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Chiral symmetry restoration effects onto the meson spectrum from a Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter approach

Reinhard Alkofer1,*, Christian S. Fischer2,3,†, and Fabian Zierler4,5,6,‡

  • *Contact author: reinhard.alkofer@uni-graz.at
  • †Contact author: christian.fischer@theo.physik.uni-giessen.de
  • ‡Contact author: fabian.zierler@tum.de
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 094002 – Published 1 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q3kq-s8qn

Abstract

Light meson spectra are studied in a Dyson-Schwinger/Bethe-Salpeter approach to quantum chromodynamics (QCD). By varying the interaction strength of three sets of models for the quark-antiquark interaction, the transition from the chiral symmetric to the chirally broken regime in the vacuum is studied. The simplest type of these models leads to degenerate meson spectra for a large domain of the strength parameter. The more sophisticated and thus more realistic models show significantly smaller parameter domains for which degenerate meson spectra are obtained. The underlying mechanism for obtaining and then lifting degeneracies is traced back to the location of the quark propagators’ poles, in particular, whether they are beyond or within the domain of integration in the Bethe-Salpeter equation. In view of this mechanism the potential relation of the obtained degeneracies to the dynamical emergence of symmetries is discussed, adding thereby another point of view on the conjectured chiral spin symmetry of QCD in the temperature domain right above the crossover.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 094002– Published 1 May, 2026
  • Received 20 February 2026
  • Accepted 10 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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