QCD Equation Research Articles

Effective model of QCD magnetic monopoles from numerical study of one- and two-component Coulomb quantum Bose gases

Magnetic monopoles are suggested to play an important role in strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) near the deconfinement temperature. So far, their many-body treatment has only been done classically, with just binary scattering solved in quantum mechanics. In this paper we start quantum many-body studies of the monopole ensembles. Specifically, we carry out numerical simulations of the path integral for one- and two-component Coulomb Bose systems. We determine the relation between the critical temperature for the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition $T_\text{c}$ and the Coulomb coupling strength using two methods, the classic finite-size scaling of the condensate and a lattice-tested method based on permutation cycles. For a one-component Coulomb Bose gas, we observe the same behavior of the critical temperature -- initially rising slightly then falling as interaction strength is increased -- as seen in the case of hard spheres; we also observe the same behavior for a two-component Coulomb Bose gas. We then calculate sets of radial correlation functions between the like and unlike charged particles. By matching those with the correlation functions previously calculated on the lattice, we derive an effective quantum model of color magnetic monopoles in QCD. From this matched model, we are able to extract the monopole contribution to QCD equation of state near $T_\text{c}$.

QCD equation of state to O(μB6) from lattice QCD

We calculated the QCD equation of state using Taylor expansions that include contributions from up to sixth order in the baryon, strangeness and electric charge chemical potentials. Calculations have been performed with the Highly Improved Staggered Quark action in the temperature range $T\in [135~{\rm MeV}, 330~{\rm MeV}]$ using up to four different sets of lattice cut-offs corresponding to lattices of size $N_\sigma^3\times N_\tau$ with aspect ratio $N_\sigma/N_\tau=4$ and $N_\tau =6-16$. The strange quark mass is tuned to its physical value and we use two strange to light quark mass ratios $m_s/m_l=20$ and $27$, which in the continuum limit correspond to a pion mass of about $160$ MeV and $140$ MeV espectively. Sixth-order results for Taylor expansion coefficients are used to estimate truncation errors of the fourth-order expansion. We show that truncation errors are small for baryon chemical potentials less then twice the temperature ($\mu_B\le 2T$). The fourth-order equation of state thus is suitable for the modeling of dense matter created in heavy ion collisions with center-of-mass energies down to $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\sim 12$ GeV. We provide a parametrization of basic thermodynamic quantities that can be readily used in hydrodynamic simulation codes. The results on up to sixth order expansion coefficients of bulk thermodynamics are used for the calculation of lines of constant pressure, energy and entropy densities in the $T$-$\mu_B$ plane and are compared with the crossover line for the QCD chiral transition as well as with experimental results on freeze-out parameters in heavy ion collisions. These coefficients also provide estimates for the location of a possible critical point. We argue that results on sixth order expansion coefficients disfavor the existence of a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for $\mu_B/T\le 2$ and $T/T_c(\mu_B=0) > 0.9$.

Effects of QCD equation of state on the stochastic gravitational wave background

Cosmological phase transitions can be a source of Stochastic Gravitational Wave (SGW) background. Apart from the dynamics of the phase transition, the characteristic frequency and the fractional energy density Ωgw of the SGW depends upon the temperature of the transition. In this article, we compute the SGW spectrum in the light of QCD equation of state provided by the lattice results. We find that the inclusion of trace anomaly from lattice QCD, enhances the SGW signal generated during QCD phase transition by ∼ 50% and the peak frequency of the QCD era SGW are shifted higher by ∼ 25% as compared to the earlier estimates without trace anomaly. This result is extremely significant for testing the phase transition dynamics near QCD epoch.

Equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of the QGP in a magnetic field: a holographic approach

This manuscript reviews recent theoretical progress on the understanding of the quark gluon plasma in a magnetic field that I presented on the conference Hot Quarks 2016, held at South Padre Island, Texas, USA, 12-17 September 2016. It is shown that, using a holographic bottom-up Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton model, one can have a good quantitative agreement with Lattice result for QCD equation of state and Polyakov loop with nonzero magnetic field. I also present results for the anisotropic shear viscosity ratio η||/η⊥, with the conclusion that η|| < η⊥ for non-zero magnetic field.

Saturation and geometrical scaling

We discuss emergence of geometrical scaling as a consequence of the nonlinear evolution equations of QCD, which generate a new dynamical scale, known as the saturation momentum: Qs. In the kinematical region where no other energy scales exist, particle spectra exhibit geometrical scaling (GS), i.e. they depend on the ratio pT=Qs, and the energy dependence enters solely through the energy dependence of the saturation momentum. We confront the hypothesis of GS in different systems with experimental data.

QCD Thermodynamics in the Crossover/Freeze-out Region

We use results from a 6-th order Taylor expansion of the QCD equation of state to construct expansions for cumulants of conserved charge fluctuations and their correlations. We show that these cumulants strongly constrain the range of applicability of hadron resonance gas model calculations. We point out that the latter is inappropriate to describe equilibrium properties of QCD at zero and non-zero values of the baryon chemical potential already at T~155 MeV.

Thermodynamically Consistent Formulation of Quasiparticle Viscous Hydrodynamics

A novel formulation of second-order relativistic viscous fluid dynamics based on the effective Boltzmann equation for quasi-particles with medium-dependent masses is briefly reviewed.~The evolution equations for the shear and bulk dissipative corrections, and the corresponding transport coefficients, are presented. Resulting approach allows for thermodynamically-consistent incorporation of lattice QCD equation of state in the fluid dynamical framework.

The QCD equation of state at finite density from analytical continuation

An effcient way to study the QCD phase diagram at small finite density is to extrapolate thermodynamical observables from imaginary chemical potential. In this talk we present results on several observables for the equation of state to order (μB /T )6 . The observables are calculated along the isentropic trajectories in the (T , μB ) plane corresponding to the RHIC Beam Energy Scan collision energies. The simulations are performed at the physical mass for the light and strange quarks. μs was tuned in a way to enforce strangeness neutrality to match the experimental conditions; the results are continuum extrapolated using lattices of up to Nt = 16 temporal resolution.

Lattice QCD results on cumulant ratios at freeze-out

Ratios of cumulants of net proton-number fluctuations measured by the STAR Collaboration show strong deviations from a skellam distribution, which should describe thermal properties of cumulant ratios, if proton-number fluctuations are generated in equilibrium and a hadron resonance gas (HRG) model would provide a suitable description of thermodynamics at the freeze-out temperature. We present some results on 6th order cumulants entering the calculation of the QCD equation of state at non-zero values of the baryon chemical potential (μB) and discuss limitations on the applicability of HRG thermodynamics deduced from a comparison between QCD and HRG model calculations of cumulants of conserved charge fluctuations. We show that basic features of the μB-dependence of skewness and kurtosis ratios of net proton-number fluctuations measured by the STAR Collaboration resemble those expected from a QCD calculation of the corresponding net baryon-number cumulant ratios.

Polyakov loop and heavy quark entropy in strong magnetic fields from holographic black hole engineering

We investigate the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the Polyakov loop and heavy quark entropy in a bottom-up Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) holographic model for the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) that quantitatively matches lattice data for the $(2+1)$-flavor QCD equation of state at finite magnetic field and physical quark masses. We compare the holographic EMD model results for the Polyakov loop at zero and nonzero magnetic fields and the heavy quark entropy at vanishing magnetic field with the latest lattice data available for these observables and find good agreement for temperatures $T\gtrsim 150$ MeV and magnetic fields $eB\lesssim 1$ GeV$^2$. Predictions for the behavior of the heavy quark entropy at nonzero magnetic fields are made that could be readily tested on the lattice.

GLOBAL PROPERTIES OF ROTATING NEUTRON STARS WITH QCD EQUATIONS OF STATE

ABSTRACT We numerically investigate global properties of rotating neutron stars (NSs) using the allowed band of QCD equations of state derived by Kurkela et al. This band is constrained by chiral effective theory at low densities and perturbative QCD at high densities, and is thus, in essence, a controlled constraint from first-principles physics. Previously, this band of equations of state was used to investigate non-rotating NSs only; in this work, we extend these results to any rotation frequency below the mass-shedding limit. We investigate mass–radius curves, allowed mass–frequency regions, radius–frequency curves for a typical star, and the values of the moment of inertia of the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A, a pulsar for which the moment of inertia may be constrained observationally in a few years. We present limits on observational data coming from these constraints, and identify values of observationally relevant parameters that would further constrain the allowed region for the QCD equation of state. We also discuss how much this region would be constrained by a measurement of the moment of inertia of the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A.

Phenomenological QCD equations of state for neutron stars

We delineate the properties of QCD matter at baryon density nB=1−10n0 (n0: nuclear saturation density), through the construction of neutron star equations of state that satisfy the neutron star mass-radius constraints as well as physical conditions on the speed of sound. The QCD matter is described in the 3-window modeling: at nB≲2n0 purely nuclear matter; at nB≳5n0 percolated quark matter; and at 2n0≲nB≲5n0 matter intermediate between these two which are constructed by interpolation. Using a schematic quark model with effective interactions inspired from hadron and nuclear physics, we analyze the strength of interactions necessary to describe observed neutron star properties. Our finding is that the interactions should remain as strong as in the QCD vacuum, indicating that gluons at nB=1−10n0 remain non-perturbative even after quark matter formation.

Thermal relaxation, electrical conductivity, and charge diffusion in a hot QCD medium

The response of electromagnetic (EM) fields that are produced in non-central heavy-ion collisions to electromagnetically charged quark gluon plasma can be understood in terms of charge transport and charge diffusion in the hot QCD medium. This article presents a perspective on these processes by investigating the temperature behavior of the related transport coefficients, {\it viz.} electrical conductivity and the charge diffusion coefficients along with charge susceptibility. In the process of estimating them, thermal relaxation times for quarks and gluons have been determined first. These transport coefficients have been studied by solving the relativistic transport equation in the Chapman-Enskog method. For the analysis, $2\rightarrow 2$, quark-quark, quark-gluon and gluon-gluon scattering processes are taken into account along with an effective description of hot QCD Equations of state (EOSs) in terms of temperature dependent effective fugacities of quasi-quarks (anti-quarks) and quasi-gluons. Both improved perturbative hot QCD EOSs at high temperature and a lattice QCD EOS are included for the analysis. The hot QCD medium effects entering through the quasi-particle momentum distributions along with an effective coupling, are seen to have significant impact on the temperature behavior of these transport parameters along with the thermal relaxation times for the quasi-gluons and quasi-quarks

Tensor polarization dependent fragmentation functions ande+e−→VπXat high energies

We present the systematic results for three dimensional fragmentation functions of spin one hadrons defined via quark-quark correlator. There are totally 72 such fragmentation functions, among them 18 are twist-2, 36 are twist-3 and 18 are twist-4. We also present the relationships between the twist-3 parts and those defined via quark-gluon-quark correlator obtained from the QCD equation of motion. We show that two particle semi-inclusive hadron production process $e^+e^-\to V\pi X$ at high energies is one of the best places to study the three-dimensional tensor polarization dependent fragmentation functions. We present the general kinematic analysis of this process and show that the cross section should be expressed in terms of 81 independent structure functions. After that we present parton model results for the hadronic tensor, the structure functions, the azimuthal and spin asymmetries in terms of these gauge invariant fragmentation functions at the leading order pQCD up to twist-3.

Recent results on lattice QCD thermodynamics

I review recent results on QCD thermodynamics from lattice simulations. In particular, I will focus on the QCD equation of state at zero and finite chemical potential, the curvature of the phase diagram and fluctuations of conserved charges. The latter are compared to experimental data, to the purpose of extracting the chemical freeze-out temperature and chemical potential from first principles.

The pressure of hot QCD

When heated and/or compressed, strongly interacting matter exhibits a rich phase structure. In this talk, I will concentrate on its behavior under variations of the temperature, which is most relevant for phenomenological applications such as in cosmology, heavy-ion collisions, and astrophysics.In particular, effective field theory methods can be used to combine lattice and continuum calculations, in order to obtain high-precision results for the relevant thermodynamic quantities such as the QCD pressure and equation of state. I will discuss the current status of this systematic approach to QCD thermodynamics, and point out the remaining (technical) problems.

Hydrodynamic simulations of relativistic heavy-ion collisions with different lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations of the equation of state

Hydrodynamic calculations of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions are performed using the iEBE-VISHNU 2+1D code with fluctuating initial conditions and three different parameterizations of the Lattice QCD equations of state: continuum extrapolations for stout and HISQ/tree actions, as well as the s95p-v1 parameterization based upon calculations using the p4 action. All parameterizations are matched to a hadron resonance gas equation of state at T = 155 MeV, at which point the calculations are continued using the UrQMD hadronic cascade. Calculations for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Au+Au collisions in three centrality classes are compared to experimental data for final state particle spectra and anisotropic flow coefficients $v_2$ and $v_3$ as well as for pion HBT radii. Experimental observables for the stout and HISQ/tree equations of state are observed to differ by less than a few percent for all observables, while the s95p-v1 equation of state generates spectra and flow coefficients which differ by ~10-20%. Calculations in which the HISQ/tree equation of state is sampled from the published error distribution are also observed to differ by less than a few percent.

Toward a consistent evolution of the quark-gluon plasma and heavy quarks

Heavy-quark observables in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, like the nuclear modification factor and the elliptic flow, give insight into the mechanisms of high-momentum suppression and low-momentum thermalization of heavy quarks. Here, we present a global study of these two observables within a coupled approach of the heavy-quark propagation in a realistic fluid dynamical medium, MC@sHQ+EPOS2, and compare to experimental data from RHIC and LHC experiments. The heavy quarks scatter elastically and inelastically with the quasiparticles of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), which are represented consistently with the underlying equation of state. We examine two scenarios: first, we interpret the lattice QCD equation of state as a sum of partonic and hadronic contributions, and second, as a gas of massive partonic quasiparticles. It is observed that independent of their momentum the energy loss of heavy quarks depends strongly on how the lattice QCD equation of state is translated into degrees of freedom of the QGP.

Energy loss, equilibration, and thermodynamics of a baryon rich strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma

Lattice data for the QCD equation of state and the baryon susceptibility near the crossover phase transition (at zero baryon density) are used to determine the input parameters of a 5-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton holographic model that provides a consistent holographic framework to study both equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium properties of a hot and {\it baryon rich} strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We compare our holographic equation of state computed at nonzero baryon chemical potential, $\mu_B$, with recent lattice calculations and find quantitative agreement for the pressure and the speed of sound for $\mu_B \leq 400$ MeV. This holographic model is used to obtain holographic predictions for the temperature and $\mu_B$ dependence of the drag force and the Langevin diffusion coefficients associated with heavy quark jet propagation as well as the jet quenching parameter $\hat{q}$ and the shooting string energy loss of light quarks in the baryon dense plasma. We find that the energy loss of heavy and light quarks generally displays a nontrivial, fast-varying behavior as a function of the temperature near the crossover. Moreover, energy loss is also found to generally increase due to nonzero baryon density effects even though this strongly coupled liquid cannot be described in terms of well defined quasiparticle excitations. Furthermore, to get a glimpse of how thermalization occurs in a hot and baryon dense QGP, we study how the lowest quasinormal mode of an external massless scalar disturbance in the bulk is affected by a nonzero baryon charge. We find that the equilibration time associated with the lowest quasinormal mode decreases in a dense medium.

Toward a deeper understanding of how experiments constrain the underlying physics of heavy-ion collisions

Recent work has provided the means to rigorously determine properties of super-hadronic matter from experimental data through the application of broad scale modeling of high-energy nuclear collisions within a Bayesian framework. These studies have provided unprecedented statistical inferences about the physics underlying nuclear collisions by virtue of simultaneously considering a wide range of model parameters and experimental observables. Notably, this approach has been used to constrain both the QCD equation of state and the shear viscosity above the quark-hadron transition. Although the inferences themselves have a clear meaning, the complex nature of the relationships between model parameters and observables have remained relatively obscure. We present here a novel extension of the standard Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach that allows for the quantitative determination of how inferences of model parameters are driven by experimental measurements and their uncertainties. This technique is then applied in the context of heavy ion collisions in order to explore previous results in greater depth. The resulting relationships are useful for identifying model weaknesses, prioritizing future experimental measurements, and most importantly: developing an intuition for the role that different observables play in constraining our understanding of the underlying physics.