rho-mass modification in He-3: Signal of restoration of chiral symmetry ortest for nuclear matter models? art. no. 018202

Two recent experiments have demonstrated that the effective p-mass in nucle ar medium, as extracted from the He-3(gamma,pi(+)pi(-)) reaction, is substa ntially reduced. This has been advocated as an indication of partial restor ation of chiral symmetry in nuclear matter. We show that even in the absenc e of chiral symmetry, effective mean field nuclear matter models can explai n these findings quantitatively. [S0556-2813(99)01407-7].