables in Minkowski space from a quantum field theory based in Euclidean space? In the following, I give a brief account of recent studies that provide some answers to these questions. Finally, I report on an application of DSEs to exotic mesons.

## II Robustness of Truncation Schemes

The simplest DSE is the Dyson equation,

$`S^1(p)=Z_2(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda })i\gamma p+Z_4(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda })m(\zeta )`$ (1)
$`+Z_1(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda }){\displaystyle ^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}^4q}{(2\pi )^4}}g^2D_{\mu \nu }(pq){\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^a}{2}}\gamma _\mu S(q)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu ^a(q,p),`$
which gives the dressed quark propagator $`S(p)`$. In Eq. (1), $`\lambda ^a`$ for $`a=1,\mathrm{},8`$ are the Gell-Mann SU(3)-color matrices, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu ^a(q,p)`$ is the dressed quark-gluon vertex and $`m(\zeta )`$ is the current quark mass. A translation-invariant regularization scheme with scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is employed to render the integral finite. The dressed quark propagator is of the form,

$$S(p)=\frac{Z(p^2)}{i\gamma p+M(p^2)},$$
(2)
where $`Z(p^2)`$ is the quark wave-function renormalization and $`M(p^2)`$ is the running quark mass. The dependence of Eq. (1) on the ultraviolet scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is removed by renormalizing at $`p^2=\zeta ^2`$, subject to the boundary conditions $`Z(\zeta ^2)=1`$ and $`M(\zeta ^2)=m(\zeta )`$, and absorbing the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-dependence into the multiplicative-renomalization constants $`Z_i(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

The dressed quark propagator is determined from Eq. (1) only after the dressed gluon propagator $`D_{\mu \nu }(pq)`$ and dressed quark-gluon vertex $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu ^i(q,p)`$ are known. However, these two- and three-point functions are solutions of their own DSEs, which in turn depend on still higher $`n`$-point functions. This is the infinitely-coupled nature of the DSEs, making it impossible to obtain a complete solution of QCD directly.

In phenomenological applications, one may proceed by making assumptions regarding some subset of $`n`$-point functions such that the DSEs are reduced to a closed system of equations which may be solved directly. The simplest of such truncation schemes is the rainbow approximation. It is equivalent to making the substitution,

$`Z_1(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda })g^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\nu ^a(q,p){\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^a}{2}}\gamma _\nu V\left((qp)^2\right),`$ (3)
in Eq. (1), where $`V(k^2)`$ is an effective quark-gluon vertex. The exact dressed quark-gluon vertex depends on eight distinct Dirac-$`\gamma `$ matrices and on three variables $`q^2`$, $`p^2`$ and $`qp`$, while the effective vertex in Eq. (3) maintains a single Dirac-$`\gamma `$ matrix and depends on $`(qp)^2`$ only.

Assuming a given form for the dressed gluon propagator $`D_{\mu \nu }(k)`$ and effective vertex $`V(k^2)`$, the quark propagator can be calculated from Eq. (1). Then, one considers how a quark and antiquark combine to form a meson. This is described by the homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE),

$$\lambda (P^2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(p;P)=^\mathrm{\Lambda }\frac{\mathrm{d}^4q}{(2\pi )^4}K(p,q;P)S(q_+)\mathrm{\Gamma }(q;P)S(q_{}),$$
(4)
where $`K(q,p;P)`$ is the two-particle irreducible $`q\overline{q}`$ scattering kernel, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(p;P)`$ is the BS amplitude, and $`q_\pm =q\pm P/2`$ are the momenta of the quark and antiquark. This can be solved for any value of meson momentum $`P`$, but when the eigenvalue $`\lambda (P^2)=1`$, Eq. (4) predicts the existence of a bound state meson with mass $`m=\sqrt{P^2}`$.

One can show that when the rainbow approximation is employed in Eq. (1), the ladder approximation for the Bethe-Salpeter kernel,

$$K(q,p;p)\frac{\lambda ^i}{2}\gamma _\mu \frac{\lambda ^i}{2}\gamma _\nu D_{\mu \nu }(qp)V((qp)^2),$$
(5)
must be employed in order to satisfy the axial-vector Ward-Takahashi identity and Goldstone theorem Bender . (A review may be found in LABEL:Review.) Furthermore, it can be argued that the rainbow-ladder approximation represents the zeroth order term in a systematic series of approximations that preserve the Goldstone theorem. However, what is truly amazing is that this series of truncations converges at a surprisingly rapid rate Bender ; Detmold !

To illustrate how such truncations might converge, one compares solutions for the dressed quark propagator, and $`\pi `$\- and $`\rho `$-meson masses obtained using the ladder-rainbow truncations to those obtained when higher-order terms are maintained in Eqs. (3) and (5). In LABEL:Detmold, this comparison was carried out using a simple model for the dressed gluon propagator $`D_{\mu \nu }(qp)`$. The quark-gluon vertex was dressed by a one-gluon loop, two-gluon loops and then with infinitely-many-gluon loops (using a recursive technique). The BSE kernel was constructed using the approach outlined in LABEL:Bender, which ensured that the Goldstone theorem and axial-vector Ward-Takahashi identity were maintained at each level of the truncation.

The study demonstrates that $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ meson bound state masses are well-described by the rainbow-ladder approximation without significant change when dressing of the quark-gluon vertex is included Detmold . (In retrospect, this explains the success enjoyed by the many studies of light pseudoscalar and vector mesons which have employed the ladder-rainbow approximation.) The study also found that deeper in the time-like region, the dressing of the quark-gluon vertex may become more significant, but is still well-approximated by including only one-gluon or two-gluon loops; that is, results for the quark propagator and the BSE obtained by using the recursively dressed quark-gluon vertex were very similar to results obtained using just two-gluon loops to dress the quark-gluon vertex Detmold .

The conclusion to be drawn from this study is that there is a systematic method for improving truncation schemes employed in phenomenological studies that allows a quantitative measure of their robustness. This achievement is quite important and represents a leap forward in the use of Dyson-Schwinger equations as a phenomenological tool. However, there is no free ride. Not all channels are equally robust or insensitive to the truncation schemes. Rather, pseudoscalar and vector channels are particularly stable in this respect. There are other channels for which the inclusion of dressings arising from a higher number of gluons has significant impact. Examples of such channels are the scalar and vector colored-diquark channels Bender ; Detmold . Therefore, in practice one should check each channel of interest to verify that results are stable under changes to the level of truncation employed.

## III Connection to Calculation on the Lattice

The similarities between studies of DSEs and numerical simulations of QCD on the lattice are clear Fischer ; Maris ; Jarecke . Both explore QCD from its Lagrangian in terms of quarks and gluon degrees of freedom and both are formulated using the Euclidean metric where the square of the momentum $`p^2=p_\mu p_\mu =pp`$ = $`_{i=1}^4p_i^2>0`$ is space-like. In principle, one might be able to compare results obtained from lattice QCD simulations to those obtained from the DSEs directly. In particular, lattice results may be used as input for DSE calculations or might provide further tests of the robustness of truncation schemes. Alternatively, Dyson-Schwinger studies may provide additional insights into the role of some symmetries damaged by lattice QCD simulations; for example, it is possible to use the Dyson equation (1) to extrapolate lattice results for the quark propagator to the chiral limit of vanishing quark mass.

This was carried out recently BPRT  using a parametrization of the Landau-gauge dressed gluon propagator $`D_{\mu \nu }(k)`$ obtained from a lattice QCD simulation Gluon , and a simplified form of the dressed quark-gluon vertex of the form Eq. (3) and parametrized by

$$V(k^2)=\left(1+\frac{a(m(\zeta ))}{k^2}\right)\left(1+\frac{b}{k^2}\right)^1+\mathrm{},$$
(6)
where logarithmic perturbative-QCD corrections have been suppressed, $`a`$ and $`b`$ are parameters determined by using this vertex and the lattice gluon propagator $`D_{\mu \nu }(k)`$ in Eq. (1) to fit the dressed quark propagator functions $`Z(p^2)`$ and $`M(p^2)`$. The resulting running quark mass functions $`M(p^2)`$ are compared to those obtained from the lattice simulation Bowman  for a collection of current quark masses $`m(\zeta )=`$ 27, 50 and 102 MeV, as shown by the upper three curves in the left panel of Fig. 1. Self-consistency with lattice results required a dressed quark-gluon vertex that depends on the current quark mass, $`a(m)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_g^2(1+7(m/\mathrm{\Lambda }_g)`$ $`+125(m/\mathrm{\Lambda }_g)^2)^1`$ and $`b=0.005\mathrm{\Lambda }_g^2`$, where $`\zeta =`$ 19 GeV and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_g=`$ 1020$`\pm `$100 MeV is a scale associated with the gluon propagator.

The agreement between the mass functions calculated on the lattice and from the DSE (1) is excellent for all finite values of the current quark mass $`m(\zeta )`$. Having parametrized the dependence on the current quark mass, we can then use this model to calculate the corresponding dressed quark propagator in the chiral limit $`Z_4(\zeta ,\mathrm{\Lambda })m(\zeta )0`$. The result is shown as the dotted curve in the left panel of Fig. 1. Because of numerical difficulties, it is impossible at present for the lattice to simulate the chiral limit. However, a simple, linear extrapolation of the running quark mass function $`M(p^2)`$ may be performed. The result of such an extrapolation Bowman  is depicted by circles (lower data set) in Fig. 1. Clearly, the dotted curve fails to reproduce the linearly extrapolated lattice results for $`M(p^2)`$.

This disagreement is caused by having employed too simple a form for the dressed quark-gluon vertex in Eq. (3), or from the inadequacy of a linear extrapolation of lattice data to the chiral limit. Using the Gell-Mann–Oakes–Renner relation as a check on self-consistency of the DSE approach suggests the latter may be true BPRT . Reconciliation of these approaches requires additional investigation, but it is clear that such comparisons are important and will provide new insights for both Dyson-Schwinger and lattice communities in the future.

## IV Analytic Continuation into Minkowski Space

Another issue, which has received less attention than those discussed above, concerns the mechanism by which a quantum field theory, formulated in Euclidean space, is related to hadron observables in Minkowski space. Analytic continuation is the method by which observables in Minkowski space are obtained from the Euclidean amplitudes or Green functions. For example, the $`\rho `$-meson bound state mass $`m_\rho `$ corresponds to finding the value of $`P^2`$ for which the BSE (4) eigenvalue $`\lambda (P^2=m_\rho ^2)=1`$. Since the Dyson-Schwinger framework is defined for Euclidean momenta $`P^2>0`$, one must analytically continue the Bethe-Salpeter eigenvalue $`\lambda (P^2)`$ to time-like momenta $`P^2=m_\rho ^2<0`$.

One way in which this process of analytic continuation may be understood is by allowing the fourth component of the Euclidean vector $`P_\mu `$ to become complex $`P_4iE`$ where $`E>0`$. As a result of this continuation, during the integration over the (Euclidean) relative-quark momentum $`q_\mu `$, the arguments of the quark propagators $`q_\pm ^2=q^2+iEq_4E^2/4`$ sweep out a parabolic region of the complex momentum plane, whose maximum width is proportional to the meson’s energy $`E=m_\rho `$. To accomplish this, one must know the behavior of the quark propagator $`S(q)`$ within this parabolic region of the complex momentum plane. For light pseudoscalar ($`\pi `$ and $`K`$) mesons, the excursion into the complex plane is minor and so is easy to handle. For the light vector mesons ($`\rho `$, $`\omega `$, $`K^{}`$ and $`\varphi `$), this process can still be carried out by means of straight-forward techniques, albeit numerically intensive MarisTandy . However, for mesons with masses significantly greater than 1 GeV, one may encounter poles and/or cuts in the quark propagator during this process of analytic continuation.

It has long been thought that the dressed quark propagator may contain complex-conjugate pairs of singularities and/or cuts in the complex-momentum plane Gribov . To explore how one might carry out an analytic continuation of the BSE (4) in this event, we considered a simple model form for $`S(q)`$ given by $`N`$ pairs of complex-conjugate poles,

$$S(q)=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left(\frac{z_n}{i\gamma q+m_n}+\frac{z_n^{}}{i\gamma q+m_n^{}}\right),$$
(7)
where $`m_n`$ are complex-valued mass scales and $`z_n`$ are complex-valued magnitudes BPT .

For the simple form given in Eq. (7) and a phenomenologically successful BSE kernel MarisTandy , it was shown that one can deform the contour integrations thereby avoiding quark singularities, a necessary step to obtain the analytically continued eigenvalue $`\lambda (P^2)`$ for all values of momenta $`\mathrm{}<P^2<+\mathrm{}`$ BPT . The $`P^2`$ dependence of the resulting eigenvalue for the ground-state vector meson is shown as a solid curve in the right panel of Fig. 2. For comparison, the dashed curve in Fig. 2 was obtained by completely ignoring the need to deform the contour around poles when carrying out the integration in the BSE (4); as this is not the correct implementation of analytic continuation, the resulting dashed curve is not correct. The two curves are in perfect agreement for momenta $`P^2>4\mathrm{R}\mathrm{e}(m_1^2)`$, where $`m_1`$ is the lightest quark mass parameter from Eq. (7). For such momenta, no quark singularities are encountered during the integration and so, the curves coincide here. For momenta more time-like than this, the two curves diverge and the solid curve is the correct analytically-continued eigenvalue $`\lambda (P^2)`$. The ground state vector meson mass $`m_\rho `$ is the solution of $`\lambda (P^2=m_\rho ^2)=1`$.

The Dyson-Schwinger framework is a renormalizable, Euclidean approach to the study of QCD. As such, one makes contact with observables by analytically continuing obtained amplitudes into Minkowski space. Using recently developed numerical methods, one can perform analytic continuations of the BSE, even in the presence of singularities in the quark propagators BPT . We now have the means to explore meson and baryon bound states of much heavier masses than previously possible.

## V Exotic Mesons from the Bethe-Salpeter Equation

Before summarizing, I provide one example of a simple model calculation of the meson spectrum. Studies of hadrons (both baryons and mesons) within the Dyson-Schwinger framework are too numerous to describe adequately in the space provided here. An extensive review, appearing recently, provides an excellent summary of the current status of such studies Review . Rather than reiterate aspects of these studies, I give a brief accounting of a recent study of exotic mesons not covered therein.

The most famous of exotic mesons is probably the $`\pi _1(1400)`$, the iso-vector, vector meson with positive charge-conjugation parity and quantum numbers $`J^{PC}=1^+`$. The classification of “exotic” belongs to those mesons with quantum numbers that can not be constructed as a quark-antiquark state. A quark-antiquark state $`|q\overline{q}`$ with relative spin $`S`$ and angular momentum $`L`$ will have a spatial parity $`P=(1)^{L+1}`$ and charge-conjugation parity of $`C=(1)^{L+S}`$. To generate such a state, one must include additional degrees of freedom. In the quark model, this may be accomplished by introducing either constituent gluons or flux-tube excitations or perhaps, by considering composite systems like $`|\overline{q}\overline{q}qq`$.

In a quantum field theoretic framework, such particles are generated by constructing operators with the desired $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ quantum numbers. One such operator is $`\overline{\psi }(x)\stackrel{}{\gamma }D_4\psi (x)`$ where $`\psi (x)`$ is the quark field and $`D_4`$ is the fourth component of the covariant derivative $`D_\mu =_\mu +igA_\mu `$ BurdenPichowsky . The first part of this operator may be used to project out the exotic meson bound state solution from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Predictions for the masses of two exotic vector mesons were obtained BurdenPichowsky  using the simple separable model BQRTT  which provides an excellent description of the light pseudoscalar, vector and axial-vector meson spectra as shown in Fig. 3. One exotic pseudoscalar and two exotic vector mesons are predicted.

## VI Summary

Recent theoretical advances are putting the Dyson-Schwinger framework on firmer ground and in closer contact with complementary frameworks, such as lattice QCD simulations. Future studies will continue to increase our ability to use this framework as a phenomenological tool for exploring the dynamics of quarks and gluons in hadron processes.

Acknowledgements:  This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under contract number PHY-0071361. Some original work reported herein resulted from collaborations with M.S. Bhagwat and P.C. Tandy.