Weinberg sum rules at finite temperature

Abstract

The saturation of the two Weinberg sum rules is studied at finite temperature, using recent independent QCD sum rule results for the thermal behaviour of hadronic parameters in the vector and axial-vector channels. Both sum rules are very well satisfied from $T=0$ up to $T/T_c \simeq 0.7-0.8$. At higher temperatures close to $T_c$ a hadronic, pion-loop contribution in the space-like region proportional to $T^2$, present at leading order in the vector but not in the axial-vector channel, induces an asymmetry leading to a small deviation. In this region, though, QCD sum rules for the hadronic parameters begin to have no solutions, as the hadronic widths of the $\rho$ and the $a_1$ mesons diverge signalling deconfinement. Close to, and at $T=T_c$ there are no pions left in the medium and chiral symmetry is restored, so that the sum rules are trivially satisfied.