Order of the Chiral Phase Transition in the σ Models

Abstract

The chiral phase transition at a certain critical temperature is a restoration mechanism of the chiral symmetry, broken by the nonzero mass of quarks and mesons. The transition can be studied through several models, among which are the σ models. An analysis is made on the linear and nonlinear σ models with different approximations, and we show that the transition is of second order in both cases.

Keywords

• Chiral phase transition
• σ model.