  We study the chiral symmetry in two-color QCD with N massless flavors at
finite temperature, using an effective theory. For the gauge group SU(2), the
chiral symmetry is enlarged to SU(2N), which is then spontaneously broken to
Sp(2N) at zero temperature. At finite temperature, and when the axial anomaly
can be neglected, we find a first order phase transition occurring for two or
more flavors. In the presence of instantons, the symmetry restoration
unambiguously remains first order for three or more massless flavors. These
results could be relevant for lattice studies of chiral symmetry at finite
temperature and density.
