Properties of strange vector mesons in dense and hot matter

Abstract: We investigate the in-medium properties of strange vector mesons ($K^*$ and $\bar K^*$) in dense and hot nuclear matter based on chirally motivated models of the meson selfenergies. We parameterise medium effects as density or temperature dependent effective masses and widths, obtain the vector meson spectral functions within a Breit-Wigner prescription (as often used in transport simulations) and study whether such an approach can retain the essential features of full microscopic calculations. For $\mu_B\ne 0$ the medium corrections arise from $\bar K^* (K^*) N$ scattering and the $\bar K^* (K^*) \to \bar K (K) \pi$ decay mode (accounting for in-medium $\bar K (K)$ dynamics). We calculate the scattering contribution to the $K^*$ selfenergy based on the hidden local symmetry formalism for vector meson nucleon interactions, whereas for the $\bar K^*$ selfenergy we implement recent results from a selfconsistent coupled-channel determination within the same approach. For $\mu_B\simeq 0$ and finite temperature we rely on a phenomenological approach for the kaon selfenergy in a hot pionic medium consistent with chiral symmetry, and evaluate the $\bar K^* (K^*) \to \bar K (K) \pi$ decay width. The emergence of a mass shift at finite temperature is studied with a dispersion relation over the imaginary part of the vector meson selfenergy.