Light and Strange Baryons in Medium

We solve the Goldstone-boson-exchange (GBE) relativistic constituent quark model of light and strange baryons by using the Faddeev approach. The model reproduces the vacuum mass spectrum of light and strange baryons below 2 GeV reasonably well. To test the sensitivity of the model to possible medium-induced effects, we vary the masses of the constituent quarks and the exchange bosons, the confinement strength, and the quark–meson coupling constant. In a parametric study, we consider a set of power-law scaling relations for these parameters, including some motivated by constituent quark-level current algebra relations. We find that the baryon spectrum is most sensitive to the quark–meson coupling constant, and generally observe a decrease in baryon mass with decreasing constituent quark mass. We qualitatively estimate the impact of these mass shifts on ideal-gas baryon yields and yield ratios. Absolute yields can already change significantly for mass shifts of a few 10 MeV, whereas yield ratios are strongly modified only when the compared baryons have different constituent quark mass dependence.