Medium effects on the viscosities of a pion gas

Abstract

The bulk and shear viscosities of a pion gas is obtained by solving the relativistic transport equation in the Chapman-Enskog approximation. In-medium effects are introduced in the $\pi \pi$ cross-section through one-loop self-energies in the propagator of the exchanged $\rho$ and $\sigma$ mesons. The effect of early chemical freeze-out in heavy ion collisions is implemented through a temperature dependent pion chemical potential. These are found to affect the temperature dependence of the bulk and shear viscosities significantly.