Hard Thermal Loop Research Articles

Spectral functions of heavy quarkonia in a bulk-viscous quark gluon plasma

We study the properties of quarkonia inside a bulk-viscous quark gluon plasma. The non-equilibrium nature of the medium is encoded in the deformed distribution functions of thermal quarks and gluons, with which we compute the dielectric permittivity within the hard thermal loop approximation at one-loop. The modified dielectric permittivity is used to calculate the in-medium heavy quark potential, and using the potential we compute spectral functions, which reflect the physical properties of heavy quarkonia. We discuss how the bulk viscous effect influences quantities such as binding energies and thermal widths. Based on those properties, we discuss the implications of the bulk viscous effect on the physical observables such as ψ′ to J/ψ ratio and the nuclear modification factor, RAA. In particular, we argue that the nuclear modification factors of excited and ground states show different sensitivities to the bulk viscous nature of a plasma, which is potentially useful for the critical point search.

Heavy quark dynamics in a strongly magnetized medium

We present a calculation of the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficients in a strongly magnetized medium, within the Lowest Landau Level (LLL) approximation. In particular, we use the Hard Thermal Loop (HTL) resummed effective gluon propagator, generalized for a hot and magnetized medium. Using this effective HTL gluon propagator along with the LLL quark propagator we analytically derive the full results for the longitudinal and transverse momentum diffusion coefficients for charm and bottom quarks beyond the static limit. Going beyond the static limit of the heavy quark, we also show numerical results for these coefficients in two special cases where the heavy quark is moving either parallel or perpendicular to the external magnetic field.

Effective models of a semi-quark-gluon plasma

In the deconfined regime of a non-Abelian gauge theory at nonzero temperature, previously it was argued that if a (gauge invariant) source is added to generate nonzero holonomy, that this source must be linear for small holonomy. The simplest example of this is the second Bernoulli polynomial. However, then there is a conundrum in computing the free energy to $\sim g^3$ in the coupling constant $g$, as part of the free energy is discontinuous as the holonomy vanishes. In this paper we investigate two ways of generating the second Bernoulli polynomial dynamically: as a mass derivative of an auxiliary field, and from two dimensional ghosts embedded isotropically in four dimensions. Computing the holonomous hard thermal loop (HHTL) in the gluon self-energy, we find that the limit of small holonomy is only well behaved for two dimensional ghosts, with a free energy which to $\sim g^3$ is continuous as the holonomy vanishes.

Soft Interactions in Cold Quark Matter.

Accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of zero-temperature, high-density quark matter plays an integral role in attempts to constrain the behavior of the dense QCD matter found inside neutron-star cores, irrespective of the phase realized inside the stars. In this Letter, we consider the weak-coupling expansion of the dense QCD equation of state and compute the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order contribution arising from the non-Abelian interactions among long-wavelength, dynamically screened gluonic fields. Accounting for these interactions requires an all-loop resummation, which can be performed using hard-thermal-loop (HTL) kinematic approximations. Concretely, we perform a full two-loop computation using the HTL effective theory, valid for the long-wavelength, or soft, modes. We find that the soft sector is well behaved within cold quark matter, contrary to the case encountered at high temperatures, and find that the new contribution decreases the renormalization-scale dependence of the equation of state at high density.

Mass corrections to the hard thermal or dense loops

We compute corrections to the hard thermal (or dense) loop photon polarization tensor associated to a small mass $m$ of the fermions of an electromagnetic plasma at high temperature $T$ (or chemical potential $\mu$). To this aim we use the on-shell effective field theory, amended with mass corrections. We also carry out the computation using transport theory, reaching to the same result. Interemediate steps in the computations reveal the presence of potential infrared divergencies. We use dimensional regularization, as it is respectful with the gauge symmetry, and then show that all infrared divergencies cancel in the final result. We compare the mass corrections with both the power and two-loop corrections, and claim that they are equally important if the mass is soft, that is, of order $e T$ (or $e \mu$), where $e$ is the gauge coupling constant, but are dominat if the mass obeys $ e T < m \ll T $ (or $e \mu < m \ll \mu)$.

The imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential from real-time Yang-Mills dynamics

We extract the imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential using classical-statistical simulations of real-time Yang-Mills dynamics in classical thermal equilibrium. The r-dependence of the imaginary part of the potential is extracted by measuring the temporal decay of Wilson loops of spatial length r. We compare our results to continuum expressions obtained using hard thermal loop theory and to semi-analytic lattice perturbation theory calculations using the hard classical loop formalism. We find that, when plotted as a function of mDr, where mD is the hard classical loop Debye mass, the imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential shows little sensitivity to the lattice spacing at small mDr ≲ 1 and agrees well with the semi-analytic hard classical loop result. For large quark-antiquark separations, we quantify the magnitude of the non-perturbative long-range corrections to the imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential. We present our results for a wide range of temperatures, lattice spacings, and lattice volumes. This work sets the stage for extracting the imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential in an expanding non-equilibrium Yang Mills plasma.

Revisiting transverse momentum broadening in dense QCD media

We reconsider the problem of transverse momentum broadening of a highly-energetic parton suffering multiple scatterings in dense colored media, such as the thermal Quark-Gluon plasma or large nuclei. In the framework of Moli\`ere's theory of multiple scattering we re-derive a simple analytic formula, to be used in jet quenching phenomenology, that accounts for both the multiple soft and hard Rutherford scattering regimes. Further, we discuss the sensitivity of momentum broadening to modeling of the non-perturbative infrared sector by presenting a detailed analytic and numerical comparison between the two widely used models in phenomenology: the Hard Thermal Loop and the Gyulassy-Wang potentials. We show that for the relevant values of the parameters the non-universal, model dependent contributions are negligible, at LHC, RHIC and EIC energies thus consolidating the predictive power of jet quenching theory.

Power corrections and gradient expansion in QED transport theory

The hard thermal loop (HTL) effective field theory of QED can be derived from the classical limit of transport theory, corresponding to the leading term in a gradient expansion of the quantum approach. In this paper, we show that power corrections to the HTL effective Lagrangian of QED can also be obtained from transport theory by including higher orders in such gradient expansion. The gradient expansion is increasingly infrared (IR) divergent, but the correction that we compute is IR finite. We employ dimensional regularization, and show that this result comes after a cancellation of divergencies between the vacuum and medium contributions. While the transport framework is an effective field theory of the long distance physics of the plasma, we show that it correctly reproduces the correct QED ultraviolet divergencies associated with the photon wave function renormalization.

Phenomenological study of quarkonium suppression and the impact of the energy gap between singlets and octets

The study of heavy quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions represents an important source of information about the properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in such collisions. In a previous paper, we have considered how to model the evolution of a quarkonium in such a way that the solution of the resulting equations evolves toward the correct thermal equilibrium distribution for a homogeneous and static medium. We found that it is crucial to take into account the energy gap between singlet and octet configurations when the temperature is not much greater than this energy gap. In this paper, we explore in more detail the phenomenological consequences of this observation in the more realistic situation of an expanding system. We consider two different scenarios, based on the same approximation scheme, but on different choices of parameters. In the first case, we rely on a Hard Thermal Loop approximation, while the second case is based on a recent determination of the static potential in lattice QCD. In both cases, we compute the decay width and the nuclear modification factor, both taking the energy gap into account and ignoring it. We find that the impact on the predictions is as large in the expanding medium as it is in the static case. Our conclusion is that this energy gap should be taken into account in phenomenological studies.

QCD pressure: Renormalization group optimized perturbation theory confronts lattice

The quark contribution to the QCD pressure, ${P}_{q}$, is evaluated up to next-to-leading order (NLO) within the renormalization group optimized perturbation theory (RGOPT) resummation approach. To evaluate the complete QCD pressure we simply add the perturbative NLO contribution from massless gluons to the resummed ${P}_{q}$. Despite this unsophisticated approximation our results for $P={P}_{q}+{P}_{g}$ at the central scale $M\ensuremath{\sim}2\ensuremath{\pi}T$ show a remarkable agreement with lattice predictions for $0.25\ensuremath{\lesssim}T\ensuremath{\lesssim}1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$. We also show that by being imbued with RG properties, the RGOPT produces a drastic reduction of the embarrassing remnant scale dependence that plagues both standard thermal perturbative QCD and hard thermal loop perturbation theory applications.

Renormalization group improved pressure for hot and dense quark matter

We apply the renormalization group optimized perturbation theory (RGOPT) to evaluate the quark contribution to the QCD pressure at finite temperatures and baryonic densities, at next-to-leading order (NLO). Our results are compared to NLO and state-of-the-art higher orders of standard perturbative QCD (pQCD) and hard thermal loop perturbation theory (HTLpt). The RGOPT resummation provides a nonperturbative approximation, exhibiting a drastically better remnant renormalization scale dependence than pQCD, thanks to built-in renormalization group invariance consistency. At NLO, upon simply adding to the RGOPT-resummed quark contributions the purely perturbative NLO glue contribution, our results show a remarkable agreement with ab initio lattice simulation data for temperatures $0.25 \lesssim T \lesssim 1 \, {\rm GeV}$, with a remnant scale dependence drastically reduced as compared to HTLpt.

Scattering amplitudes approach to hard thermal loops

Inspired by recent progress on classical limits of scattering amplitudes, we show that hard thermal loops can be obtained from classical limits of off-shell currents. The classicality of hard thermal loops is made manifest by associating classical wavenumbers to soft particles. We compute the classical limit of these currents in QED, QCD and gravity. Our proposal does not involve the introduction of ghosts.

Sasakians and the geometry of a mass term

A gauge-invariant mass term for nonabelian gauge fields in two dimensions can be expressed as the Wess–Zumino–Witten (WZW) action. Hard thermal loops in the gauge theory in four dimensions at finite temperatures generate a screening mass for some components of the gauge field. This can be expressed in terms of the WZW action using the bundle of complex structures (for Euclidean signature) or the bundle of lightcones over Minkowski space. We show that a dynamically generated mass term in three dimensions can be put within the same general framework using the bundle of Sasakian structures.

Broad excitations in a 2+1D overoccupied gluon plasma

Motivated by the initial stages of high-energy heavy-ion collisions, we study excitations of far-from-equilibrium 2+1 dimensional gauge theories using classical-statistical lattice simulations. We evolve field perturbations over a strongly overoccupied background undergoing self-similar evolution. While in 3+1D the excitations are described by hard-thermal loop theory, their structure in 2+1D is nontrivial and nonperturbative. These nonperturbative interactions lead to broad excitation peaks in spectral and statistical correlation functions. Their width is comparable to the frequency of soft excitations, demonstrating the absence of soft quasiparticles in these theories. Our results also suggest that excitations at higher momenta are sufficiently long-lived, such that an effective kinetic theory description for 2+1 dimensional Glasma-like systems may exist, but its collision kernel must be nonperturbatively determined.

Chiral susceptibility in a dense thermomagnetic QCD medium within the hard thermal loop approximation

We have computed the chiral susceptibility in quark-gluon plasma in presence of finite chemical potential and weak magnetic field within hard thermal loop approximation. First we construct the massive effective quark propagator in a thermomagnetic medium. Then we obtain completely analytic expression for the chiral susceptibility in weak magnetic field approximation. In the absence of magnetic field the thermal chiral susceptibility increases in presence of finite chemical potential. The effect of thermomagnetic correction is found to be very marginal as temperature is the dominant scale in weak field approximation.

Real time ultrasoft fermion self energy at next to-leading order in hot QED

Subsequent studies of the behavior of the gluon and quark damping rates in the imaginary-time formalism have indicated that there are difficulties in the infrared sector [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. To look further into the infrared behavior, we propose to calculate the next-to-leading order dispersion relations for slow-moving Fermions at high-temperature quantum electrodynamics (QED) in real-time formalism. We determine a compact analytic expression for the complete next-to-leading contribution to the retarded fermion self-energy with ultrasoft momentum in the framework of hard-thermal-loop (HTL)-summed perturbation of massless QED at high temperature. The calculation is done using real-time formalism. The next-to-leading order fermion self-energy is written in terms of three and four HTL-dressed vertex functions. The real part and the opposite of the imaginary part of the retarded fermion self-energy are related to the next-to-leading order contributions of energy and damping rate respectively.

Second-order quark number susceptibility of deconfined QCD matter in the presence of a magnetic field

Considering the strong field approximation we compute the hard thermal loop pressure at finite temperature and chemical potential of hot and dense deconfined QCD matter in lowest Landau level in one-loop order. We consider the anisotropic pressure in the presence of the strong magnetic field i.e., longitudinal and transverse pressure along parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field direction. As a first effort, we compute and discuss the anisotropic quark number susceptibility of deconfined QCD matter in lowest Landau level. The longitudinal quark number susceptibility is found to increase with the temperature whereas the transverse one decreases with the temperature. We also compute the quark number susceptibility in the weak field approximation. We find that the thermomagnetic correction to the quark number susceptibility is very marginal in the weak field approximation.

Two-loop HTL-resummed thermodynamics for mathcal{N} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

We compute the two-loop hard-thermal-loop (HTL) resummed thermodynamic potential for mathcal{N} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM). Our final result is manifestly gauge-invariant and was renormalized using only simple vacuum energy, gluon mass, scalar mass, and quark mass counter terms. The HTL mass parameters mD, MD, and mq are then determined self-consistently using a variational prescription which results in a set of coupled gap equations. Based on this, we obtain the two-loop HTL-resummed thermodynamic functions of mathcal{N} = 4 SYM. We compare our final result with known results obtained in the weak- and strong-coupling limits. We also compare to previously obtained approximately self-consistent HTL resummations and Padé approximants. We find that the two-loop HTL resummed results for the scaled entropy density is a quantitatively reliable approximation to the scaled entropy density for 0 ≤ λ ≲ 2 and is in agreement with previous approximately self-consistent HTL resummation results for λ ≲ 6.

Photon production and elliptic flow from a momentum-anisotropic quark-gluon plasma

The emission of real photons from a momentum-anisotropic quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is affected by both the collective flow of the radiating medium and the modification of local rest frame emission rate due to the anisotropic momentum distribution of partonic degrees of freedom. In this paper, we first calculate the photon production rate from an ellipsoidally momentum-anisotropic QGP including hard contributions from Compton scattering and quark pair annihilation and soft contribution calculated using the hard thermal loop (HTL) approximation. We introduce a parametrization of the nonequilibrium rate in order to facilitate its further application in yield and flow calculations. We convolve the anisotropic photon rate with the space-time evolution of QGP provided by 3+1d anisotropic hydrodynamics (aHydro) to obtain the yield and the elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$ of photons from QGP generated at Pb-Pb collisions at LHC at 2.76 TeV and Au-Au collisions at RHIC at 200 GeV. We investigate the effects of various parameters on the results. In particular we analyze the sensitivity of results to initial momentum anisotropy.

Heavy quarkonia in a bulk viscous medium

We study the properties of heavy quarkonia in a quark gluon plasma in the presence of bulk viscous effects. Within the hard thermal loop approximation at one-loop, the dielectric permittivity of a quark gluon plasma is computed, where the bulk viscous effect enters through the deformation of the distribution functions of thermal quarks and gluons. Based on the modified dielectric permittivity, we compute the in-medium heavy quark potential, that includes non-pertubative string-like terms as well as the perturbative Coulombic term. We discuss how the bulk viscous effect modify the real and imaginary parts of the in-medium potential. Several prescriptions are examined as to how to include the string-like non-perturbative potentials. Using the deformed potential, we compute the wave functions, binding energies, and decay widths of heavy quarkonia in a bulk viscous medium, and study their sensitivity to the strength of the bulk viscous effect. An estimate of the melting temperatures is given.