Fugacity Expansion Research Articles

Corrections to the hadron resonance gas from lattice QCD and their effect on fluctuation-ratios at finite density

The hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is often believed to correctly describe the confined phase of QCD. This assumption is the basis of many phenomenological works on QCD thermodynamics and of the analysis of hadron yields in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We use first-principle lattice simulations to calculate corrections to the ideal HRG. Namely, we determine the sub-leading fugacity expansion coefficients of the grand canonical free energy, receiving contributions from processes like kaon-kaon or baryon-baryon scattering. We achieve this goal by performing a two dimensional scan on the imaginary baryon number chemical potential ($\mu_B$) - strangeness chemical potential ($\mu_S$) plane, where the fugacity expansion coefficients become Fourier coefficients. We carry out a continuum limit estimation of these coefficients by performing lattice simulations with temporal extents of $N_\tau=8,10,12$ using the 4stout-improved staggered action. We then use the truncated fugacity expansion to extrapolate ratios of baryon number and strangeness fluctuations and correlations to finite chemical potentials. Evaluating the fugacity expansion along the crossover line, we reproduce the trend seen in the experimental data on net-proton fluctuations by the STAR collaboration.

Equation of state of hydrogen, helium, and solar plasmas

AbstractThe equation of state (EOS) for plasmas of the two lightest elements H and He, and mixtures as typical for the plasmas in the sun are calculated. The contributions of deep bound states are included by using inverted fugacity expansions. The inversion of fugacities to densities is reduced to solvable algebraic problems and expressed by rational polynomials. The calculation of relative pressures is carried out separately for low and high densities. Near the crossing point, in between, the separate solutions are connected to each other by smooth concatenation. Applications to hydrogen–helium plasmas in the sun including estimates for the isentropic EOS are discussed.

Lattice-based QCD equation of state at finite baryon density: Cluster Expansion Model

The QCD equation of state at finite baryon density is studied in the framework of a Cluster Expansion Model (CEM), which is based on the fugacity expansion of the net baryon density. The CEM uses the two leading Fourier coefficients, obtained from lattice simulations at imaginary μB, as the only model input and permits a closed analytic form. Excellent description of the available lattice data at both μB = 0 and at imaginary μB is obtained. We also demonstrate how the Fourier coefficients can be reconstructed from baryon number susceptibilities.

Bridging the gap between correlation entropy functionals in the mean spherical and the hypernetted chain approximations: a field theoretic description

The correlation entropy as a functional of radial distribution function (or the total correlation function ) in classical fluids has been obtained from the second Legendre transform of the grand potential. We focus on the correlation entropy difference between the two typical functionals in the mean spherical approximation (MSA) and the hypernetted chain (HNC) approximation. While the entropy functional difference between these approximations is of a simple form, the diagrammatic approaches in the liquid state theory are quite different from each other. Here we clarified the gap between the MSA and HNC functionals by developing a field theoretic description of the correlation functional theory that combines the variational principle of lower bound free energy, the conventional saddle-point approximation of a reference system to be optimized based on the variational principle, and the hybrid treatment of the saddle-point approximation and the fugacity expansion for modifying the primary optimization. Our formulation demonstrates that the MSA functional is reproduced by the first maximization of the variational functional in the saddle-point approximation, and that the HNC functional is obtained from the improved maximization of the virial term due to the fugacity expansion around the MSA functional. The virial term leads to the modification of a reference system interacting via the direct correlation function, thereby creating the correlation entropy difference.

Restoring canonical partition functions from imaginary chemical potential

Using GPGPU techniques and multi-precision calculation we developed the code to study QCD phase transition line in the canonical approach. The canonical approach is a powerful tool to investigate sign problem in Lattice QCD. The central part of the canonical approach is the fugacity expansion of the grand canonical partition functions. Canonical partition functions Zn(T) are coefficients of this expansion. Using various methods we study properties of Zn(T). At the last step we perform cubic spline for temperature dependence of Zn(T) at fixed n and compute baryon number susceptibility χB/T2 as function of temperature. After that we compute numerically ∂χ/∂T and restore crossover line in QCD phase diagram. We use improved Wilson fermions and Iwasaki gauge action on the 163 × 4 lattice with mπ/mρ = 0.8 as a sandbox to check the canonical approach. In this framework we obtain coefficient in parametrization of crossover line Tc(µ2B) = Tc(C−ĸµ2B/T2c) with ĸ = −0.0453 ± 0.0099.

Hadron thermodynamics from imaginary chemical potentials

We use 4stout improved staggered lattice data at imaginary chemical potentials to calculate fugacity expansion coefficients in finite temperature QCD. We discuss the phenomenological interpretation of our results within the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model, and the hints they give us about the hadron spectrum. We also discuss features of the higher order coefficients that are not captured by the HRG. This conference contribution is based on our recent papers [1, 2].,

Repulsive baryonic interactions and lattice QCD observables at imaginary 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 of the net-baryon density at imaginary baryochemical potential – corresponding to the fugacity or virial expansion at real chemical potential – are calculated within this model, and compared with the Nt=12 lattice data. The lattice QCD behavior of the first four Fourier coefficients up to T≃185 MeV is described fairly well by an interacting HRG with a single baryon–baryon eigenvolume interaction parameter b≃1 fm3, while the available lattice data on the difference χ2B−χ4B of baryon number susceptibilities is reproduced up to T≃175 MeV.

Crystalline Ordering and Large Fugacity Expansion for Hard-Core Lattice Particles.

Using an extension of Pirogov-Sinai theory, we prove phase transitions, corresponding to sublattice orderings, for a general class of hard-core lattice particle systems with a finite number of perfect coverings. These include many cases for which such transitions have been proven. The proof also shows that for these systems the Gaunt-Fisher expansion of the pressure in powers of the inverse fugacity (aside from an explicit logarithmic term) has a nonzero radius of convergence.

Sign problem in finite density lattice QCD

The canonical approach, which was developed for solving the sign problem, may suffer from a new type of sign problem. In the canonical approach, the grand partition function is written as a fugacity expansion: $Z_G(\mu,T) = \sum_n Z_C(n,T) \xi^n$, where $\xi=\exp(\mu/T)$ is the fugacity, and $Z_C(n,T)$ are given as averages over a Monte Carlo update, $\langle z_n\rangle$. We show that the complex phase of $z_n$ is proportional to $n$ at each Monte Carlo step. Although $\langle z_n\rangle$ take real positive values, the values of $z_n$ fluctuate rapidly when $n$ is large, especially in the confinement phase, which gives a limit on $n$. We discuss possible remedies for this problem.

Lee-Yang zero distribution of high temperature QCD and the Roberge-Weiss phase transition

Canonical partition functions and Lee-Yang zeros of QCD at finite density and high temperature are studied. Recent lattice simulations have confirmed that the free energy of QCD is a quartic function of quark chemical potential at temperature slightly above pseudo-critical temperature $T_c$, as in the case with a gas of free massless fermions. We present analytic derivation of the canonical partition functions and Lee-Yang zeros for this type of free energy using the saddle point approximation. We also perform lattice QCD simulation in a canonical approach using the fugacity expansion of the fermion determinant, and carefully examine its reliability. By comparing the analytic and numerical results, we conclude that the canonical partition functions follow the Gaussian distribution of the baryon number, and the accumulation of Lee-Yang zeros of these canonical partition functions exhibit the first-order Roberge-Weiss phase transition. We discuss the validity and applicable range of the result and its implications both for theoretical and experimental studies.

Taylor and fugacity expansion for the effective ℤ3 spin model of QCD at finite density

Different series expansions in the chemical potential μ are studied and compared for an effective theory of QCD which has a flux representation where the complex action is overcome. In particular we consider fugacity series, Taylor expansion and a modified Taylor expansion and compare the outcome of these series to the reference results from a Monte Carlo simulation in the flux representation where arbitrary μ is accessible. It is shown that for most parameter values the fugacity expansion gives the best approximation to the data from the flux simulation, followed by our newly proposed modified Taylor expansion. For the conventional Taylor expansion we find that the results coincide with the flux data only for very small μ.

Medium effects and the shear viscosity of the dilute Fermi gas away from the conformal limit

We study the shear viscosity of a dilute Fermi gas as a function of the scattering length in the vicinity of the unitarity limit. The calculation is based on kinetic theory, which provides a systematic approach to transport properties in the limit in which the fugacity $z=n\lambda^3/2$ is small. Here, $n$ is the density of the gas and $\lambda$ is the thermal wave length of the fermions. At leading order in the fugacity expansion the shear viscosity is independent of density, and the minimum shear viscosity is achieved at unitarity. At the next order medium effects modify the scattering amplitude as well as the quasi-particle energy and velocity. We show that these effects shift the minimum of the shear viscosity to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) side of the resonance, in agreement with the result of recent experiments.

Mean field theory of effective spin models as a baryon fugacity expansion

The free energy of effective spin or "Polyakov line" models with a chemical potential, based on the U(N) group, does not depend on the chemical potential. In a mean field-inspired expansion, we show how the condition of unit determinant, taking U(N) to SU(N), reintroduces the chemical potential, and allows us to express the free energy, as a function of mean field variational parameters, in terms of an expansion in the baryon (rather than the quark) fugacity at each lattice site. We solve the SU(3) mean field equations numerically to determine the phase diagram and compute observables. We also calculate the first corrections to the leading order mean field results, and find that these can significantly shift the endpoint of a line of first order transitions. The problem of deriving an effective spin model from full QCD is discussed.

Properties of canonical determinants and a test of fugacity expansion for finite density lattice QCD with Wilson fermions

We analyze canonical determinants, i.e., grand canonical determinants projected to a fixed net quark number. The canonical determinants are the coefficients in a fugacity expansion of the grand canonical determinant and we evaluate them as the Fourier moments of the grand canonical determinant with respect to imaginary chemical potential, using a dimensional reduction technique. The analysis is done for two mass-degenerate flavors of Wilson fermions at several temperatures below and above the confinement/deconfinement crossover. We discuss various properties of the canonical determinants and analyse the convergence of the fugacity series for different temperatures.

Constraining mean-field models of the nuclear matter equation of state at low densities

An extension of the generalized relativistic mean-field (gRMF) model with density dependent couplings is introduced in order to describe thermodynamical properties and the composition of dense nuclear matter for astrophysical applications. Bound states of light nuclei and two-nucleon scattering correlations are considered as explicit degrees of freedom in the thermodynamical potential. They are represented by quasiparticles with medium-dependent properties. The model describes the correct low-density limit given by the virial equation of state (VEoS) and reproduces RMF results around nuclear saturation density where clusters are dissolved. A comparison between the fugacity expansions of the VEoS and the gRMF model provides consistency relations between the quasiparticles properties, the nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts and the meson-nucleon couplings of the gRMF model at zero density. Relativistic effects are found to be important at temperatures that are typical in astrophysical applications. Neutron matter and symmetric matter are studied in detail.

Wilson fermion determinant in lattice QCD

We present a formula for reducing the rank of Wilson fermions from $4{N}_{c}{N}_{x}{N}_{y}{N}_{z}{N}_{t}$ to $4{N}_{c}{N}_{x}{N}_{y}{N}_{z}$ keeping the value of its determinant. We analyze eigenvalues of a reduced matrix and coefficients ${C}_{n}$ in the fugacity expansion of the fermion determinant $\ensuremath{\sum}_{n}{C}_{n}(\mathrm{exp}(\ensuremath{\mu}/T){)}^{n}$, which play an important role in the canonical formulation, using lattice QCD configurations on a ${4}^{4}$ lattice. Numerically, $\mathrm{log}|{C}_{n}|$ varies as ${N}_{x}{N}_{y}{N}_{z}$, and goes easily over the standard numerical range. We give a simple cure for that. The phase of ${C}_{n}$ correlates with the distribution of the Polyakov loop in the complex plain. These results lay the groundwork for future finite density calculations in lattice QCD.

One-component plasma of point charges and of charged rods

An approximate theory is developed to describe the properties of mobile particles with extended charge distributions in the presence of a neutralizing fixed background charge. Long-wavelength fluctuations of the electric potential are handled within a variational perturbation approximation, and the short-wavelength fluctuations are handled within a cumulant (fugacity) expansion. The distinct treatment of these two contributions to the free energy enables the theory to provide quantitative predictions for the properties of these systems from the weak- to the strong-coupling regimes. With this theory, we study three different variations in the classical one-component plasma model: a plasma of point charges, a plasma of particles consisting of 8 linearly bonded point charges (8-mer), and a plasma of line charges. The theory was found to agree well with the available computer simulation data for the electrostatic interaction energy of these systems for all values of the plasma coupling parameter examined ( Gamma=0 to 400). In addition, we find that both the 8-mer rod and the line charge systems form a strongly ordered nematic phase, which is entirely driven by electrostatic interactions. The nematic phase only exists within a finite range of lengths of the charged particles. If the particles are too short or too long, the nematic phase does not appear. Finally, we find that the nematic phase is stable over a broader range of conditions for the line charge system than for the 8-mer rod system; consequently, the phase behavior of the one-component plasma is sensitive to the manner in which the charge is distributed on the particles.

Nearly degenerate electron distributions and superluminal radiation densities

Polylogarithmic fugacity expansions of the partition function, the caloric and thermal equations of state, and the specific heat of fermionic power-law distributions are derived in the nearly degenerate low-temperature/high-density quantum regime. The spectral functions of an ultra-relativistic electron plasma are obtained by averaging the tachyonic radiation densities of inertial electrons with Fermi power-laws, whose entropy is shown to be extensive and stable. The averaged radiation densities are put to test by performing tachyonic cascade fits to the γ-ray spectrum of the TeV blazar Markarian 421 in a low and high emission state. Estimates of the thermal electron plasma in this active galactic nucleus are extracted from the spectral fits, such as temperature, number count, and internal energy. The tachyonic cascades reproduce the quiescent as well as a burst spectrum of the blazar obtained with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov detectors. Double-logarithmic plots of the differential tachyon flux exhibit intrinsic spectral curvature, caused by the Boltzmann factor of the electron gas.

Tachyonic γ -ray wideband of an ultra-relativistic electron plasma: Spectral fitting with Fermi power-law densities

Fermionic power-law distributions are derived by the second quantization of classical power-law ensembles, and applied to ultra-relativistic electron populations in the Galactic center. The γ -ray flux from the direction of the compact central source Sagittarius A* is fitted with a superluminal cascade spectrum. In this way, estimates of the radiating electron plasma in the Galactic center region are obtained, such as the power-law index, temperature, particle number, and internal energy. The spectral averaging of the tachyonic radiation densities with Fermi power-laws is explained. Fugacity expansions of the thermodynamic variables (thermal equation of state, entropy, isochoric heat capacity, and isothermal compressibility) are obtained in the quasiclassical high-temperature/low-density regime, where the spectral fit is carried out. The leading quantum correction to these variables is calculated, and its dependence on the electronic power-law index and the thermal wavelength is discussed. Excess counts of cosmic rays from the Galactic center region are related to the plasma temperature inferred from the cascade fit.

Density Profiles in a Quantum Coulomb Fluid Near a Hard Wall

Equilibrium particle densities near a hard wall are studied for a quantum fluid made of point charges which interact via Coulomb potential without any regularization. In the framework of the grand-canonical ensemble, we use an equivalence with a classical system of loops with random shapes, based on the Feynman-Kac path-integral representation of the quantum Gibbs factor. After systematic resummations of Coulomb divergences in the Mayer fugacity expansions of loop densities, there appears a screened potential $\phi$. It obeys an inhomogeneous Debye-H\"uckel equation with an effective screening length which depends on the distance from the wall. The formal solution for $\phi$ can be expanded in powers of the ratios of the de Broglie thermal wavelengths $\laa$'s of each species $\alpha$ and the limit of the screening length far away from the wall. In a regime of low degeneracy and weak coupling, exact analytical density profiles are calculated at first order in two independent parameters. Because of the vanishing of wave-functions close to the wall, density profiles vanish gaussianly fast in the vicinity of the wall over distances $\laa$'s, with an essential singularity in Planck constant $\hbar$. When species have different masses, this effect is equivalent to the appearance of a quantum surface charge localized on the wall and proportional to $\hbar$ at leading order. Then, density profiles, as well as the electrostatic potential drop created by the charge-density profile, also involve a term linear in $\hbar$ andwhich decays exponentially fast over the classical Debye screening length $\xid$. The corresponding contribution to the global surface charge exactly compensates the charge in the very vicinity of the surface, so that the net electric field vanishes in the bulk, as it should.