Inhomogeneous phases near the chiral critical point in NJL-type models

Abstract: In this talk we discuss the role of inhomogeneous phases in the phase diagram of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and the quark meson (QM) model. By means of a generalized Ginzburg-Landau (GL) expansion it is concluded that the critical point in the mean-field phase diagram of the NJL model is in fact a Lifshitz point where homogeneous spontaneously broken, inhomogeneous and restored phases meet. This picture is confirmed by a mean-field calculation for inhomogeneous phases with a one-dimensional modulation. For the latter it is shown that recent results within lower dimensional models can be extended to 3+1 dimensions. Also the respective phase diagram for the QM model is presented.