Heavy and dense QCD from a 3d effective lattice theory

Abstract

The cold and dense regime of the QCD phase diagram is to this day inaccessible to first principle lattice calculations owing to the sign problem. Here we present progress of an ongoing effort to probe this particularly difficult regime utilising a dimensionally reduced effective lattice theory with a significantly reduced sign problem. The effective theory is derived by combined character and hopping expansion and is valid for heavy quarks near the continuum. We show an extension of the effective theory to order u 5 k 8 in the cold regime. A linked cluster expansion is applied to the effective theory resulting in a consistent mechanism for handling the effective theory fully analytically. The new results are consistent with the ones from simulations confirming the viability of analytic methods. Finally we resum the analytical result which doubles the convergence region of the expansion.