# Matter-induced 𝜔→𝜋⁢𝜋 decayResearch supported by PRAXIS grants XXI/BCC/429/94 and PRAXIS/P/FIS/12247/1998, and by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research grant 2P03B-080-12.

<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>institutetext: H. Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, PL-31342 Kraków, Poland, <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>email: broniows@solaris.ifj.edu.pl, florkows@solaris.ifj.edu.pl<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>institutetext: Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Coimbra, P-3000 Coimbra, Portugal, <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>email: brigitte@malaposta.fis.uc.pt (Received: date / Revised version: date)  

## Abstract

We calculate the width for the $`\omega \pi \pi `$ decay in nuclear matter in a hadronic model including mesons, nucleons and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobars. We find a substantial width of the longitudinally polarized $`\omega `$ modes, reaching $`100`$MeV for mesons moving suitably fast with respect to the nuclear medium.

The dilepton measurements in the CERES ceres  and HELIOS helios  experiments have indicated that the masses and/or widths of light vector mesons undergo large modifications in nuclear matter. Clearly, since the mesons interact strongly with the medium, this fact is not at all surprising. Indeed, in-medium modifications of hadron properties are predicted in a variety of theoretical calculations brscale ; celenza ; hatlee ; jean ; cassing ; li ; hatsuda ; rapp ; pirner ; klingl ; leupold ; eletsky ; friman2 ; bratko  (for a recent review see hadrons ; tsukuba ). An interesting factor brought in by the presence of the medium is that processes which are forbidden in the vacuum by symmetry principles are now made possible. The constraints of Lorentz-invariance, $`G`$-parity, or isospin invariance in isospin-asymmetric media dutt ; rhoom , are no longer effective. An example of such an “exotic” phenomenon which becomes possible and significant in the presence of nuclear matter is the decay of $`\omega \pi \pi `$. This process is, apart for small isospin-violation effect, forbidden in the vacuum.<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1In the vacuum the partial width for the decay $`\omega \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ is only $`0.2\mathrm{MeV}`$, and is due to the small isospin breaking and the resulting $`\rho \omega `$ mixing. In this paper we are not concerned with this negligible effect. In this paper we show that the matter-induced width for this process is large. For $`\omega `$ moving with respect to the medium with a momentum above $`200\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ (such momenta are easily accessible in heavy-ion collisions) the corresponding width, at the nuclear saturation density, is of the order of 100MeV. In addition, we find very different behavior of the longitudinally and transversely polarized $`\omega `$ mesons, with the former ones being much wider than the latter ones.

Our calculation is made in the framework of an effective hadronic theory. Mesons interact with the nucleons and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobars, and the interactions are assumed to have the usual form used in many other calculations and fits. We work to the leading order in the nuclear density. Based on the experience of other in-medium calculations we hope that this approximation should be sufficient up to densities of the order of the nuclear saturation density. To this leading order only the diagrams shown in Fig. 1 contribute. In these diagrams the nucleon lines include the propagation of occupied states of the Fermi sea. The “bubble” diagram (a) has been analyzed by Wolf, Friman, and Soyeur in Ref. wolf , where the role of the $`\omega \sigma `$ mixing mechanism has been pointed out. In this process the $`\omega `$ meson is first converted, via interaction with the nucleons, into the scalar-isoscalar $`\sigma `$ meson, which in turn decays into two pions. The relevance of “triangle” diagrams (b) has been shown out in Ref. bfh . Note that in any formal counting scheme (low density, chiral limit, large number of colors) the diagrams (a) and (b) are of the same order and consistency requires to include both. Our present calculation of $`\omega \pi \pi `$ in nuclear matter includes a further contribution of diagrams (c-d) with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(1232) isobar. Among other possible resonances, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the most important one due to the large value of the $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vertex and small $`\mathrm{\Delta }N`$ mass splitting.

The solid line in Fig. 1 denotes the in-medium nucleon propagator, which can be conveniently decomposed in the free and density parts chin 

$`G(k)G_F(k)+G_D(k)`$ (1)   
$`=(\overline{)}k+M)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{k^2M^2+i\epsilon }}+{\displaystyle \frac{i\pi }{E_k}}\delta (k_0E_k)\theta (k_F|𝐤|)\right],`$   
where $`k`$ is the nucleon four-momentum, $`M`$ denotes the nucleon mass, $`E_k=\sqrt{M^2+𝐤^2}`$, and $`k_F`$ is the Fermi momentum. The diagram (a) is non-zero only when one propagator is $`G_D`$, and the other one $`G_F`$. The only non-vanishing contributions in diagram (b) involve one $`G_D`$ propagator and two $`G_F`$ propagators. Diagram (a) involves the intermediate $`\sigma `$-meson propagator, which we take in the form

$$G_\sigma (k)=\frac{1}{k^2m_\sigma ^2+im_\sigma \mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma \frac{1}{4}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^2}.$$
(2)   
Here the mass and the width of the $`\sigma `$ meson are chosen in such a way that they reproduce effectively the experimental $`\pi \pi `$ scattering length at $`q^2=m_\omega ^2=(780\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2`$, which is the relevant kinematic point for the process at hand. From this fit we find $`m_\sigma =789`$MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma =237`$MeV. Note that $`m_\omega `$ and $`m_\sigma `$ are very close to each other, which enhances the amplitude obtained from diagram (a) wolf .

The double line in diagrams (c-d) denotes the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ propagator

$`G_\mathrm{\Delta }^{\alpha \beta }(k)={\displaystyle \frac{\overline{)}k+M_\mathrm{\Delta }}{k^2M_\mathrm{\Delta }^2+iM_\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }\frac{1}{4}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }^2}}`$ (3)   
$`\times \left[g^{\alpha \beta }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\gamma ^\alpha \gamma ^\beta +{\displaystyle \frac{2k^\alpha k^\beta }{3M_\mathrm{\Delta }^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma ^\alpha k^\beta \gamma ^\alpha k^\beta }{3M_\mathrm{\Delta }}}\right].`$   
This formula corresponds to the usual Rarita-Schwinger definition rarita ; mukho  with the denominator modified in order to account for the finite width of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }=120`$MeV.

We assume that the $`\omega NN`$ and $`\omega \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vertices have the form which follows from the minimum-substitution prescription and vector-meson dominance applied to the nucleon and the Rarita-Schwinger rarita  Lagrangians:

$`V_{\omega NN}^\mu =g_\omega \gamma ^\mu ,`$ (4)   
$`V_{\omega \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }}^{\mu \alpha \beta }=g_\omega \left[\gamma ^\mu g^{\alpha \beta }+g^{\alpha \mu }\gamma ^\beta +g^{\beta \mu }\gamma ^\alpha +\gamma ^\alpha \gamma ^\mu \gamma ^\beta \right].`$   
Possible anomalous couplings can be incorporated at the expense of having more parameters. The results presented below do not depend qualitatively on the form of the coupling, as long as it remains strong. The coupling constant $`g_\omega `$ can be estimated from the vector dominance model. We use $`g_\omega =9`$. For the $`\pi NN`$ vertex we use the pseudoscalar coupling, with the coupling constant $`g_{\pi NN}=`$ $`12.7`$. The same value is used for $`g_{\sigma NN}`$. The $`\sigma \pi \pi `$ coupling constant is taken to be equal to $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }=12.8m_\pi `$, where $`m_\pi =139.6\mathrm{MeV}`$ is the physical pion mass (this value follows from the fit done to $`\pi \pi `$ scattering phase shifts done in Ref. wolf ). The $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vertex has the form $`V_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}^\mu =(f_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}/m_\pi )p^\mu \stackrel{}{T}`$, where $`p^\mu `$ is the pion momentum, $`\stackrel{}{T}`$ is the $`\frac{1}{2}\frac{3}{2}`$ isospin transition matrix, and the coupling constant $`f_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}=2.1`$ durso .<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2There is another possible structure in the $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coupling, of the form $`a\overline{)}p\gamma ^\mu `$. Our vertex corresponds to the popular choice of the off-shell parameter $`a`$ set to zero.

The amplitude, evaluated according to the diagrams depicted in Fig. 1 (a-d) can be uniquely decomposed in the following Lorentz-invariant way:

$`=ϵ^\mu (Ap_\mu +Bu_\mu +Cq_\mu ),`$ (5)   
where $`p`$ is the four-momentum of one of the pions, $`q`$ is the four-momentum of the $`\omega `$ meson, $`u`$ is the four-velocity of nuclear matter, and $`ϵ`$ specifies the polarization of $`\omega `$. Our calculation is performed in the rest frame of nuclear matter, where $`u=(1,0,0,0)`$. In this reference frame the amplitude $``$ vanishes for vanishing 3-momentum $`𝐪`$, as requested by rotational invariance. Hence, the process $`\omega \pi \pi `$ occurs only when the $`\omega `$ moves with respect to the medium.

The expression for the decay width reads

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}3{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n_s}}{\displaystyle \underset{s}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2q_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^32p_0}\frac{d^3p^{}}{(2\pi )^32p_0^{}}}`$   
$`\times ||^2(2\pi )^4\delta ^{(4)}(qpp^{}),`$ (6)   
where the factor $`\frac{1}{2}`$ is the symmetry factor when the decay proceeds into two neutral pions, the factor of $`3`$ accounts for the isospin degeneracy of the final pion states (*i.e.* neutral and charged pions), $`n_s`$ is the number of spin states of the $`\omega `$ meson, and $`_s`$ denotes the sum over these spin states ($`q`$ , $`p`$ and $`p^{}=qp`$ are the four-momenta of the $`\omega `$ meson, and the two pions, respectively).

We take the effort to analyze separately the longitudinally and transversely polarized $`\omega `$, since the presence of the medium results in different behavior of these states. Transversely polarized $`\omega `$ has two helicity states ($`n_s=2`$), with projections $`s=\pm 1`$ on the direction of $`𝐪`$, and the longitudinally polarized $`\omega `$ has one helicity state ($`n_s=1`$), with the corresponding projection $`s=0`$. An explicit calculation yields

$`{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm 1}{}}\epsilon _{(s)}^\mu \epsilon _{(s)}^\nu T^{\mu \nu }=`$   
$`={\displaystyle \frac{(q^\mu quu^\mu )(q^\nu quu^\nu )}{qq(qu)^2}}g^{\mu \nu }+u^\mu u^\nu ,`$   
$`\epsilon _{(s=0)}^\mu \epsilon _{(s=0)}^\nu L^{\mu \nu }=`$   
$`={\displaystyle \frac{(q^\mu quu^\mu )(q^\nu quu^\nu )}{qq(qu)^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^\mu q^\nu }{qq}}u^\mu u^\nu .`$ (7)   
The tensors $`T^{\mu \nu }`$ and $`L^{\mu \nu }`$ are defined in such a way that they are projection operators. In addition, $`T^{\mu \nu }q_\nu =0`$ and $`L^{\mu \nu }q_\nu =0`$, which reflects current conservation, and $`T^{\mu \nu }u_\nu =0`$. From relations (5) and (7) in Eq. (6) we find that

$`|_T|^2=|A|^2p_\mu (T^{\mu \nu })p_\nu ,`$ (8)   
$`|_L|^2=(A^{}p_\mu +B^{}u_\mu )(L^{\mu \nu })(Ap_\nu +Bu_\nu ).`$   
Note that the value of the coefficient $`C`$ is irrelevant for our calculation. For the diagram (a) we find $`A=0,`$ $`B0,`$ hence this diagram contributes only to the width of the longitudinal mode. Diagrams (b-d) have $`A0,`$ $`B0,`$ and contribute to the width of both the longitudinal and transverse modes.

As we have said, we evaluate the amplitude $``$ to leading order in the baryon density. This leads to a simplification. The integrals of the form $`_0^{k_F}k^2𝑑kf(k)`$ arising in our calculation are replaced by $`f(0)_0^{k_F}k^2𝑑k`$, which is proportional to baryon density, $`\rho _B`$. Consequently, the widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{L,T}`$ $`\rho _B^2`$.

In Fig. 2 we present our numerical results at the nuclear saturation density, $`\rho _B=0.17\mathrm{fm}^3`$. We show $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^L`$ (solid lines) and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^T`$ (dashed lines) plotted as functions of $`|𝐪|`$. The upper part of the plot is for $`m_\omega ^{}=m_\omega =780\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$, i.e. the value of the $`\omega `$ mass is not modified by the medium. The lower part is for $`m_\omega ^{}=0.7m_\omega `$. In both cases we reduce the value of the in-medium nucleon mass to 70 % of its vacuum value, $`M^{}=0.7M,`$ which is a typical number at the nuclear saturation density. We also reduce by the same factor the mass of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, *i.e.* $`M_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=0.7M_\mathrm{\Delta }`$, since it is expected to behave similarly to the nucleon. The labels indicate which diagrams of Fig. 1 have been included. The complete result corresponds to the case (a-d). The case (a) reproduces the result of Ref. wolf . We note that the inclusion of subsequent processes of Fig. 1 substantially increases the result. All the curves start as $`𝐪^2`$ at low $`|𝐪|`$. The longitudinal width reaches a maximum at $`|𝐪|`$ a few hundred MeV, and the value at the peak is large: 250MeV for $`m_\omega ^{}=m_\omega `$ and 100MeV for $`m_\omega ^{}=0.7m_\omega `$. The transverse width is strictly zero with diagram (a), less than 1MeV with diagrams (a-b), reach a few MeV when the diagrams with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are included. Qualitatively similar results follow for other choices of parameters. One should bare in mind that the effect is proportional to $`\rho _B^2`$, hence may be much larger at higher densities.

Our main conclusions are: 1) nuclear matter induces the $`\omega \pi \pi `$ transitions with large partial widths, 2) the widths depend strongly on the three momentum of the $`\omega `$ with respect to the medium, $`|𝐪|`$, 3) the longitudinal mode is much wider than the transverse mode.

The results obtained mean that in a hadron gas, such as created in a heavy-ion collision, the propagation of longitudinally polarized $`\omega `$ meson is inhibited when the momentum $`|𝐪|`$ is nonzero. This will cause a depletion in the population of the $`\omega `$ mesons. Such effects should be included in Monte-Carlo simulations of heavy-ion collisions.

The important question is to what extent can the discussed process influence shape of the dilepton-production cross-sections in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Our results can be used to calculate the cross section for the $`\pi \pi `$ annihilation into dileptons occurring in the $`\omega `$ channel. This mechanism has been analyzed for the first time in Ref. wolf . The calculation of the annihilation cross section requires the knowledge of the same amplitude that has been used in the calculation of the omega width, see Fig. 3. In Ref. wolf  only the $`\omega \sigma `$ mixing term was included in this amplitude (diagram (a) of Fig. 1). In our present calculation we take into account additional diagrams shown in Figs. 1 (b) - (d). Moreover, we take into consideration differences in the propagation of the transverse and longitudinal modes, which is important due to the large difference observed in the widths.

The $`\pi \pi `$ annihilation cross section corresponding to Fig. 3, averaged over the incoming pion momenta at fixed total four-momentum $`q=(q^0,𝐪)`$, can be written in the compact form

$$\sigma =\frac{8\pi ^2q^0m_\omega ^4}{9q^2(q^2/4m_\pi ^2)}\left(\frac{\alpha }{g_\omega }\right)^2\left(2|G_\omega ^T|^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^T+|G_\omega ^L|^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^L\right),$$
(9)   
where

$$|G_\omega ^{T,L}|^2=\frac{1}{[q^2m_\omega ^2\frac{1}{4}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_0+\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L})^2]^2+m_\omega ^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_0+\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L})^2}$$
(10)   
is the modulus of the $`\omega `$ propagator squared. The widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^L`$ should be calculated in the way described above with the only difference that the physical mass of $`\omega `$ is now replaced by the invariant dilepton mass $`\sqrt{q^2}`$. The quantity $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ denotes the width of the $`\omega `$ at vanishing three momentum, which is due to other effects, such as $`\omega \pi \pi \pi `$. With $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_010\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ klingl  and our values for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L}`$ we obtain the cross section from Eq. (9), which is typically a fraction of a microbarn. This is to be compared to $`3.5\mu \mathrm{b}`$ from the decay via the $`\rho `$ resonance wolf . Note that large widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L}`$ in Eq. (9) do not increase $`\sigma `$, since they also appear in the denominator of Eq. (10). In fact, there are optimum widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L}\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ at which the cross section is the largest. A further increase of the widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{T,L}`$ decreases the cross section. At the point $`q^2=m_\omega ^2`$ and with our numbers from Fig. 2 we find that the contribution of the longitudinal modes to Eq. (9) is negligible, while the contribution from the transverse modes at $`|𝐪|=400\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ equals $`0.4\mu \mathrm{b}`$ for $`m_\omega ^{}=m_\omega `$ (where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^T=1.8\mathrm{MeV}`$), and $`1.4\mu \mathrm{b}`$ for $`m_\omega ^{}=0.7m_\omega `$ (where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^T=5\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$). We stress that the numbers quoted above are almost entirely due to the diagrams with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Without the processes (b-d) of Fig. 1 the dilepton production via mechanism of Fig. 3 would be about a factor of 10 smaller. In conclusion, the process of Fig. 3 may be significant for the dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions.

If the dilepton-production experiments measured the three-momentum $`𝐪`$ of the dilepton pair coming from a vector-meson decay, then they should observe different behavior at different values of $`|𝐪|`$. Such measurement would be very helpful for a better understanding of meson dynamics in the nuclear medium.

Our last remark refers to the final state interactions, which can be important durso . The pions emitted in processes of Fig. 1 can interact in the final channel. This will result in an appropriate modification the $`\omega \pi \pi `$ amplitude. The full analysis of the final-state interactions requires a model for the $`\pi \pi `$ scattering amplitude, as well as solving a Lipmann-Schwinger equation. This is beyond the scope of this paper. Note, however, that the diagram (a), which includes the intermediate $`\sigma `$ state, does in fact account for final-state interactions. In this process the pions form a resonance in the $`S`$-channel, which enhances the amplitude. Similar rescattering can also occur for the diagrams (b-d). Thus, the final-state interactions are only partially included in our analysis.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Bengt Friman for numerous valuable comments and for the suggestion to include the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the presented analysis.