The width of the $ω$ meson in dense matter

Abstract

We obtain the width of the $ω$ meson in dense nuclear matter by taking into account (i) the free decay of the $ω$ into three pions, which is dominated by $ρπ$ mode, (ii) the processes induced by a vector-baryon interaction dominated by vector meson exchange, and (iii) the $ω\to K \bar K$ mechanism in matter. The $ω$ meson develops an important width in matter, coming from the dominant $ω\to ρπ$ decay mode, with a value of $121 \pm 10$ MeV at normal nuclear matter density for an $ω$ at rest. At finite momentum, the width of the $ω$ meson increases moderately with values of 200 MeV at 600 MeV/c.

5 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the proceedings of XV International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy (Hadron 2013) in Nara (Japan), November 4-8, 2013