The average phase factor of the QCD fermion determinant signals the strength of the QCD sign problem. We compute the average phase factor as a function of temperature and baryon chemical potential using a two-flavor NJL model. This allows us to study the strength of the sign problem at and above the chiral transition. It is discussed how the $U_A(1)$ anomaly affects the sign problem. Finally, we study the interplay between the sign problem and the endpoint of the chiral transition.
We study the QCD phase transition based on the statistical treatment with the bag-model picture of hadrons, and derive a phenomenological relation among the low-lying hadron masses, the hadron sizes and the critical temperature of the QCD phase transition. We apply this phenomenological relation to both full QCD and quenched QCD, and compare these results with the corresponding lattice QCD results. Whereas such a statistical approach works well in full QCD, it results in an extremely large estimate of the critical temperature in quenched QCD, which indicates a serious problem in understanding …
We analyze the chiral phase transition with the help of the QCD gap equation. Various models for the effective interaction in rainbow truncation are contrasted with regard to the resulting chiral transition temperatures. In particular, we investigate possible systematic relations of the details of the effective interaction and the value of T_c. In addition, we quantify changes to the transition temperature beyond the rainbow truncation.
We discuss recent developments in lattice QCD for the bulk thermodynamics of the transition. We review the current status of the equation of state, the possible implications of a magnetic field and the fluctuations of conserved charges, like the net electric charge or baryon number. We also show predictions for higher cumulants, which will be experimentally available in near future.
We report preliminary results on the chiral and deconfinement aspects of the QCD transition at finite temperature using the Highly Improved Staggered Quark (HISQ) action on lattices with temporal extent of N_τ=6 and 8. The chiral aspects of the transition are studied in terms of quark condensates and the disconnected chiral susceptibility. We study the deconfinement transition in terms of the strange quark number susceptibility and the renormalized Polyakov loop. We made continuum estimates for some quantities and find reasonably good agreement between our results and the recent continuum extr…
We present results from numerical studies of the NJL model with two massless quarks at nonzero temperature. We show that the model undergoes a second order chiral phase transition which belongs to the 3d O(4) spin model universality class.
The infamous sign problem makes it impossible to probe dense (baryon density $μ_B>0$) QCD at temperatures near or below the deconfinement threshold. As a workaround, one can explore QCD-like theories such as two-colour QCD (QC2D) which don't suffer from this sign problem but are qualitively similar to real QCD. Previous studies on smaller lattice volumes have investigated deconfinement and colour superfluid to normal matter transitions. In this study we look at a larger lattice volume $N_s=24$ in an attempt to disentangle finite volume and finite temperature effects. We also fit to a larger nu…
We present possible indications for flavor separation during the QCD crossover transition based on continuum extrapolated lattice QCD calculations of higher order susceptibilities. We base our findings on flavor specific quantities in the light and strange quark sector. We propose a possible experimental verification of our prediction, based on the measurement of higher order moments of identified particle multiplicities. Since all our calculations are performed at zero baryochemical potential, these results are of particular relevance for the heavy ion program at the LHC.
Due to a rapid change of the entropy density $s(T)$ across the critical temperature $T_c$ of the QCD phase transition, the pressure $P(T)$ and the energy density $e(T)$ above $T_c$ generally deviate from their Stefan-Boltzmann values. We shall demonstrate this both analytically and numerically for a general class of $s(T)$ consistent with thermodynamical constraints and make a qualitative comparison of the result with the lattice QCD data. Quantities related to $ds(T)/dT$ such as the specific heat and sound velocity are also discussed.
If QCD is to undergo a second order phase transition, the light quark return probability is universal for large times at the critical point. We show that this behavior is distinct from the one expected at the mobility edge of a metal-insulator transition or a percolation transition in d$\leq 4$. Our results are accessible to current lattice QCD simulations.
We report the first investigation of the QCD transition temperature, T_c, for two flavours of staggered quarks with unequal masses at lattice spacings of 1/4T. On changing the u/d quark mass ratio in such a way that m(pi_0)^2/m(pi_+)^2 changes from 1 to 0.78, thus bracketing the physical value of this ratio, we find that T_c remains unchanged in units of both m_rho and Lambda_MSbar.
We study the QCD phase diagram at nonzero baryon and isospin chemical potentials using the 1/Nc expansion. We find that there are two phase transitions between the hadronic phase and the quark gluon plasma phase. We discuss the consequences of this result for the universality class of the critical endpoint at nonzero baryon and zero isospin chemical potential.
We argue that the chiral phase transition and the deconfinement phase transition in finite temperature QCD are just different limits of a single crossover phase transition driven by the lightest scalar field which is a mixture of the glueball and the sigma meson. The key mechanism, the level repulsion between the sigma and the glueball, gives not only a unified description of the finite temperature phase transitions, but also a consistent characterization of the entire QCD phase diagram in the temperature-quark mass plane.
We discuss chiral and deconfinement aspects of the finite temperature transition in QCD using improved staggered actions. We study different quantities related to chiral and deconfinement transition and discuss their cutoff dependence. Contrary to some earlier lattice results we find that the chiral and deconfinement transition are not closely interconnected.
We study the Lee-Yang zeros in the canonical approach to search phase transition points at finite temperature and density in the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model as an effective model of QCD. The canonical approach is a promising method to avoid the sign problem in lattice QCD at finite density. We find that a set of Lee-Yang zeros computed with finite degrees of freedom can be extrapolated to those with infinite degrees of freedom, providing the correct phase transition point. We propose the present method as a useful method for actual lattice simulations for QCD.
We study the finite density phase transition in the lattice QCD at real chemical potential. We adopt canonical approach and the canonical partition function is constructed for Nf=2 QCD. After derivation of the canonical partition function we calculate observables like the pressure, the quark number density, its second cumulant and the chiral condensate as a function of the real chemical potential. We covered a wide range of temperature region starting from the confining low to the deconfining high temperature. We observe signals for the deconfinement and the chiral restoration phase transition…
Firstly, I give a brief summary of the current understanding of QCD below and near $T_c$ (the critical temperature of the chiral transition). Some emphases are put on the qualitative difference between the Yukawa regime ($T \sim 0)$ and the Hagedorn regime ($T \sim T_c$). Secondly, the dynamical phenomena associated with the chiral transition, in particular, the spectral changes of hadrons in hot and/or dense medium are reviewed from the point of view of the QCD spectral sum rules. Confusions on the QCD sum rules at finite temperature/density are also clarified and remarks on the effective lag…
We discuss the nature of the phase transition for lattice QCD at finite temperature and density. We propose a method to calculate the canonical partition function by fixing the total quark number introducing approximations allowed in the low density region. An effective potential as a function of the quark number density is discussed from the canonical partition function. We analyze data obtained in a simulation of two-flavor QCD using p4-improved staggered quarks with bare quark mass $m/T = 0.4$ on a $16^3 \times 4$ lattice. The results suggest that the finite density phase transition at low …
We consider the quark-mass dependence of the baryon octet and decuplet ground state masses. It is predicted that QCD dynamics implies a first order transition when increasing the strange quark mass from its chiral limit towards its physical value. Our claim relies on a global fit to the available QCD lattice data on such baryon masses. Quantitative results based on an application of the chiral SU(3) Lagrangian at N$^3$LO are discussed. We predict an anomalous sector of QCD where stable baryonic matter would be composed of lambda or anti-lambda particles rather than nucleons and anti-nucleons.
We investigate the deconfining phase transition in SU(3) pure gauge theory and in full QCD with two flavors of staggered fermions. The phase transition is detected by measuring the free energy in presence of an abelian monopole background field. In the pure gauge case our finite size scaling analysis is in agreement with the well known presence of a weak first order phase transition. In the case of 2 flavors full QCD we find, using the standard pure gauge and staggered fermion actions, that the phase transition is consistent with weak first order, contrary to the expectation of a crossover for…
We present results of modeling the temperature dependence of the spatial string tension and thermal phase transition in a five-dimensional framework nowadays known as AdS/QCD. For temperatures close to the critical one we find a behaviour remarkably consistent with the lattice results.
We present results on the chiral and deconfinement properties of the QCD transition at finite temperature. We performed calculations using asqtad and HISQ/tree actions using lattices with temporal extent N_tau=6, 8 and 12 allowing to control the approach to the continuum limit. We analyze the chiral transition in terms of universal O(N) scaling functions. From peaks in the scaling functions we perform a simultaneous continuum extrapolation for HISQ/tree and asqtad to derive the critical temperature, T_c= 157 +/- 6 MeV.
We study the impact of large lepton flavour asymmetries on the cosmic QCD transition. Scenarios of unequal lepton flavour asymmetries are observationally almost unconstrained and therefore open up a whole new parameter space for the cosmic QCD transition. We find that for large asymmetries the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of pions can occur and identify the corresponding parameter space. In the vicinity of the QCD transition scale, we express the pressure in terms of a Taylor expansion with respect to the complete set of chemical potentials. The Taylor coefficients rely on input fro…
We discuss universal scaling properties of (2+1)-flavor QCD in the vicinity of the chiral phase transition at vanishing as well as non-vanishing light quark chemical potential (mu_l). We provide evidence for O(N) scaling of the chiral order parameter in (2+1)-flavor QCD and show that the scaling analysis of its derivative with respect to the light quark chemical potential provides a unique approach to the determination of the curvature of the chiral phase transition line in the vicinity of mu_l/T=0.
We study the electromagnetic $Ω_c γ\rightarrowΩ_c^\ast$ transition in 2+1 flavor lattice QCD, which gives access to the dominant decay mode of $Ω_c^\ast$ baryon. The magnetic dipole and the electric quadrupole transition form factors are computed. The magnetic dipole form factor is found to be mainly determined by the strange quark and the electric quadrupole form factor to be negligibly small, in consistency with the quark model. We also evaluate the helicity amplitudes and the decay rate.
Visible matter in the current Universe is a consequence of the phase transition of the strong force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). This phase transition has occurred at the Universe temperature around $T_c\simeq 165\,$MeV while it was expanding. Strongly interacting matter particles are quarks above $T_c$, while they are pions, protons and neutrons below $T_c$. The spin degrees of freedom 37 in the quark and gluon phase just above $T_c$ are converted to 3 (pions) after the phase transition. This phase transition might have been achieved mostly at supercooled temperatures. The supercooling was …
We investigate the topological properties of the QCD vacuum with 4 flavours of dynamical staggered fermions at finite temperature. To calculate the topological susceptibility we use the field-theoretical method. As in the quenched case, a sharp drop is observed for the topological susceptibility across the phase transition.
The dual condensate is a new QCD phase transition order parameter, which connnects confinement and chiral symmetry breaking as different mass limits. We discuss the relation between the fermion spectrum at general boundary conditions and the dual condensate and show numerical results for the latter from unquenched SU(3) lattice configurations.
Scaling behavior is analyzed for the two-flavor QCD lattice gauge theory chiral transition. Leading scaling behavior and correction to leading scaling from lattice spacing effects are examined for the quark condensate. Scaling predictions under the assumption of quark mass dominance are tested for the longitudinal correlation length. Second order scaling behavior is consistent with present data.
The nature of QCD phase transition is studied with massless up and down quarks and a light strange quark, using the Wilson formalism for quarks on a lattice with the temporal direction extension $N_t=4$. We find that the phase transition is first order in the cases of both about 150 MeV and 400 MeV for the strange quark mass. These results together with those for three degenerate quarks suggest that QCD phase transition in nature is first order.
At high temperatures or densities, hadronic matter shows different forms of critical behaviour: colour deconfinement, chiral symmetry restoration, and diquark condensation. I first discuss the conceptual basis of these phenomena and then consider the description of colour deconfinement in terms of symmetry breaking, through colour screening and as percolation transition.
We review the present status of the Anderson transition in the spectrum of the Dirac operator of QCD-like theories on the lattice. Localized modes at the low-end of the spectrum have been found in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with overlap and staggered valence fermions as well as in Nf=2+1 QCD with staggered quarks. We draw an analogy between the transition from localized to delocalized modes in the Dirac spectrum and the Anderson transition in electronic systems. The QCD transition turns out to be in the same universality class as the transition in the corresponding Anderson model. We also specula…
We consider the endpoint of the Roberge-Weiss (RW) first order transition line present for imaginary baryon chemical potentials. We remark that it coincides with the finite size transition relevant in the context of large $N_c$ QCD and study its order in the theory with two degenerate flavors. The RW endpoint is first order in the limit of large and small quark masses, while it weakens for intermediate masses where it is likely in the Ising 3d universality class. Phenomenological implications and further speculations about the QCD phase diagram are discussed.
The order of the phase transition in finite-temperature QCD with two degenerate light quarks is still an open problem and corresponds to the last question mark in the zero-density phase diagram of QCD. We argue that establishing the nature of the transition in this case is also a crucial test for numerical simulations of lattice QCD, allowing precise estimates of possible systematic errors related e.g. to the choice of fermion-simulation algorithm or of discretized formulation for fermions.
We study an 't Hooft anomaly of massless QCD at finite temperature. With the imaginary baryon chemical potential at the Roberge-Weiss point, there is a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry which can be used to define confinement. We show the existence of a mixed anomaly between the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry and the chiral symmetry, which gives a strong relation between confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The anomaly is a parity anomaly in the QCD Lagrangian reduced to three dimensions. It is reproduced in the chiral Lagrangian by a topological term related to Skyrmion charge, matching the anomaly befor…
We perform lattice numerical simulations to study the phase transition of QCD at finite temperature to clarify the nature of the transition of massless two flavor QCD. We investigate QCD with two light and Nf heavy quarks instead of two-flavor QCD, and focus on the light quark mass dependence of the critical heavy mass, below which the transition is of first order. The heavy quarks are incorporated into two flavor configurations in the form of the hopping parameter expansion through the reweighting technique. The nature of the transition is identified by the shape of the constraint effective p…
Results from the Columbia lattice group study of the QCD finite temperature phase transition with dynamical domain wall fermions on $16^3 \times 4$ lattices are presented. These results include an investigation of the U(1) axial symmetry breaking above but close to the transition, the use of zero temperature calculations that set the scale at the transition and preliminary measurements close to the transition.
We present recent lattice QCD results on nucleon form factors and N to Delta transition form factors. We predict the parity violating asymmetry in N to Delta and check the off-diagonal Goldberger-Treiman relation.
We analyze the pseudo-critical behavior of three-flavor QCD using highly improved staggered quarks (HISQ) on lattices with temporal extent $N_τ=8$ and for quark masses corresponding to a pseudoscalar Goldstone mass in the range $80 ~ {\rm MeV} ~ \lesssim ~ m_π~ \lesssim ~ 140 ~ {\rm MeV}$. Our findings are consistent with the occurrence of a second order chiral phase transition at vanishing values of the quark masses. The chiral phase transition temperature at this finite value of the lattice spacing is determined to be $T_c = 98_{-6}^{+3}~{\rm MeV}$. A comparison with a corresponding analysis…
We have studied the 3-flavor, finite temperature, QCD phase transition with staggred fermions on an $ N_t=4$ lattice. By studying a variety of quark masses we have located the critical point, $m_c$, where the first order 3-flavor transition ends as lying in the region $0.32 \le m_c \le 0.35$ in lattice units
The determination of the parameters of the deconfining transition in N_f=2 QCD is discussed, and its relevance to the understanding of the mechanism of color confinement.
We present evidence that in full QCD with two dynamical quarks confinement is produced by dual superconductivity of the vacuum as in the quenched theory. Preliminary information is obtained on the nature of the deconfining transition.
Calculations of the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole and Coulomb quadrupole amplitudes for the transition $γN\to Δ$ are presented both in quenched QCD and with two flavours of degenerate dynamical quarks.
The behaviour of the topological susceptibility in QCD with two colours and 8 flavours of quarks is studied at nonzero temperature on the lattice across the finite density transition. It is shown that its signal drops at a (pseudo-)critical chemical potential mu_c. The Polyakov loop and the chiral condensate undergo their transitions at the same value. Pauli blocking supervenes at a value of the chemical potential larger than mu_c.
We investigate the deconfining phase transition in SU(3) pure gauge theory and in full QCD with two flavors of staggered fermions by means of a gauge invariant thermal partition functional. In the pure gauge case our finite size scaling analysis is in agreement with the well known weak first order phase transition. In the case of 2 flavors full QCD we find that the phase transition is consistent with weak first order, contrary to the expectation of a crossover for not too large quark masses.
We simulate 3-flavour lattice QCD with a small chemical potential $μ_I$ for isospin, at temperatures close to the finite temperature transition. Using quark masses just above the critical mass for zero chemical potential, we determine the position of the transition from hadronic matter to a quark-gluon plasma as a function of $μ_I$. We see evidence for a critical endpoint where the transition changes from a crossover to a first-order transition as $μ_I$ is increased. We argue that QCD at finite $μ_I$ and QCD at finite quark-numberchemical potential $μ$ should behave similarly in this region.
Results on the phase transition in QCD with two flavours of light staggered fermions from an ongoing simulation are presented. We find the restoration of the chiral SU(2) x SU(2) symmetry, but not of the axial U_A(1) symmetry.
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.
We investigate the lattice QCD Dirac operator with staggered fermions at temperatures around the chiral phase transition. We present evidence of a metal-insulator transition in the low lying modes of the Dirac operator around the same temperature as the chiral phase transition. This strongly suggests the phenomenon of Anderson localization drives the QCD vacuum to the chirally symmetric phase in a way similar to a metal-insulator transition in a disordered conductor. We also discuss how Anderson localization affects the usual phenomenological treatment of phase transitions a la Ginzburg-Landau…
We discuss recent results for the phase transition in finite-temperature QCD from numerical (Monte Carlo) simulations of the lattice-regularized theory. Emphasis is given to the case of two degenerate light-quark flavors. The order of the transition in this case, which could have cosmological implications, has not yet been established.
The nature of the chiral phase transition in lattice QCD is studied for the cases of 2, 3 and 6 flavors with degenerate Wilson quarks, mainly on a lattice with the temporal direction extension $N_t=4$. We find that the chiral phase transition is continuous for the case of 2 flavors, while it is of first order for 3 and 6 flavors.
We investigate the role of monopoles in the deconfinement transition of finite temperature $SU(2)$ QCD in the maximally abelian gauge. In the confinement phase a long monopole loop exists in each configuration, whereas no long loop exists in the deep deconfinement region. Balancing of the energy and the entropy of loops of the maximally extended monopoles can explain the occurrence of the deconfinement transition.
We study the Anderson-type localisation-delocalisation transition found previously in the QCD Dirac spectrum at high temperature. Using high statistics QCD simulations with $N_f=2+1$ flavours of staggered quarks, we discuss how the change in the spectral statistics depends on the volume, the temperature and the lattice spacing, and we speculate on the possible universality of the transition from Poisson to Wigner-Dyson in the spectral statistics. Moreover, we show that the transition is a genuine phase transition: at the mobility edge, separating localised and delocalised modes, quantities cha…
The transition is studied by means of a disorder parameter detecting condensation of magnetic monopoles in the vacuum. The deconfining transition is found to coincide with the chiral transition and the susceptibility ρ, related to the disorder parameter, is consistent with a first order phase transition.
We study the critical behavior of the chiral condensate near the QCD phase transition in the background of two fixed light dynamical (sea) quarks. We study the condensate for $5.245 \leq β\leq 5.3$ and $10^{-10} \leq m_{val} \leq 10$
We study the chiral phase transition with staggered fermions on the lattice at finite temperature in the strong coupling limit. The thermodynamic potential is derived in the large $d$ approximation where $d+1$ is the dimension of space time. Our calculation is simpler than the conventional method and leads to a simple physical interpretation for the approximation scheme.
We give a new criterion of quark confinement/deconfinement by deriving a low-energy effective theory of QCD. The effective theory can explain Abelian dominance in low-energy physics of QCD, especially, quark confinement. Finally, we apply the above criterion to the large flavor QCD and discuss its phase structure. The result suggests the existence of conformal phase.
We study two-colour QCD with two flavours of Wilson fermion at non-zero chemical potential mu and zero temperature. We find evidence of two separate transitions: an onset transition at mu ~ m_pi/2 where quark number and energy densities increase from zero; and a deconfinement transition at higher mu. The mu-dependence of the number and energy densities and the diquark condensate indicate that a Fermi surface is formed and that BCS rather than Bose-Einstein condensation dominates at the quark mass considered here, especially beyond the deconfinement transition.
