Effective nucleon masses in symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter.

The momentum and isospin dependence of the in-medium nucleon mass are studied. Two definitions of the effective mass, i.e., the Dirac mass m*D and the nonrelativistic mass m*NR which parametrizes the energy spectrum, are compared. Both masses are determined from relativistic Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations. The nonrelativistic mass shows a distinct peak around the Fermi momentum. The proton-neutron mass splitting in isospin asymmetric matter is m*D,nm*NR,p, which is consistent with nonrelativistic approaches.

Medium modifications of kaons in pion matter.

Kaon in-medium masses and mean-field potentials are calculated in isotopically symmetric pion matter to one loop of chiral perturbation theory. The results are extended to BNL RHIC temperatures using experimental data on piK scattering phase shifts. The kaon in-medium broadening results in an acceleration of the phi-->K(-)K decay. The increased apparent dilepton branching of the phi mesons, observed recently by the NA50, NA49, and PHENIX Collaborations at RHIC, is interpreted in terms of rescattering of secondary kaons inside the pion matter.