An effective Lagrangian with broken scale and chiral symmetry IV: Nucleons and mesons at finite temperature

We study the finite temperature properties of an effective chiral Lagrangian which describes nuclear matter. Thermal fluctuations in both the nucleon and the meson fields are considered. The logarithmic and square root terms in the effective potential are evaluated by expansion and resummation with the result written in terms of the exponential integral and the error function, respectively. In the absence of explicit chiral symmetry breaking a phase transition restores the symmetry, but when the pion has a mass the transition is smooth. The nucleon and meson masses as a functions of density and temperature are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.