QCD phase structure with 8 light quark flavors

Abstract

The QCD phase structure with eight degenerate flavors is studied on 16 3 × N t lattices with N t = 4, 8, 16 and 32. A dynamical quark of mass ma = 0.015 was used in the simulation. In calculating 〈ḡcχ〉 and hadron propagator, we also used valence quark masses of ma = 0.004, 0.01 and 0.025 in order to study the chiral property of the phases. A strong, first order chiral symmetry restoring phase transition is seen at N t = 4 and 8 with different β c . However, β c becomes independent of N t when N t ≥ 8, indicating a bulk or zero temperature phase transition with β c = 4.59(2). A chirally symmetric phase at β = 5.0 is seen while in the region of weak coupling with β ≈ β c hadron propagators suggest a chirally asymmetric behavior.