Remarks on the U(1) axial symmetry in QCD at zero and non-zero temperature

Abstract

This paper is organized in two parts. The first part (Sections 2-5) is dedicated to the theory at T=0 and contains a pedagogical review of some fundamental aspects related with the chiral symmetries of QCD, the U(1) problem and its solution proposed by 'tHooft, Witten and Veneziano. In the second part (Sections 6-14) we discuss the role of the U(1) axial symmetry for the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature. One expects that, above a certain critical temperature, also the U(1) axial symmetry will be restored. We will try to see if this transition has (or has not) anything to do with the usual chiral transition: various possible scenarios are discussed. In particular, we analyse a scenario in which the U(1) axial symmetry is still broken above the chiral transition. We will show that this scenario can be consistently reproduced in the full respect of the relevant QCD Ward Identities and also using an effective Lagrangian model. A new order parameter is introduced for the U(1) axial symmetry.