The phase diagram at finite temperature and density is investigated in the framework of the Polyakov linear sigma model (PLSM) with three light quark flavors in the mean field approximation. It is found that in the PLSM, the three phase transitions, i.e. the chiral restoration of u, d quarks, the chiral restoration of s quark and the deconfinement phase transition, are independent. There exists a two-flavor quarkyonic phase at low-density and a three-flavor quarkyonic phase at high density. The critical end point (CEP) which separates the crossover from the first-order line in the PLSM model is located at (TE, μE) = (188 MeV, 139.5 MeV). In the transition region, the thermodynamic properties and the bulk viscosity over entropy density ratio ζ/s are also discussed in the PLSM.

We study the possible signals of a pion string associated with the QCD chiral phase transition in LHC Pb - Pb collision at energy $ \sqrt{s}=5.5$ TeV. In terms of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism we discuss the production and evolution of the pion string. The pion string is not topologically stable, it decays into neutral pions and sigma mesons which in turn decay into pions. Our results show that all the neutral pions from the pion string are distributed at the low momentum and the ratio of neutral to charged pions from the pion string violates the isospin symmetry. For the momentum spectra of the total pions, the signal from the sigma particle decay which is from the pion string will be affected by the large decay width of the sigma significantly.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, one reference added, title changed, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The Kagome superconductors AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) have received enormous attention due to their nontrivial topological electronic structure, anomalous physical properties and superconductivity. Unconventional charge density wave (CDW) has been detected in AV3Sb5. High-precision electronic structure determination is essential to understand its origin. Here we unveil electronic nature of the CDW phase in our high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements on KV3Sb5. We have observed CDW-induced Fermi surface reconstruction and the associated band folding. The CDW-induced band splitting and the associated gap opening have been revealed at the boundary of the pristine and reconstructed Brillouin zones. The Fermi surface- and momentum-dependent CDW gap is measured and the strongly anisotropic CDW gap is observed for all the V-derived Fermi surface. In particular, we have observed signatures of the electron-phonon coupling in KV3Sb5. These results provide key insights in understanding the nature of the CDW state and its interplay with superconductivity in AV3Sb5 superconductors.

The improved quark mass density-dependent model (IQMDD) based on soliton bag model is studied at finite temperature. Appling the finite temperature field theory, the effective potential of the IQMDD model and the bag constant B(T ) have been calculated at different temperatures. It is shown that there is a critical temperature TC ≃ 110MeV. We also calculate the soliton solutions of the IQMDD model at finite tmperature. It turns out that when T < TC , there is a bag constant B(T ) and the soliton solutions are stable. However, when T > TC the bag constant B(T ) = 0 and there is no soliton solution, therefore, the confinement of quarks are removed quickly.

The effect of finite isospin chemical potential to the effective masses of the mesons at finite temperature is investigated in the framework of the O(4) linear sigma model with explicit chiral symmetry breaking. We present a mechanism to include the isospin chemical potential in the model. By using the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis method of composite operators, we obtain a set gap equations for the effective masses of the mesons and get the numerical results in the Hartree approximation. We find that the introduction of the chemical potential only affects the mass of the charged pions and sigma, while there is almost NO effects on the mass of neutral pions.

In mean field approximation, we study a chiral soliton of the linear sigma model with two flavors at finite temperature and density. The stable soliton solutions are calculated with some appropriate boundary conditions. Energy and radius of the soliton are determined in a hot medium of constituent quarks. It is found that for $TT_c$, there is a sharp delocalization phase transition from hadron matter to quark matter coincident with the restoration of chiral symmetry. In the transition region, the thermodynamic properties show large discontinuities which is an indication for a first-order phase transition.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, version accepted for publication in Physical Review

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The documents on Metallothioneins (MTs) in aquatic creatures, especially focusing on their function as biomarkers in environmental monitoring programmes, are vast and increasing. There are, however, few papers to summary the physiological role of MTs in aquatic organisms especially on development. The multifaceted roles of MTs include involvement in homeostasis, protection against heavy metals and oxidant damages, and metabolic regulation, sequestration and/or redox control. In this paper, we have collected published information on MTs in aquatic organisms-pisces, amphibians, mammals, etc., and analyzed their function in these aquatic animals. MTs have four main functions in aquatic vertebrate. They are respectively bioaccumulation of toxic metals and detoxification, homeostatic regulation of metals, protection against oxidative stress and neuroprotective mechanism. MTs separate in different tissues and they have various distributions in different tissues of aquatic vertebrate, including liver, gills, kidney, testes, and brain. MTs can be induced by a variety of environmental and physiological factors, among which, heavy metals are the main kind of MTs inducers in aquatic vertebrate. Here we pay more attention on the essential metals copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) and the non-essential metals cadmium (Cd), silver (Ag), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg).