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 $3.3\,M_π^{-1}$, where $ L M_π\geq 4$ for the majority of the ensembles. This allows us to perform a controlled extrapolation of all the low energy constants to the chiral, infinite volume and continuum limits. We find the SU(3) chiral condensate and $F_0$ to be smaller than their SU(2) counterparts while the Gell-Mann--Oakes--Renner parameters $B_0\approx B$ are similar. Regarding baryonic LECs, we obtain $F/D = 0.612^{(14)}_{(12)}$.
We report on our on-going project to compute mesonic and baryonic two- and three-point correlation functions in simulations using Nf=2 flavours of O(a) improved Wilson quarks and the Wilson plaquette action. We present performance figures for the DD-HMC algorithm on commodity cluster hardware and discuss the issue of critical slowing down, which is particularly pronounced for the topological charge. The effectiveness of stochastic noise sources and Jacobi smearing are investigated. Our preliminary results obtained at three quark masses on 96x48^3 at beta=5.5 imply that the lattice spacing is a…
The first results of a new application of the Thomas-Fermi statistical quark model to mesonic matter is presented. Interesting aspects of the theory are discussed, distinguishing such states from baryonic matter. A major motivation of this study is the tetraquark states discovered by the Belle and other collaborations and the possibility that stable multi-quark families of such states exist. Similar to our previous baryonic study, we use a two-inequivalent wave function approach to investigate aspects of multi-quark matter. We think of our model as a tool for quickly assessing the characterist…
We have implemented a new way of computing three-point correlation functions. It is based on a factorization of the entire correlation function into two parts which are evaluated with open spin- (and to some extent flavor-) indices. This allows us to estimate the two contributions simultaneously for many different initial and final states and momenta, with little computational overhead. We explain this factorization as well as its efficient implementation in a new library which has been written to provide the necessary functionality on modern parallel architectures and on CPUs, including Intel…
Lattice studies of QCD at high temperature has investigated the so called ``screening masses", corresponding to quark-antiquark states propagating in $spatial$ (rather than time) direction. Thirty years ago we pointed out that those should correspond to states of 2+1 dimensional quarkonia, and in this work we show that this correspondence provide quantitative description of the lattice data.
We investigate the high-temperature phase of QCD using lattice QCD simulations with $N_f = 2$ dynamical Möbius domain-wall fermions. On generated configurations, we study the axial $U(1)$ symmetry, overlap-Dirac spectra, screening masses from mesonic correlators, and topological susceptibility. We find that some of the observables are quite sensitive to lattice artifacts due to a small violation of the chiral symmetry. For those observables, we reweight the Möbius domain-wall fermion determinant by that of the overlap fermion. We also check the volume dependence of observables. Our data near t…
We consider spatial correlation lengths ξfor various QCD light quark bilinears at temperatures above a few hundred MeV. Some of the correlation lengths (such as that related to baryon density) coincide with what has been measured earlier on from glueball-like states; others do not couple to glueballs, and have a well-known perturbative leading-order expression as well as a computable next-to-leading-order correction. We determine the latter following analogies with the NRQCD effective theory, used for the study of heavy quarkonia at zero temperature: we find (for the quenched case) ξ^{-1} = 2 …
In order to study the fate of mesons in thermal QCD at finite baryon chemical potential, we consider light mesonic correlation functions using the Taylor expansion to ${\cal O}((μ/T)^2)$, in both the hadronic and quark-gluon plasma phases. We use the FASTSUM anisotropic fixed-scale lattices with $N_f = 2+1$ flavours of Wilson fermion. We find that mesonic correlators are sensitive to finite-density corrections and that the second-order terms indicate the chiral crossover in the vector and axial-vector channels.
Searches for tetraquarks and mesonic molecules in lattice QCD are briefly reviewed. In the light quark sector the most serious candidates are the lightest scalar resonances sigma, kappa, a0 and f0. In the hidden-charm sector I discuss lattice simulations of X(3872), Y(4260), Y(4140) and Z^+(4430). The most serious challenge in all these lattice studies is the presence of scattering states in addition to possible tetraquark/molecular states. The available methods for distinguishing both are reviewed and the main conclusions of the simulations are presented.
We present a strategy to study QCD non-perturbatively on the lattice at very high temperatures. This strategy exploits a non-perturbative, finite-volume, definition of the strong coupling constant to renormalize the theory. As a first application we compute the flavor non-singlet mesonic screening masses in a wide range of temperature, from $T\sim 1 $ GeV up to $\sim 160 $ GeV with three flavors in the chiral limit of QCD. Our results show very interesting features of the screening spectrum at very high temperatures. On one hand the mass splitting between the vector and the pseudoscalar screen…
We present an exploratory study of leading isospin breaking effects in mesonic masses using $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions. Isospin symmetry is explicitly broken by distinct masses and electric charges of the up and down quarks. In order to be able to make use of existing isosymmetric QCD gauge ensembles we apply reweighting techniques. The path integral describing QCD+QED is expanded perturbatively in powers of the light quarks' mass deviations and the electromagnetic coupling. We employ QED$_{\mathrm{L}}$ as a finite volume formulation of QED.
We discuss a strategy to study non-perturbatively QCD up to very high temperatures by Monte Carlo simulations on the lattice. It allows not only the thermodynamic properties of the theory but also other interesting thermal features to be investigated. As a first concrete application, we compute the flavour non-singlet mesonic screening masses and we present the results of Monte Carlo simulations at 12 temperatures covering the range from T $\sim$ 1 GeV up to $\sim$ 160 GeV in the theory with three massless quarks. On the one side, chiral symmetry restoration manifests itself in our results thr…
We present an exploratory study of leading isospin breaking effects in mesonic masses using $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions with open boundaries. Isospin symmetry is explicitly broken by distinct masses and electric charges of the up and down quarks. In order to be able to make use of existing isosymmetric QCD gauge ensembles we apply reweighting techniques. The path integral describing QCD+QED is expanded perturbatively in powers of deviations in the quark masses and the inverse strong coupling as well as the electromagnetic coupling. We have constructed QED$_{\mathrm{L}}$, which we use as a …
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 $μ$.
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…
We analyze temporal and spatial meson correlators in quenched lattice QCD at T>0. Below T_c we observe little change in the meson properties as compared with T=0. Above T_c we observe new features: chiral symmetry restoration and signals of plasma formation, but also indication of persisting mesonic (metastable) states and different temporal and spatial masses in the mesonic channels. This suggests a complex picture of QGP in the region 1 - 1.5 T_c.
Lattice NRQCD with leading finite lattice spacing errors removed is used to calculate decay constants of mesons made up of heavy quarks. Quenched simulations are done with a tadpole improved gauge action containing plaquette and six-link rectangular terms. The tadpole factor is estimated using the Landau link. For each of the three values of the coupling constant considered, quarkonia are calculated for five masses spanning the range from charmonium through bottomonium, and one set of quark masses is tuned to the B(c). "Perturbative" and nonperturbative meson masses are compared. One-loop pert…
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.
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…
The color-flavor transformation for the unitary group (Zirnbauer 1996) is extended to the special unitary group. The resulting partition function is represented as sum over disconnected sectors characterized by a U(1)-charge. Application to low energy QCD on a lattice leads to a theory where the inverse number of colors appears as expansion parameter. We use a saddle point approximation to estimate the partition function both in the pure mesonic sector and in the case of a single baryon on a mesonic background.
The derivative of the grand potential in mean field approximation, non-strange and strange condensates and deconfinement phase-transition in thermal and dense hadronic medium are verified in extended SU(3) linear sigma-model (eLSM). In determining the chiral phase-transition, the chiral condensates sigma_x and sigma_y are analysed. The chiral mesonic phase-structures in temperature- and density-dependence are taken as free parameters to be fitted. These parameters are classified corresponding to scalar meson nonets; (pseudo)-scalar and (axial)-vector. For deconfinement phase-transition, effect…
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…
We review the status of the coupling constants of chiral Lagrangians in the meson sector, the so-called low-energy constants (LECs). Special emphasis is put on the chiral $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ Lagrangians for the strong interactions of light mesons. The theoretical and experimental input for determining the corresponding LECs is discussed. In the two-flavour sector, we review the knowledge of the $O(p^4)$ LECs from both continuum fits and lattice QCD analyses. For chiral $SU(3)$, NNLO effects play a much bigger role. Our main new results are fits of the LECs $L_i$ both at NLO and NNLO, making ex…
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.
We apply to a lattice version of the 't~Hooft model, QCD in two space-time dimensions for large number of colours, a method recently proposed to obtain an effective mesonic action starting from the fundamental, fermionic one. The idea is to pass from a canonical, operatorial representation, where the low-energy states have a direct physical interpretation in terms of a Bogoliubov vacuum and its corresponding quasiparticle excitations, to a functional, path integral representation, via the formalism of the transfer matrix. In this way we obtain a lattice effective theory for mesons in a self-co…
We present a strategy based on the step-scaling technique to study non-perturbatively thermal QCD up to very high temperatures. As a first concrete application, we compute the flavour non-singlet meson screening masses at 12 temperatures covering the range from $T \sim 1$ GeV up to $\sim 160$ GeV in the theory with three massless quarks. The calculation is carried out by Monte Carlo simulations on the lattice by considering large spatial extensions in order to have negligible finite volume effects. For each temperature we have simulated 3 or 4 values of the lattice spacing, so as to perform th…
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 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.
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…
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.
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
We present simulation results for lattice QCD with chiral fermions in small volumes, where the epsilon-expansion of chiral perturbation theory applies. Our data for the low lying Dirac eigenvalues, as well as mesonic correlation functions, are in agreement with analytical predictions. This allows us to extract values for the leading Low Energy Constants F_{pi} and Sigma.
We present results for mesonic propagators in temporal and spatial direction and for topological properties at T below and above the deconfining transition in quenched QCD. We use anisotropic lattices and Wilson fermions.
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…
We present results for lattice QCD in the limit of infinite gauge coupling on a discrete spatial but continuous Euclidean time lattice. A worm type Monte Carlo algorithm is applied in order to sample two-point functions which gives access to the measurement of mesonic temporal correlators. The continuous time limit, based on sending $N_τ\rightarrow \infty$ and the bare anistotropy to infinity while fixing the temperature in a non-perturbative setup, has various advantages: the algorithm is sign problem free, fast, and accumulates high statistics for correlation functions. Even though the measu…
A gauge field link smearing method developed for calculations with staggered fermions, namely the use of unitarized fat7 links, is applied to mesonic and baryonic Wilson loop calculations. This method is found to be very effective for reducing statistical fluctuations for large Wilson loops. Examination of chromo-electric field distributions shows that self-interactions of the static sources are reduced when unitarized fat7 smearing is used but long-distance inter-quark effects are unchanged.
Using non-perturbative lattice method we studied hadronic screening correlators above and immediately below the deconfinement transition temperature, Tc, in the quenched approximation with lattice spacing of 1/(8T) using clover improved Wilson fermions. Simulations were performed at temperatures T /Tc = 0, 0.95 and 1.5. Mesonic screening correlators show no statistically significant thermal effects below Tc, and clear evidence for weakly interacting quarks above Tc . Baryon screening correlators yield similar physics above Tc, but show precursor effects for chiral symmetry restoration below Tc…
