Preprint number: CP3-Origins-2011-10 and DIAS-2011-10
Authors: Claudio Pica (CP3-Origins), Francesco Sannino (CP3-Origins), and Ulrik I. Sondergaard (CP3-Origins)
External link: arXiv.org

We compute the finite-temperature and matter density corrections to the S-parameter at the one loop level. At non-zero temperature T and matter density μ Lorentz symmetry breaks and therefore we suggest a suitable generalization of the S-parameter. By computing the plasma correction, we discover a reduction of the S-parameter in the physically relevant region of small external momenta for any non-zero chemical potential and T. In particular, the S-parameter vanishes at small m/T, where m is the mass of the fermions, due to the finite extent of the temporal direction. Our results are directly applicable to the determination of the S-parameter via first principle lattice simulations performed with anti-periodic boundary conditions in the temporal direction.