Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 15: Heavy-Ion Collisions and QCD Phases II

HK 15.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 17:15–17:30, PHIL C 601

Dissecting the moat regime at low energies — •Shi Yin and Fabian Rennecke — Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16 D-35392 Giessen

Dense QCD matter can feature a moat regime, where the static energy of mesons is minimal at nonzero momentum. Valuable insights into this regime can be gained using low-energy models. This, however, requires a careful assessment of model artifacts. We therefore study the effects of renormalization and in-medium modifications of quark-meson interaction on the moat regime. To capture the main effects, we use a two-flavor quark-meson model at finite temperature and baryon density in the random phase approximation. We put forward a convenient renormalization scheme to account for the nontrivial momentum dependence of meson self-energies and discuss the role of renormalization conditions for renormalization group consistent results on the moat regime. In addition, we demonstrate and that its extent in the phase diagram critically depends on the interaction of quarks and mesons.

Keywords: QCD phase structure; Spatial modulation phase; Strong interaction