Chiral Ward identities and pion propagation at finite temperature in the linear sigma model

Working within the linear sigma model at finite temperature, we construct effective one-loop vertices and propagators satisfying the chiral Ward identities, for small pion momentum and mass compared to the sigma mass. We obtain an expansion for the pion dispersion relation up to second order in the parameter m_pi^2/4pi^2f_pi^2. At leading order, this expansion reproduces the dispersion curve obtained in chiral perturbation theory. We also study pion damping and compute the mean free path for pions traveling in the medium before forming a sigma resonance. These results are also in good agreement with chiral perturbation theory when using a value for the sigma mass of 600 MeV.