Masses of hadrons in nuclei

Abstract

We emphasize the central role played by the spectral function in the description of hadrons in matter and discuss the applicability of the quasiparticle concept to the propagation of hadrons in dense nuclear matter. Theoretical and experimental results relevant for the in medium properties of vector mesons and kaons are briefly reviewed. We also present novel results for the $ρ$ and $ω$ spectral functions in nuclear matter, deduced from a coupled channel analysis of pion-nucleon scattering data.