We formulate a random matrix-like model for the Polyakov loop in SU(N) Yang-Mills theories. It describes a simplified dynamics in terms of eigenvalue differences. The deconfinement phase transition encoded in center symmetry breaking is reproduced including its nature being first order for SU(3) and second order for SU(2). Analytical arguments about the phases are presented and a comparison to other approaches is made.
We study the spatial inhomogeneity of the Polyakov loop induced by inhomogeneous chiral condensates. We formulate an effective model of gluons on the background fields of chiral condensates, and perform its lattice simulation. On the background of inhomogeneous chiral condensates, the Polyakov loop exhibits an in-phase spatial oscillation with the chiral condensates. We also analyze the heavy quark potential and show that the inhomogeneous Polyakov loop indicates the inhomogeneous confinement of heavy quarks.
Polyakov loop eigenvalues and their N-dependence are studied in 2 and 4 dimensional SU(N) YM theory. The connected correlation function of the single eigenvalue distributions of two separated Polyakov loops in 2D YM is calculated and is found to have a structure differing from the one of corresponding hermitian random matrix ensembles. No large $N$ non-analyticities are found for two point functions in the confining regime. Suggestions are made for situations in which large-N phase transitions involving Polyakov loops might occur.
To obtain deeper understanding of QCD properties at finite temperature, we consider the Fourier decomposition of the grand-canonical partition function based on the canonical ensemble method via the imaginary chemical potential. Expectation values are, then, represented by summation over each canonical sector. We point out that the modified Polyakov-loop can play an important role in the canonical ensemble; for example, the Polyakov-loop paradox which is known in the canonical ensemble method can be evaded by considering the quantity. In addition, based on the periodicity issue of the modified…
We consider a multi-string configuration that provides a new way to compute the expectation value of the Polyakov loop in a five-dimensional framework known as AdS/QCD. The obtained results are in reasonably good agreement with those obtained by lattice simulations for pure SU(3) gauge theory and also by the usual single string configuration.
We review theoretical aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at finite temperature. The most important physical variable to characterize hot QCD is the Polyakov loop, which is an approximate order parameter for quark deconfinement in a hot gluonic medium. Additionally to its role as an order parameter, the Polyakov loop has rich physical contents in both perturbative and non-perturbative sectors. This review covers a wide range of subjects associated with the Polyakov loop from topological defects in hot QCD to model building with coupling to the Polyakov loop.
Polyakov loops $L_a(T), a=3,8,...$ are shown to give the most important nonperturbative contribution to the thermodynamic potentials. Derived from the gluonic field correlators they enter as factors into free energy. It is shown in the $SU(3)$ case that $L_a (T)$ define to a large extent the behavior of the free energy and the trace anomaly $I(T)$, most sensitive to nonperturbative effects.
We investigate low-lying fermion modes in SU(2) gauge theory at temperatures above the phase transition. Both staggered and overlap spectra reveal transitions from chaotic (random matrix) to integrable (Poissonian) behavior accompanied by an increasing localization of the eigenmodes. We show that the latter are trapped by local Polyakov loop fluctuations. Islands of such "wrong" Polyakov loops can therefore be viewed as defects leading to Anderson localization in gauge theories. We find strong similarities in the spatial profile of these localized staggered and overlap eigenmodes. We discuss p…
This is a progress report on the calculation of the effective potential for the Polyakov loop in $SU(N)$ pure gauge theory beyond two-loop order. We introduce a new approach using the Poisson resummation formula to compute sum-integrals with the holonomy. We show partial results for the free energy at order $g^3$ and $g^4$.
Based on first principle QCD arguments, it has been argued in arXiv:1204.2424[hep-ph] that the vacuum expectation value of the Polyakov loop can be represented in the hadron resonance gas model. We study this within the Polyakov-constituent quark model by implementing the quantum and local nature of the Polyakov loop hep-ph/0412308, hep-ph/0607338. The existence of exotic states in the spectrum is discussed.
We study the Polyakov loop and the correlator of two Polyakov loops at finite temperature in the weak-coupling regime. We calculate the Polyakov loop at order g^4. The calculation of the correlator of two Polyakov loops is performed at distances shorter than the inverse of the temperature and for electric screening masses larger than the Coulomb potential. In this regime, it is accurate up to order g^6. We also evaluate the Polyakov-loop correlator in an effective field theory framework that takes advantage of the hierarchy of energy scales in the problem and makes explicit the bound-state dyn…
We apply the path optimization method to a QCD effective model with the Polyakov loop at finite density to circumvent the model sign problem. The Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model is employed as the typical QCD effective model and then the hybrid Monte-Carlo method is used to perform the path integration. To control the sign problem, the path optimization method is used with complexification of temporal gluon fields to modify the integral path in the complex space. We show that the average phase factor is well improved on the modified integral-path compared with that on the orig…
We derive an analytical gauge-invariant relation between the Polyakov loop $\langle L_P \rangle$ and the Dirac eigenvalues $λ_n$ in QCD, i.e., $\langle L_P \rangle \propto \sum_n λ_n^{N_t -1} \langle n|\hat U_4|n \rangle$, on a temporally odd-number lattice, where the temporal lattice size $N_t$ is odd. Here, we use an ordinary square lattice with the normal (nontwisted) periodic boundary condition for link-variables in the temporal direction. This relation is a Dirac spectral representation of the Polyakov loop in terms of Dirac eigenmodes $|n\rangle$. Because of the factor $λ_n^{N_t -1}$ in …
We study the Polyakov loop correlator in the weak coupling expansion and show how the perturbative series re-exponentiates into singlet and adjoint contributions. We calculate the order $g^7$ correction to the Polyakov loop correlator in the short distance limit. We show how the singlet and adjoint free energies arising from the re-exponentiation formula of the Polyakov loop correlator are related to the gauge invariant singlet and octet free energies that can be defined in pNRQCD, namely we find that the two definitions agree at leading order in the multipole expansion, but differ at first or…
The dual quark condensate $Σ^{(n)}$ proposed recently as a new order parameter of the spontaneous breaking of the ${\mathbb Z}_3$ symmetry are evaluated by the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, where $n$ are winding numbers. The Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model well reproduces lattice QCD data on $Σ^{(1)}$ measured very lately. The dual quark condensate $Σ^{(n)}$ at higher temperatures is sensitive to the strength of the vector-type four-quark interaction in the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model and hence a good quantity to determine the strength.
In lattice QCD formalism, we derive an analytical gauge-invariant relation between the Polyakov loop $\langle L_P \rangle$ and the Dirac eigenvalues $λ_n$ in QCD, i.e., $\langle L_P \rangle \propto \sum_n λ_n^{N_t -1} \langle n|\hat U_4|n \rangle$, by considering ${\rm Tr} (\hat{U}_4\hat{\not{D}}^{N_t-1})$ on a temporally odd-number lattice, where the temporal lattice size $N_t$ is odd. This formula is a Dirac spectral representation of the Polyakov loop in terms of Dirac eigenmodes $|n\rangle$. We here use an ordinary square lattice with the normal (nontwisted) periodic boundary condition for…
We report the nonperturbative behavior of the twisted Polyakov loop (TPL) coupling constant for the SU(3) gauge theories defined by the ratio of Polyakov loop correlators in finite volume with twisted boundary condition. Carrying out the numerical simulations, we determine the nonperturbative running coupling constant in this renormalization scheme for Nf=12 SU(3) gauge theory. According to the perturbative two loop analysis, the Nf=12 SU(3) gauge theory might have a conformal fixed point in the infrared region. However, the recent lattice studies show controversial results for the existence o…
We simulate SU(2) gauge theory at temperatures ranging from slightly below $T_c$ to roughly $2T_c$ for two different values of the gauge coupling. Using a histogram method, we extract the effective potential for the Polyakov loop and for the phases of the eigenvalues of the thermal Wilson loop, in both the fundamental and adjoint representations. We show that the classical potential of the fundamental loop can be parametrized within a simple model which includes a Vandermonde potential and terms linear and quadratic in the Polyakov loop. We discuss how parametrizations for the other cases can …
We discuss an effective Polyakov loop model for QCD thermodynamics with a chemical potential. Using high temperature expansion techniques the partition sum is mapped exactly onto the partition sum of a flux model. In the flux representation the complex action problem is resolved and a simulation with worm-type algorithms becomes possible also at finite chemical potential.
We calculate the Polyakov loop susceptibilities in the SU(3) lattice gauge theory using the Symanzik improved gauge action on different-sized lattices. The longitudinal and transverse fluctu- ations of the Polyakov loop, as well as, that of its absolute value are considered. We analyze their properties in relation to the confinement-deconfinement phase transition. We also present results based on simulations of (2+1)-flavor QCD on 32^3 x 8 lattice using Highly Improved Staggered Quark (HISQ) action by the HotQCD collaboration. The influences of fermions on the Polyakov loop fluctuations are di…
I compute the deconfinement order parameter for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, the Polyakov loop, using the fixed scale approach for two different scales and show how one can obtain a physical, renormalized, order parameter. The generalization to other gauge theories, including quenched or full QCD, is straightforward.
We study the interpretation of Lattice data about the thermodynamics of the deconfinement phase of SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, in terms of gluon quasiparticles propagating in a background of a Polyakov loop. A potential for the Polyakov loop, inspired by the strong coupling expansion of the QCD action, is introduced; the Polyakov loop is coupled to tranverse gluon quasiparticles by means of a gas-like effective potential. This study is useful to identify the effective degrees of freedom propagating in the gluon medium above the critical temperature. A main general finding is that a dominant part …
We summarize recent results on the hadron resonance gas description of QCD. In particular, we apply this approach to describe the equation of state and the vacuum expectation value of the Polyakov loop in several representations. Ambiguities related to exactly which states should be included are discussed.
We study Casimir scaling and renormalization properties of Polyakov loops in different irreducible representations in SU(N) gauge theories; in particular, we investigate the approach to the large-N limit, by performing lattice simulations of Yang-Mills theories with an increasing number of colors, from 2 to 6. We consider the twelve lowest irreducible representations for each gauge group, and find strong numerical evidence for nearly perfect Casimir scaling of the bare Polyakov loops in the deconfined phase. Then we discuss the temperature dependence of renormalized loops, which is found to be…
The susceptibilities of the real and imaginary parts, as well as of the modulus of the Polyakov loop, are computed in SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We show that the ratios of these susceptibilities are excellent probes of the deconfinement transition, independent of the renormalization of the Polyakov loop and only weakly dependent on the system size. The ratios are almost temperature independent above and below the transition and exhibit a discontinuity at the transition temperature. This characteristic behavior can be understood in terms of the global Z(3) symmetry of the Yang-Mills Lagrangian…
A non-perturbative method of Field Correlators is applied to calculate the Polyakov loop dependence on temperature, $L(T)$, in the 2+1 flavor QCD with small quark masses, so the only relevant scale is the color-electric string tension $σ(T)$. Polyakov loop in the temperature range 100 MeV $\lesssim T\lesssim$ 400 MeV is expressed via the heavy-light meson mass that decreases with $T$ as $\sqrt{σ(T)}$. The latter is deduced from a gradually vanishing chiral condensate. The resulting $L(T)$ is in good agreement with recent lattice data.
We investigate the quark backreaction on the Polyakov loop and its impact on the thermodynamics of quantum chromodynamics. The dynamics of the gluons generating the Polyakov-loop potential is altered by the presence of dynamical quarks. However, this backreaction of the quarks has not yet been taken into account in Polyakov-loop extended model studies. In the present work, we show within a 2+1 flavour Polyakov-quark-meson model that a quark-improved Polyakov-loop potential leads to a smoother transition between the low-temperature hadronic phase and the high-temperature quark-gluon plasma phas…
We present a study of the free energy of parameterized Polyakov loops P in SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theory as a function of the parameters that characterize P. We explore temperatures below and above the deconfinement transition, and for our highest temperatures T > 5 T_c we compare the free energy to perturbative results.
We calculate the next-to-next-to-leading correction to the expectation value of the Polyakov loop or equivalently to the free energy of a static charge. This correction is of order $g^5$. We show that up to this order the free energy of the static charge is proportional to the quadratic Casimir operator of the corresponding representation. We also compare our perturbative result with the most recent lattice results in SU(3) gauge theory.
We study the hadron resonance gas model and describe the equation of state of QCD and the vacuum expectation value of the Polyakov loop in the confined phase, in terms of hadronic states with light quarks in the first case, and with exactly one heavy quark in the second case. Comparison with lattice simulations is made.
We compute the correlation functions of Polyakov loops in $SU(N_c)$ gauge theories by explicitly summing all diagrams at tree level in two special cases, for $N_c = 2$ and $N_c = \infty$. When $N_c =2$ we find the expected we find Coulomb-like behavior at short distances, $\sim 1/x$ as the distance $x \rightarrow 0$. In the planar limit at $N_c = \infty$ we find a weaker singularity, $\sim 1/\sqrt{x}$ as $x \rightarrow 0$. In each case, at short distances the behavior of the correlation functions between two Polyakov loops, and the corresponding Wilson loop, are the same. We suggest that such …
We study the implications of the spontaneous and explicit Z(3) center symmetry breaking for the Polyakov loop susceptibilities. To this end, ratios of the susceptibilities of the real and imaginary parts, as well as of the modulus of the Polyakov loop are computed within an effective model using a color group integration scheme. We show that the essential features of the lattice QCD results of these ratios can be successfully captured by the effective approach. Furthermore we discuss a novel scaling relation in one of these ratios involving the explicit breaking field, volume, and temperature.
The Polyakov loop potential serves to distinguish between the confined hadronic and the deconfined quark-gluon plasma phases of QCD. For Nf=2+1 quark flavors with physical masses we determine the Polyakov loop potential at finite temperature and density and extract the location of the deconfinement transition. We find a cross-over at small values of the chemical potential running into a critical end-point at mu/T > 1.
Unquenching of the Polyakov-loop potential showed to be an important improvement for the description of the phase structure and thermodynamics of strongly-interacting matter at zero quark chemical potentials with Polyakov-loop extended chiral models. This work constitutes the first application of the quark backreaction on the Polyakov-loop potential at nonzero density. The observation is that it links the chiral and deconfinement phase transition also at small temperatures and large quark chemical potentials. The build up of the surface tension in the Polyakov-loop extended Quark-Meson model i…
We study the temperature dependence of the renormalized Polyakov loop in 2+1 flavor QCD for temperatures T<210 MeV. We extend previous calculations by the HotQCD collaboration using the highly improved staggered quark action and perform a continuum extrapolation of the renormalized Polyakov loop. We compare the lattice results with the prediction of non-interacting static-light hadron resonance gas, which describes the temperature dependence of the renormalized Polyakov loop up to T<140 MeV but fails above that temperature. Furthermore, we discuss the temperature dependence of the light and st…
In the heavy, static quark mass regime of QCD, the Polyakov loop is well known to be an order parameter of the deconfinement phase transition; however, the sensitivity of the Polyakov loop to the deconfinement of light, dynamical quarks is less clear. On the other hand, from the perspective of an effective Lagrangian written in the vicinity of the chiral transition, the Polyakov loop is an energy-like operator and should hence scale as any energy-like operator would. We show here that the Polyakov loop and heavy-quark free energy are sensitive to the chiral transition, i.e. their scaling is co…
We investigate correlations of the Polyakov loop fluctuations with eigenmodes of the lattice Dirac operator. Their analytic relations are derived on the temporally odd-number size lattice with the normal non-twisted periodic boundary condition for the link-variables. We find that the low-lying Dirac modes yield negligible contributions to the Polyakov loop fluctuations. This property is confirmed to be valid in confined and deconfined phase by numerical simulations in SU(3) quenched QCD. These results indicate that there is no direct, one-to-one correspondence between confinement and chiral sy…
We show that in four-dimensional gauge theories dual to five-dimensional Einstein gravity coupled to a single scalar field in the bulk the derivative of the single heavy quark free energy in the deconfined phase is $dF_{Q}(T)/dT \sim -1/c_s^2(T)$, where $c_s(T)$ is the speed of sound. This general result provides a direct link between the softest point in the equation of state of strongly-coupled plasmas and the deconfinement phase transition described by the expectation value of the Polyakov loop. We give an explicit example of a gravity dual with black hole solutions that can reproduce the l…
We calculate the transport coefficients, drag and momentum diffusion, of a heavy quark in a thermalized plasma of light quarks in the background of Polyakov loop. Quark thermal mass and the gluon Debye mass are calculated in a non-trivial Polyakov loop background. The constituent quark masses and the Polyakov loop is estimated within a Polyakov loop quark meson (PQM) model. The relevant scattering amplitudes for heavy quark and light partons in the background of Polyakov loop has been estimated within the matrix model. We have also compared the results with the Polyakov loop parameter estimate…
