We consider large N gauge theory on a two dimensional lattice in the presence of a baryonic chemical potential. We work with one copy of naive fermion and argue that reduction holds even in the presence of a chemical potential. Analytical arguments supported by numerical studies show that there is no phase transition as a function of the baryonic chemical potential.
We show how, contrary to physical intuition, thermal fluctuations of physical states having a non-vanishing baryonic number can be fully neglected in the thermodynamics of QCD at any physical temperature. We also discuss on the consistency between our results and the CPT theorem. The last part of this article is devoted to comment some interesting physical features which follow from this result.
We study the cold and dense regime in the phase diagram of two-color QCD with heavy quarks within a three-dimensional effective theory for Polyakov loops. This theory is derived from two-color QCD in a combined strong-coupling and hopping expansion. In particular, we study the onset of diquark density as the finite-density transition of the bosonic baryons in the two-color world. In contrast to previous studies of heavy dense QCD, our zero-temperature extrapolations are consistent with a continuous transition without binding energy. They thus provide evidence that the effective theory for heav…
In this paper, we calculate analytically the baryonic density and susceptibilities, which are sensitive probes to the fermionic degrees of freedom, in a holographic model of QCD both in its hot QGP phase and in its cold dense phase. Interesting patterns due to strong coupling dynamics will be shown and valuable lessons for QCD will be discussed.
We study the flux tube profile in the baryonic system in full QCD at finite temperature on $N_{t}=8$ lattice. We fix the maximally Abelian gauge and measure the monopole and the photon parts of the Abelian action density, the color electric field and the monopole current on both sides of the finite temperature transition. We demonstrate the disappearance of the flux tube in the high temperature phase.
The positivity of the integrand of certain Euclidean space functional integrals implies that the free energy per unit volume for QCD with a baryon chemical potential $μ_B$ (and zero isospin chemical potential) is greater than the free energy with isospin chemical potential $μ_I = (2 μ_B)/N_c$ (and zero baryon chemical potential). This relation implies a bound on the nucleon mass: there exists a particle X in QCD such that $M_N \ge (N_c m_X)/(2 I_X)$ where $m_X$ is the mass and of the particle and $I_X$ is its isospin.
We perform a numerical study of the systematic effects involved in the determination of the critical line at real baryonic chemical potential by analytic continuation from results obtained at imaginary chemical potentials. We present results obtained in theories free of the sign problem, such as two-color QCD with finite baryonic density and three-color QCD with finite isospin chemical potential, and comment on general features which could be relevant also to the continuation of the critical line in real QCD at finite baryonic density.
We study the distribution of color electric flux of the three-quark system in quenched and full QCD (with N_f = 2 flavors of dynamical quarks) at zero and finite temperature. To reduce ultra-violet fluctuations, the calculations are done in the abelian projected theory fixed to the maximally abelian gauge. In the confined phase we find clear evidence for a Y--shape flux tube surrounded and formed by the solenoidal monopole current, in accordance with the dual superconductor picture of confinement. In the deconfined, high temperature phase monopoles cease to condense, and the distribution of th…
The method of analytic continuation from imaginary to real chemical potentials $μ$ is one of the few available techniques to study QCD at finite temperature and baryon density. One of its most appealing applications is the determination of the critical line for small $μ$: we perform a direct test of the validity of the method in this case by studying two-color QCD, where the sign problem is absent. The (pseudo)critical line is found to be analytic around $μ^2 = 0$, but a very large precision would be needed at imaginary $μ$ to correctly predict the location of the critical line at real $μ$.
We study the thermodynamical phase structures of holographic QCD with nontrivial topologically charged domain-wall/membranes which are originally related to the multiple $θ$-vacua in the large $N_c$ limit. We realize the topologically charged membranes as the holographic D6-brane fluxes in the Sakai-Sugimoto model. The D6-brane fluxes couple to the probe D8-anti-D8 via Chern-Simon term, and act as the source for the baryonic current density of QCD. We find rich phase structures of the dual meson system by varying asymptotic separation of D8 and anti-D8. Especially, there can be a thermodynamic…
The QCD phase diagram at densities relevant to neutron stars remains elusive, mainly due to the fermion-sign problem. At the same time, a plethora of possible phases has been predicted in models. Meanwhile $G_2$-QCD, for which the $SU(3)$ gauge group of QCD is replaced by the exceptional Lie group $G_2$, does not have a sign problem and can be simulated at such densities using standard lattice techniques. It thus provides benchmarks to models and functional continuum methods, and it serves to unravel the nature of possible phases of strongly interacting matter at high densities. Instrumental i…
In $\mathcal{N}$=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory the superpartner of the gluon is the gluino, which is a spin 1/2 Majorana particle in the adjoint representation of the gauge group. Combining three gluinos, it is possible to form colour neutral bound states, analogous to baryons in QCD. The correlation functions of the corresponding baryonic operators contain a contribution represented by a `sunset diagram', and in addition, unlike in QCD, another contribution represented by a `spectacle diagram'. We present first results from an implementation and calculation of these objects, obtained fro…
The first principle lattice QCD methods allow to calculate the thermodynamic observables at finite temperature and imaginary chemical potential. These can be compared to the predictions of various phenomenological models. We argue that Fourier coefficients with respect to imaginary baryochemical potential are sensitive to modeling of baryonic interactions. As a first application of this sensitivity, we consider the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model with repulsive baryonic interactions, which are modeled by means of the excluded volume correction. The Fourier coefficients of the imaginary part o…
We determine the leading order mesonic~($B_0$ and $F_0$) and baryonic~($m_0$, $D$ and $F$) SU(3) chiral perturbation theory low energy constants from lattice QCD. We employ gauge ensembles with $N_f=3$ (i.e., $m_u=m_d=m_s$) non-perturbatively improved Wilson fermions at six distinct values of the lattice spacing in the range $a\approx (0.039 - 0.098)$ fm, which constitute a subset of the Coordinated Lattice Simulations (CLS) gauge ensembles. The pseudoscalar meson mass $M_π$ ranges from around $430$ MeV down to $240$ MeV and the linear spatial lattice extent $L$ from $6.4\,M_π^{-1}$ to $3.3\,M…
In a previous paper (JHEP {\bf 05} (2014) 27), we calculated the three-loop thermodynamic potential of QCD at finite temperature $T$ and quark chemical potentials $μ_q$ using the hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) reorganization of finite temperature and density QCD. The result allows us to study the thermodynamics of QCD at finite temperature and isospin chemical potential $μ_I$. We calculate the pressure, energy density, and entropy density, the trace anomaly, and the speed of sound at zero and nonzero $μ_I$. The second, fourth, and sixth-order isospin susceptibilities are calcula…
A recently proposed modified perturbation expansion for QCD is employed to evaluate the quark self-energies. Results of the order of 1/3 of the nucleon mass are obtained for the effective masses of the up and down quarks in a first approximation. Also, the predicted flavor dependence of the calculated quarks masses turns out to be the appropriate to well reproduce the spectrum of the ground states within the various groups of hadronic resonances through the simple addition of the evaluated constituent quark masses. The results suggests to conjecture that the modified expansion, after also intr…
The properties of hadron screening masses around the deconfinement phase transition at finite baryonic density can be studied by evaluating the Taylor coefficients with respect to the iso-scalar and iso-vector chemical potentials. We simulate 2-flavour lattice QCD with staggered fermions on a 12*12*24*6 lattice with ma = 0.05 and 0.10 and report investigations of nucleon, pseudo-scalar and vector mesons. We present new, strong evidence that in the confining phase, the screening masses at vanishing chemical potential have significant temperature dependence, but the effect of the iso-scalar chem…
We discuss the dependence of observables on the chemical potential in 't Hooft's large-N QCD. To this end we use the worldline formalism to expand the fermionic determinant in powers of 1/N. We consider the hadronic as well as the deconfining phase of the theory. We discuss the origin of the sign problem in the worldline approach and elaborate on the planar equivalence between QCD with a baryon chemical potential and QCD with an isospin chemical potential. We show that for C-even observables the sign problem occurs at a subleading order in the 1/N expansion of the fermionic determinant. Finall…
Recently, a non-Hermitian chiral random matrix model was proposed to describe the eigenvalues of the QCD Dirac operator at nonzero chemical potential. This matrix model can be constructed from QCD by mapping it to an equivalent matrix model which has the same symmetries as QCD with chemical potential. Its microscopic spectral correlations are conjectured to be identical to those of the QCD Dirac operator. We investigate this conjecture by comparing large ensembles of Dirac eigenvalues in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD at nonzero chemical potential to the analytical predictions of the matrix model.…
We perform a first lattice QCD simulation including two-flavor dynamical fermion with a chiral chemical potential. Because the chiral chemical potential gives rise to no sign problem, we can exactly analyze a chirally imbalanced QCD matter by the Monte Carlo simulation. By applying an external magnetic field to this system, we obtain a finite induced current along the magnetic field, which corresponds to the chiral magnetic effect. The obtained induced current is proportional to the magnetic field and to the chiral chemical potential, which is consistent with an analytical prediction.
We use the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model to study the effects of the isospin chemical potential on the QCD phase diagram at nonzero temperature and baryon chemical potential. We find that the phase diagram is qualitatively altered by a small isospin chemical potential. There are two first order phase transitions that end in two critical endpoints, and there are two crossovers at low baryon chemical potential. These results have important consequences for systems where both baryon and isospin chemical potentials are nonzero, such as heavy ion collision experiments. Our results are in complete agree…
The pseudo-critical temperature of the confinement-deconfinement transition and the phase transition surface are investigated by using the complex chemical potential. We can interpret the imaginary chemical potential as the Aharonov-Bohm phase, then the analogy of the topological order suggests that the Roberge-Weiss endpoint would define the pseudo-critical temperature. The behavior of the Roberge-Weiss endpoint at small real quark chemical potential is investigated with the perturbative expansion. The expected QCD phase diagram at complex chemical potential is presented.
We propose a formulation of the QCD partition function which leads to a series expansion of the quark determinant in any given baryonic sector. The r-th term gives the gauge-invariant contribution of the valence quarks plus r quark-antiquark pairs. This expansion can be used to investigate any baryonic sector, starting from the nucleon up to high baryonic densities.
We report our recent results on the QCD phase diagram obtained from the lattice QCD simulation. The location of the phase boundary between hadronic and QGP phases in the two-flavor QCD phase diagram is investigated. The imaginary chemical potential approach is employed, which is based on Monte Carlo simulations of the QCD with imaginary chemical potential and analytic continuation to the real chemical potential region.
We apply a complex chiral random matrix model as an effective model to QCD with a small chemical potential at zero temperature. In our model the correlation functions of complex eigenvalues can be determined analytically in two different limits, at weak and strong non-Hermiticity. We compare them to the distribution of the smallest Dirac operator eigenvalues from quenched QCD lattice data for small values of the chemical potential, appropriately rescaled with the volume. This confirms the existence of two different scaling regimes from lattice data.
An algorithm to simulate full QCD with 3 colours at nonzero chemical potential on the lattice is proposed. The algorithm works for small values of the chemical potential and can be used to extract expectation values of CPT invariant operators.
We explore the phase diagram of two-flavor QCD at imaginary values of baryon and isospin chemical potentials analyzing the thermodynamic potential of QCD analytically and that of the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model numerically. QCD has no pion condensation at imaginary baryon and isospin chemical potentials, and therefore has discrete symmetries that are not present at real baryon and isospin chemical potentials. The PNJL model possesses all the discrete symmetries. The PNJL model can reproduce qualitatively lattice QCD data presented very lately.
We show the universality of phase diagrams in QCD and QCD-like theories through the large-N_c equivalence. The whole phase diagrams are identical between QCD at finite isospin chemical potential and SO(2N_c) and Sp(2N_c) gauge theories at finite baryon chemical potential. In the chiral limit, they are also identical to that of QCD at finite chiral chemical potential. Outside the pion or diquark condensed phase in these theories, the universality of phase diagrams is applicable to QCD at finite baryon chemical potential. We further argue that the universality may work approximately even for N_c…
We study SU(2) color QCD with even number of quark flavors. First, using QCD inequalities we show that at finite baryon chemical potential mu, condensation must occur in the channel with scalar diquark quantum numbers. This breaks the U(1) symmetry generated by baryon charge (baryon superconductivity). Then we derive the effective Lagrangian describing low lying meson and baryon excitations using extended local chiral symmetry of the theory. This enables us to determine the leading term in the dependence of the masses on mu exactly.
QCD with a finite baryon chemical potential, despite its importance, is not well understood because the standard lattice QCD simulation is not applicable due to the sign problem. Although sign-free QCD-like theories have been studied intensively, relation to QCD with a finite baryon chemical potential was not clear until recently. In this talk we explain the large-Nc equivalences between QCD and various QCD-like theories, which lead us to a unified viewpoint for QCD with baryon and isospin chemical potentials, SO(2Nc) and Sp(2Nc) gauge theories. In particular two-flavor QCD with the baryon che…
A connection between the operator fermionic currents $\hatJ$ and corresponding `Grassmannian' currents $J$ in the functional integral formalism is studied. The QCD action with non--zero chemical potential $μ$ is derived. A connection between the fermionic Fock space and boundary conditions along the forth direction is discussed.
Chiral chemical potential does not cause the sign problem in the Monte Carlo simulation of lattice QCD. Using the chiral chemical potential, we study the chiral magnetic effect in two-flavor full QCD. We show that a strong external magnetic field induces an electric current in a chirally imbalanced QCD matter. The qualitative feature of the induced current is consistent with an analytical prediction.
In the presence of a non-vanishing chemical potential the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator become complex. We use a random matrix model approach to calculate analytically all correlation functions at weak and strong non-Hermiticity for three-dimensional QCD with broken flavor symmetry and four-dimensional QCD in the bulk.
It is shown that starting from one and the same transfer matrix formulation of QCD on a lattice, it is possible to obtain both the action of Hasenfratz and Karsch as well as an action where the chemical potential is not coupled to the temporal links.
We investigate the real and imaginary chemical-potential dependence of pion and $ρ$-meson screening masses in both the confinement and the deconfinement region by using two-flavor lattice QCD. The spatial meson correlators are calculated in the imaginary chemical potential region with lattice QCD simulations. We extract pion and $ρ$-meson screening masses from the correlators. The obtained meson screening masses are extrapolated to the real chemical potential region by assuming some analytic function. In the real chemical potential region, the resulting pion and $ρ$-meson screening masses mono…
We study the Abelian flux tube profile of mesonic and the baryonic configurations of static quarks below and above the finite-temperature transition in $N_f=2$ full QCD. To reduce effects of ultra-violet fluctuations we measure Abelian distributions of the action density, the color-electric field and the monopole current after fixing to the maximally Abelian gauge. Changing the distance $R$ between quarks for fixed $T/T_c<1$, one can see a clear signal of string breaking for large $R$. The electric field becomes Coulomb-like and the circulating monopole current disappears. We study also the te…
The expectation value of the complex phase factor of the fermion determinant is computed in the microscopic domain of QCD at nonzero chemical potential. We find that the average phase factor is non-vanishing below a critical value of the chemical potential equal to the half the pion mass and vanishes exponentially in the volume for larger values of the chemical potential. This holds for QCD with dynamical quarks as well as for quenched and phase quenched QCD. The average phase factor has an essential singularity for zero chemical potential and cannot be obtained by analytic continuation from i…
The regime of small isospin chemical potential in QCD is investigated. Using the phase quenched partition function in the $ε$-regime an expression for the chiral condensate is given, which is studied in the temperature isospin chemical potential plane. Lines of constant values of the condensate are shown and it is estimated how the critical temperature varies as a function of the isospin chemical potential. Finally, the dependency of the fermion sign problem on the chemical potential and temperature is examined.
We use a model based on the hopping parameter expansion to study QCD at large $μ$. We find interesting behavior in the region expected to show flavor-color locking.
We show that QCD Dirac spectra well below Lambda_{QCD}, both at zero and at nonzero chemical potential, can be obtained from a chiral Lagrangian. At nonzero chemical potential Goldstone bosons with nonzero baryon number condense beyond a critical value. Such superfluid phase transition is likely to occur in any system with a chemical potential with the quantum numbers of the Goldstone bosons. We discuss the phase diagram for one such system, QCD with two colors, and show the existence of a tricritical point in an effective potential approach.
In this paper we report on lattice simulations of SU(3)-QCD with non-zero chiral chemical potential. We focus on the influence of the chiral chemical potential on the confinement/deconfinement phase transition and the breaking/restoration of chiral symmetry. The simulation is carried out with dynamical Wilson fermions. We find that the critical temperature rises as the chiral chemical potential grows.
Using a chiral random matrix theory we can now derive the low energy partition functions and Dirac eigenvalue correlations of QCD with different chemical potentials for the dynamical and valence quarks. The results can also be extended to complex (and purely imaginary) chemical potential. We also discuss possible applications such as fitting to low energy constants and understanding the phase diagrams of the full and partially quenched theories.
In this work we study the finite temperature SU(2) gauge theory with staggered fermions for real and imaginary chemical potential. We test the method of analytical continuation of Monte Carlo results obtained for imaginary chemical potential, by comparison with those obtained {\em directly} for real chemical potential.
We propose a new method to investigate the thermal properties of QCD with a small chemical potential $(μ)$. The derivatives of the phase transition point with respect to $μ$ are computed for 2 flavors of p4-improved staggered fermions. We moreover comment on the complex phase of the fermion determinant in finite-density QCD.
Fluctuations of conserved charges such as baryon number, electric charge and strangeness may provide a test for completeness of states in lattice QCD for three light flavors. We elaborate on the idea that the corresponding susceptibilities can be saturated with excited baryonic states with an underlying quark-diquark structure with a linearly confining interaction. Using Polyakov-loop correlators we show that in the static limit, the quark-diquark potential coincides with the quark-antiquark potential in marked agreement with recent lattice studies. We thus study in a quark-diquark model the b…
The method of analytic continuation from imaginary to real chemical potential is one of the most powerful tools to circumvent the sign problem in lattice QCD. Here we test this method in a theory, 2-color QCD, which is free from the sign problem. We find that the method gives reliable results, within appropriate ranges of the chemical potential, and that a considerable improvement can be achieved if suitable functions are used to interpolate data with imaginary chemical potential.
We present the ground and excited state spectra of singly, doubly and triply-charmed baryons by using dynamical lattice QCD. A large set of baryonic operators that respect the symmetries of the lattice and are obtained after subduction from their continuum analogues are utilized. These operators transform as irreducible representations of SU(3)$_F$ symmetry for flavour, SU(4) symmetry for Dirac spins of quarks and O(3) symmetry for orbital angular momenta. Using novel computational techniques correlation functions of these operators are generated and the variational method is exploited to extr…
We present an N_t=4 lattice study for the equation of state of 2+1 flavour staggered, dynamical QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential. We use the overlap improving multi-parameter reweighting technique to extend the equation of state for non-vanishing chemical potentials. The results are obtained on the line of constant physics and our physical parameters extend in temperature and baryon chemical potential upto \approx 500-600 MeV.
The method of analytical continuation from imaginary to real chemical potential is tested in 2-color QCD. In comparison to previous studies in the same theory, an exact updating algorithm is used and simulations are performed closer to the thermodynamic limit. It is shown that the method considerably improves if suitable functions are used to interpolate data with imaginary chemical potential.
We consider the chiral limit of QCD subjected to an imaginary isospin chemical potential. In the epsilon-regime of the theory we can perform precise analytical calculations based on the zero-momentum Goldstone modes in the low-energy effective theory. We present results for the spectral correlation functions of the associated Dirac operators.
The Random Matrix Model approach to Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with non-vanishing chemical potential is reviewed. The general concept using global symmetries is introduced, as well as its relation to field theory, the so-called epsilon regime of chiral Perturbation Theory (echPT). Two types of Matrix Model results are distinguished: phenomenological applications leading to phase diagrams, and an exact limit of the QCD Dirac operator spectrum matching with echPT. All known analytic results for the spectrum of complex and symplectic Matrix Models with chemical potential are summarised for the …
The phase diagram of two-color QCD with non-zero chiral chemical potential is studied by means of lattice simulation. We focus on the influence of a chiral chemical potential on the confinement/deconfinement phase transition and the breaking/restoration of chiral symmetry. The simulation is carried out with dynamical staggered fermions without rooting. The dependences of the Polyakov loop, the chiral condensate and the corresponding susceptibilities on the chiral chemical potential and the temperature are presented. The critical temperature is observed to increase with increasing chiral chemic…
The Bielefeld Parma collaboration has recently put forward a method to investigate the QCD phase diagram based on the computation of Taylor series coefficients at both zero and imaginary values of the baryonic chemical potential. The method is based on the computation of multi-point Padè approximants. We review the methodological aspects of the computation and, in order to gain confidence in the approach, we report on the application of the method to the two-dimensional Ising model (probably the most popular arena for testing tools in the study of phase transitions). Besides showing the effect…
We define the chemical potential as the Lagrange multiplier of the baryon charge operator in the transfer matrix formalism of QCD on a lattice. Transforming the partition function into an euclidean path integral we get the Hasenfratz-Karsh action both for Wilson and Kogut-Susskind fermions. In the latter case the chemical potential in the spin-diagonal basis is half that in the flavour basis. Some open problems in the spin-diagonal basis are pointed out.
The behavior of quenched QCD at nonzero chemical potential $μ$ has been a long-standing puzzle. An explicit solution is found using the random matrix approach to chiral symmetry breaking. At nonzero $μ$ the quenched QCD is not a simple $n\to0$ limit of a theory with $n$ quarks: a naive `replica trick' fails. A limit that leads to the quenched QCD is that of a theory with $2n$ quarks: $n$ quarks with original action and $n$ quarks with conjugate action.