In a previous paper \cite{Jahn:2018dke} we presented a methodology for computing the topological susceptibility of QCD at temperatures where it is small and standard methods fail. Here we improve on this methodology by removing two barriers to the reweighting method's moving between topological sectors. We present high-statistics, continuum-extrapolated results for the susceptibility of pure-glue QCD up to $7 T_c$. We show that the susceptibility varies with temperature as $T^{-6.7\pm 0.3}$ between $T=2.5 T_c$ and $T=7 T_c$, in good agreement with expectations based on the dilute instanton gas approximation.
The reweighting method developed in Glasgow to circumvent the lattice action becoming complex at finite density suffers from a pathological onset transition thought to be due to the reweighting. We present a new reweighting scheme based on this approach in which we combine ensembles to alleviate the sampling bias we identify in the polynomial coefficients of the fugacity expansion.
I apply a recently developed algorithm for reweighting simulations of lattice QCD from one quark mass to another to simulations performed with overlap fermions in the epsilon regime. I test it by computing the condensate from distributions of the low lying eigenvalues of the Dirac operator. Results seem favorable.
Finite density simulations require dynamical fermions which are computationally demanding. We employ Ferrenberg and Swendsen reweighting method to reduce the number of ensembles needed. We use their method to do a combined reweighting in both $β$ and quark number $k$ on an ensemble generated by the Kentucky group.
We comment on the reweighting method for the study of finite density lattice QCD. We discuss the applicable parameter range of the reweighting method for models which have more than one simulation parameter. The applicability range is determined by the fluctuations of the modification factor of the Boltzmann weight. In some models having a first order phase transition, the fluctuations are minimized along the phase transition line if we assume that the pressure in the hot and the cold phase is balanced at the first order phase transition point. This suggests that the reweighting method with tw…
The reweighting method is widely used in numerical studies of QCD, in particular, for the cases in which the conventional Monte-Carlo method cannot be applied directly, e.g., finite density QCD. However, the application range of the reweighing method is restricted due to several problems. One of the most severe problems here is the overlap problem. To solve it, we examine a multipoint reweighting method in which simulations at several simulation points are combined in the data analyses. We systematically study the applicability and limitation of the multipoint reweighting method in two-flavor …
Lattice QCD simulations at small lattice spacings and quark masses close to their physical values are technically challenging. In particular, the simulations can get trapped in the topological charge sectors of field space or may run into instabilities triggered by accidental near-zero modes of the lattice Dirac operator. As already noted in ref. [1], the first problem is bypassed if open boundary conditions are imposed in the time direction, while the second can potentially be overcome through twisted-mass determinant reweighting [2]. In this paper, we show that twisted-mass reweighting works…
We introduce a reweighting technique which allows for a continuous sampling of temperatures in a single simulation and employ it to compute the temperature dependence of the QCD topological susceptibility at high temperatures. The method determines the ratio of susceptibility between any two temperatures within the explored temperature range. We find that the results from the method agree with our previous determination and that it is competitive with but not better than existing methods of determining the temperature derivative of the susceptibility. The method may also be useful in exploring…
The Glasgow reweighting method is evaluated for SU(2) lattice gauge theory at nonzero μand finite T. We establish that the ' overlap problem' of SU(3) measurements, in which the transition points determined from thermodynamic observables have an unphysical dependence on the value of μused in the reweighting persists for SU(2). By combining the information from different lattice ensembles we alleviate sampling bias in the fugacity expansion, and identify the Lee-Yang zeros associated with the transition to a high density phase that can plausibly be associated with diquark condensation. We also …
One flavor mass reweighting can be used in lattice QCD computations to fine tune the quark masses to their physical values. We present a new method that utilizes an unbiased stochastic estimation of the one flavor determinant. The stochastic estimation is based on the integral representation of the determinant of a complex matrix, which we prove. In contrast to other methods it can also be applied in situations where the determinant has a complex phase. The stochastic error is controlled by determinant factorizations based on mass interpolation and Schur decomposition. As an example of an appl…
We study a reweighting method aiming at numerical studies of QCD at finite density, in which the conventional Monte-Carlo method cannot be applied directly. One of the most important problems in the reweighting method is the overlap problem. To solve it, we propose to perform simulations at several simulation points and combine their results in the data analyses. In this report, we introduce this multipoint reweighting method and test if the method works well by measuring histograms of physical quantities. Using this method, we calculate the meson masses as continuous functions of the gauge co…
The effect of sea quark electromagnetic charge on meson masses is investigated, and first results for full QED+QCD low-energy constants are presented. The electromagnetic charge for sea quarks is incorporated in quenched QED+full QCD lattice simulations by a reweighting method. The reweighting factor, which connects quenched and unquenched QED, is estimated using a stochastic method on 2+1 flavor dynamical domain-wall quark ensembles.
We study the end point of the first-order deconfinement phase transition in two and 2+1 flavor QCD in the heavy quark region of the quark mass parameter space. We determine the location of critical point at which the first-order deconfinement phase transition changes to crossover, and calculate the pseudo-scalar meson mass at the critical point. Performing quenched QCD simulations on lattices with the temporal extents Nt=6 and 8, the effects of heavy quarks are determined using the reweighting method. We adopt the hopping parameter expansion to evaluate the quark determinants in the reweightin…
We measure the topological susceptibility of quenched QCD on the lattice at two high temperatures. For this, we define topology with the help of gradient flow and mitigate the statistical problem of topology at high temperatures using a reweighting technique. This allows us to enhance tunneling events between topological sectors and alleviate topological freezing. We quote continuum extrapolated results for the susceptibility at $2.5$ and $4.1~T_\mathrm c$ that agree well with the existing literature. We conclude that the method is feasible and can be extended to unquenched QCD with no concept…
We study lattice QCD at non-vanishing chemical potential using the complex Langevin equation. We compare the results with multi-parameter reweighting both from $μ=0$ and phase quenched ensembles. We find a good agreement for lattice spacings below $\approx$0.15 fm. On coarser lattices the complex Langevin approach breaks down. Four flavors of staggered fermions are used on $N_t=4, 6$ and 8 lattices. For one ensemble we also use two flavors to investigate the effects of rooting.
Lattice simulations of non-zero density QCD introduce the so-called sign problem (complex or negative probabilities), which invalidates importance sampling methods. To circumvent this, we use the Complex Langevin Equation (CLE), to measure the boundary terms and then compare these results with the ones gotten from reweighting, confirming the expectations from previous studies. We also investigate boundary terms in simulations using CLE with dynamic stabilization and compare this, to results calculated with reweighting.
We present the reweighted complex Langevin method, which enlarges the applicability range of the complex Langevin method by reweighting the complex trajectories. In this reweighting procedure both the auxiliary and target ensembles have a complex action. We validate the method by applying it to two-dimensional strong-coupling QCD at nonzero chemical potential, and observe that it gives access to parameter regions that could otherwise not be reached with the complex Langevin method.
We calculate the topological susceptibility at 2.5 Tc and 4.1 Tc in SU(3) pure Yang-Mills theory. We define topology with the help of gradient flow and we largely overcome the problem of poor statistics at high temperatures by applying a reweighting technique in terms of the topological charge, measured after a specific small amount of gradient flow. This allows us to obtain a sample of configurations which compares topological sectors with good statistics, with enhanced tunneling between topologies. We quote continuum extrapolated results at these two temperatures and conclude that our method…
We investigate the QCD phase diagram for small values of baryon and strange quark chemical potentials from simulations at non-zero isospin chemical potential. Simulations at pure isospin chemical potential are not hindered by the sign problem and pion condensation can be observed for sufficiently large isospin chemical potentials. We study how the related phase boundary evolves with baryonic and strange chemical potentials via reweighting in quark chemical potentials and discuss our results. Furthermore, we propose and implement an alternative method to approach nonzero baryon (and strange qua…
We test the reweighting of the quark determinant of O(a) improved Wilson fermions in the domain-decomposed hybrid Monte-Carlo algorithm. Specifically, we implement a reweighting in a twisted-mass parameter proposed by Palombi and Lüscher in $N_{\rm f}=2$ QCD. We find that at equal acceptance rate, the algorithm is significantly more stable on a $32\times64^3$ lattice upon switching on the reweighting parameter. At the same time, the reweighting factor does not fluctuate strongly and hence is under control. At equal statistics, the uncertainty on the pion correlator is comparable to the case of…
We investigate the phase structure of 3-flavor QCD in the presence of finite quark chemical potential by using Wilson-Clover fermions. To deal with the complex action with finite density, we adopt the phase reweighting method. In order to survey a wide parameter region, we employ the multi-parameter reweighting method as well as the multi-ensemble reweighting method. Especially, we focus on locating the critical end point that characterizes the phase structure. It is estimated by the kurtosis intersection method for the quark condensate. For Wilson-type fermions, the correspondence between bar…
We study the QCD phase structure at high temperature and density adopting a histogram method. Because the quark determinant is complex at finite density, the Monte-Carlo method cannot be applied directly. We use a reweighting method and try to solve the problems which arise in the reweighting method, i.e. the sign problem and the overlap problem. We discuss the chemical potential dependence of the probability distribution function in the heavy quark mass region and examine the applicability of the approach in the light quark region.
Approaches to finite baryon density lattice QCD usually suffer from uncontrolled systematic uncertainties in addition to the well-known sign problem. We test a method - sign reweighting - that works directly at finite chemical potential and is yet free from any such uncontrolled systematics: with this approach the only problem is the sign problem itself. In practice the approach involves the generation of configurations with the positive fermionic weights given by the absolute value of the real part of the quark determinant, and a reweighting by a sign. There are only two sectors, +1 and -1 an…
The equation of state (EoS), quark number density and susceptibility at nonzero quark chemical potential $μ$ are studied in lattice QCD simulations with a clover-improved Wilson fermion of 2-flavors and RG-improved gauge action. To access nonzero $μ$, we employ two methods : a multi-parameter reweighting (MPR) in $μ$ and $β$ and Taylor expansion in $μ/T$. The use of a reduction formula for the Wilson fermion determinant enables to study the reweighting factor in MPR explicitly and heigher-order coefficients in Taylor expansion free from errors of noise method, although calculations are limited…
Path integrals describing quantum many-body systems can be calculated with Monte Carlo sampling techniques, but average quantities are often subject to signal-to-noise ratios that degrade exponentially with time. A phase-reweighting technique inspired by recent observations of random walk statistics in correlation functions is proposed that allows energy levels to be extracted from late-time correlation functions with time-independent signal-to-noise ratios. Phase reweighting effectively includes dynamical refinement of source magnitudes but introduces a bias associated with the phase. This bi…
We study the density of states method as well as reweighting to explore the low temperature phase diagram of QCD at finite baryon chemical potential. We use four flavors of staggered quarks, a tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action and four stout smearing steps on lattices with $N_s=4,6,8$ and $N_t=6 - 16$. We compare our results to that of the phase quenched ensemble and also determine the pion and nucleon masses. In the density of states approach we applied pion condensate or gauge action density fixing. We found that the density of states method performs similarly to reweighting. At $T \…
All approaches currently used to study finite baryon density lattice QCD suffer from uncontrolled systematic uncertainties in addition to the well-known sign problem. We formulate and test an algorithm, sign reweighting, that works directly at finite $μ= μ_B/3$ and is yet free from any such uncontrolled systematics. With this algorithm the {\em only} problem is the sign problem itself. This approach involves the generation of configurations with the positive fermionic weight $|{\rm Re\; det} D(μ)|$ where $D(μ)$ is the Dirac matrix and the signs ${\rm sign} \; ( {\rm Re\; det} D(μ) ) = \pm 1$ a…
We investigate the phase diagram in the temperature, imaginary chemical potential plane for QCD with three degenerate quark flavors using Wilson type fermions. While more expensive than the staggered fermions used in past studies in this area, Wilson fermions can be used safely to simulate systems with three quark flavors. In this talk, we focus on the (pseudo)critical line that extends from $μ=0$ in the imaginary chemical potential plane, trace it to the Roberge-Weiss line, and determine its location relative to the Roberge-Weiss transition point. In order to smoothly follow the (pseudo)criti…
We explore the phase space spanned by the temperature and the chemical potential for 4-flavor lattice QCD using the Wilson-clover quark action. In order to determine the order of the phase transition, we apply finite size scaling analyses to gluonic and quark observables including plaquette, Polyakov loop and quark number density, and examine their susceptibility, skewness, kurtosis and Challa-Landau-Binder cumulant. Simulations were carried out on lattices of a temporal size fixed at $N_{\text{t}}=4$ and spatial sizes chosen from $6^3$ up to $10^3$. Configurations were generated using the pha…
Within the reweighting approach, one has the freedom to choose the Monte Carlo action so that it provides a good overlap with the finite-μmeasure but remains simple to simulate. We explore several choices of action in the regime of small μ. Simulating with a finite isospin chemical potential μ_I=μgives a better overlap than the standard choice μ=0, with no computational overhead.
State-of-the-art lattice QCD studies of hot and dense strongly interacting matter currently rely on extrapolation from zero or imaginary chemical potentials. The ill-posedness of numerical analytic continuation puts severe limitations on the reliability of such methods. Here we use the more direct sign reweighting method to perform lattice QCD simulation of the QCD chiral transition at finite real baryon density on phenomenologically relevant lattices. This method does not require analytic continuation and avoids the overlap problem associated with generic reweighting schemes, so has only stat…
We present results on lattice QCD at finite temperature (T) and chemical potential (μ). We apply the overlap-improving multi-parameter reweighting technique for n_f=4 and 2+1 staggered QCD. We use semi-realistic masses on L_t=4 lattices. The critical endpoint (E) of 2+1 flavour QCD on the μ-T plane is located. Our results are based on {\cal{O}}(10^3-10^4) configurations.
We propose a practical way of circumventing the sign problem in lattice QCD simulations with a theta-vacuum term. This method is the reweighting method for the QCD Lagrangian after the U_A(1) transformation. In the Lagrangian, the P-odd mass term as a cause of the sign problem is minimized. In order to find out a good reference system in the reweighting method, we estimate the average reweighting factor by using the two-flavor NJL model and eventually find a good reference system.
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 axial $U(1)$ symmetry in the high-temperature phase is investigated with $N_f = 2$ lattice QCD simulations. The gauge ensembles are generated with Möbius domain-wall fermions, and the overlap/domain-wall reweighting is applied. We find that the $U(1)_A$ susceptibility evaluated from the spectrum of overlap-Dirac eigenvalues is strongly suppressed in the chiral limit. We also study its volume dependence.
In the Monte Carlo study of QCD at finite baryon density based upon the phase reweighting method, the pion condensation in the phase-quenched theory and associated zero-mode prevent us to go to the low-temperature high-density region. We propose a method to circumvent them by a simple modification of the density of state method. We first argue that the standard version of the density of state method, which is invented to solve the overlapping problem, is effective only for a certain `good' class of observables. We then modify it so as to solve the overlap problem for `bad' observables as well.…
We present N_t=4 lattice results 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 along the line of constant physics. Our physical parameters extend in temperature and baryon chemical potential upto \approx 500-600 MeV.
I review recent (and some not so recent) results on the topological susceptibility (with and without fermions), the eta-prime mass, topology and chiral symmetry breaking, vacuum topological structure, and the possible role of instantons in confinement.
We extend our earlier results concerning the breaking of the U_A(1) symmetry in finite temperature QCD. In particular, we use topological arguments to investigate the chiral limit.
Aiming to understand the phase structure of lattice QCD at nonzero temperature and density, we study the phase transitions of QCD in an extended parameter space, where the number of flavor and quark masses are considered as parameters. Performing simulations of 2 flavor QCD and using the reweighting method, we investigate (2+Nf) flavor QCD at finite density, where two light flavors and Nf massive flavors exist. Calculating probability distribution functions, we determine the critical surface terminating first order phase transitions in the parameter space of the light quark mass, the heavy qua…
We study the topological properties of full QCD with four flavours of dynamical staggered fermions. In particular the topological susceptibility is measured and the problem of the determination of its first derivative is discussed.
Since present Monte Carlo algorithms for lattice QCD may become trapped in a fixed topological charge sector, it is important to understand the effect of calculating at fixed topology. In this work, we show that although the restriction to a fixed topological sector becomes irrelevant in the infinite volume limit, it gives rise to characteristic finite size effects due to contributions from all $θ$-vacua. We calculate these effects and show how to extract physical results from numerical data obtained at fixed topology.
We aim at reducing the uncertainties inherent in the analysis of the topological structure by using scale controlled smoothing and observables independent on the "microscopic" description of the instanton ensemble.
We explore the phase diagram spanned by the temperature and the chemical potential for 4-flavor QCD by the phase-reweighting approach. In order to determine the order of phase transition, we perform finite size scaling studies for various quantities, for example, susceptibility, kurtosis and Challa-Landau-Binder cumulant. At the parameter (beta=1.60, kappa=0.1371, c_sw=1.9655 and N_T=4), where the Kentucky group reported a first-order phase transition in their canonical simulation, we observe that the transition is consistent with being of first order.
We investigate the critical endpoints of the finite temperature phase transition of QCD at zero chemical potential. We employ the renormalization-group improved Iwasaki gauge action and non-perturbatively O(a)-improved Wilson-clover fermion action. The critical endpoints are determined by using the intersection point of kurtosis, employing the multi-parameter, multi-ensemble reweighting method. We present results for the critical endline at $N_{\rm T}$ = 6 and the continuum extrapolation for the critical endpoint of the SU(3)-flavor symmetric point.
Because present Monte Carol algorithms for lattice QCD may become trapped in a given topological charge sector when one approaches the continuum limit, it is important to understand the effect of calculating at fixed topology. In this work, we show that although the restriction to a fixed topological sector becomes irrelevant in the infinite volume limit, it gives rise to characteristic finite size effects due to contributions from all $θ$-vacua. We calculate these effects and show how to extract physical results from numerical data obtained at fixed topology.
We study lattice QCD with a gauge action, which suppresses small plaquette values. Thus the MC history is confined to a single topological sector over a significant time, while other observables are decorrelated. This enables the cumulation of statistics with a specific topological charge, which is needed for simulations of QCD in the $ε$-regime. The same action may also be useful for simulations with dynamical quarks. The update is performed with a local HMC algorithm.
We present results for the mass of the flavor singlet meson calculated on two-flavor full QCD configurations generated by the CP-PACS full QCD project. We also investigate topological charge fluctuations and their dependence on the sea quark mass.
The WHOT-QCD Collaboration is pushing forward a series of lattice studies of QCD at finite temperatures and densities using improved Wilson quarks. Because Wilson-type quarks require more computational resources than the more widely adopted staggered-type quarks, various theoretical and computational techniques have to be developed and applied. In this paper, we introduce the fixed-scale approach armed with the T-integration method, the Gaussian method based on the cumulant expansion, and the histogram method combined with the reweighting technique. Adopting these methods, we have carried out …
We briefly review the overlap formalism for chiral gauge theories, the overlap Dirac operator for massless fermions and its connection to domain wall fermions. We describe properties of the overlap Dirac operator, and methods to implement it numerically. Finally, we give some examples of quenched calculations of chiral symmetry breaking and topology with overlap fermions.
We investigate the realization of chiral symmetry in the vicinity of the deconfinement transition in quenched QCD using overlap fermions. Via the index theorem obeyed by the overlap fermions, we gain insight into the behavior of topology at finite temperature. We find small eigenvalues, clearly separated from the bulk of the eigenvalues, and study the properties of their distribution. We compare the distribution with a model of a dilute gas of instantons and anti-instantons and find good agreement.
We present some new results regarding simulations of finite density QCD based on a canonical approach. A previous study has shown that such simulations are feasible, at least on small lattices. In the current study, we investigate some of the issues left open: we study the errors introduced by our approximation of the action and we show how to tune it to reduce the cost of the simulations while keeping the errors under control. To further reduce the cost of the simulations, we check the reliability of reweighting method with respect to the baryon number. Finally, using these optimizations, we …
We propose a method to obtain physical quantities in the theta vacuum from those at fixed topology, which are different by finite size effects. Extending the work by Brower et al., we derive the formula to estimate these finite size corrections for arbitrary correlators in terms of the topological susceptibility and the theta dependence. Applying this formula, we show that topological susceptibility can be measured through two-point functions of pseudoscalar operator.
We investigate the performance of the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm in updating non-trivial global topological structures. We find that the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm has serious problems decorrelating the global topological charge. This represents a warning which must be seriously considered when simulating full QCD, regardless of the number and type of fermions, with this or any similar algorithm. Simulated tempering is examined as a means of accelerating the decorrelation.
The topological susceptibility is an important quantity in QCD, which can be computed using lattice methods. However, at a fine lattice spacing, or when using high quality chirally symmetric quarks, algorithms which proceed in small update steps --- in particular the HMC algorithm --- tend to get stuck in a single topological sector. In such cases, the computation of the topological susceptibility is not straightforward. Here, we explore two methods to extract the topological susceptibility from lattice QCD simulations restricted to a single topological sector. The first method is based on the…
The overlap Dirac operator, which satisfies the Ginsparg-Wilson relation, realizes exact chiral symmetry on the lattice without any unphysical doubler modes. To perform the path integrals, one should, however, note that the overlap fermion determinant has discontinuities where the topology is ill-defined, its locality is doubtful, and the numerical cost is suddenly enhanced. An interesting solution would be to concentrate on a fixed topological sector in the full configuration space. In this thesis, we test a gauge action which automatically satisfies Luescher's admissibility condition, as wel…
In this letter we give the equation of state of QCD at finite temperatures and densities. The recently proposed overlap improving multi-parameter reweighting technique is used to determine observables at nonvanishing chemical potentials. Our results are obtained by studying n_f=2+1 dynamical staggered quarks with semi-realistic masses on N_t=4 lattices.
