Nuclear Liquid-gas Transition Research Articles

Nuclear liquid-gas transition in QCD

Nuclear liquid-gas transition in QCD

Nuclear liquid-gas transition in the strong coupling regime of lattice QCD

The nuclear liquid-gas transition from a gas of hadrons to a nuclear phase cannot be determined numerically from conventional lattice QCD due to the severe sign problem at large values of the baryon chemical potential. In the strong coupling regime of lattice QCD with staggered quarks, the dual formulation is suitable to address the nuclear liquid gas transition. We determine this first order transition at low temperatures and as a function of the quark mass and the inverse gauge coupling $\beta$. We also determine the baryon mass and discuss the nuclear interactions as a function of the quark mass, and compare to mean field results.

Perturbative RG Analysis of the Condensate Dependence of the Axial Anomaly in the Three-Flavor Linear Sigma Model

Coupling of ‘t Hooft’s determinant term is investigated in the framework of the three-flavor linear sigma model as a function of the chiral condensate. Using perturbation theory around the minimum point of the effective action, we calculate the renormalization group flow of the first field-dependent correction to the coupling of the conventional UA(1) breaking determinant term. It is found that, at low temperatures, mesonic fluctuations make the anomaly increase when the chiral condensate decreases. As an application, we analyze the effect at the zero temperature nuclear liquid–gas transition.

Baryon number fluctuations induced by hadronic interactions at low temperature and large chemical potential

We investigate the density fluctuations induced by hadronic interactions at low temperatures and large chemical potentials after the hadronization of quark-gluon plasma~(QGP). We analyze the structures of net-baryon number kurtosis and skewness and elaborate on their relations with the nuclear liquid-gas~(LG) phase transition and hadronic interactions above the critical temperature. Combining with the relevant experimental projects at RHIC/NICA/FAIR/J-PARC/HIAF with collision energies from $200\,$GeV to $1.8\,$GeV, we propose a double-peak structure of kurtosis (skewness) as a function of collision energy, which can be taken to identify the chiral phase transition and the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition. In particular, the fluctuation distributions at low temperatures provide a new method to explore hadronic interactions and nuclear liquid-gas transition.

Traces of the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition in the analytic properties of hot QCD

The nuclear liquid-gas transition at normal nuclear densities, $n\ensuremath{\approx}{n}_{0}=0.16\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, and small temperatures, $T\ensuremath{\approx}20\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$, has a large influence on analytic properties of the QCD grand-canonical thermodynamic potential. A classical van der Waals equation is used to determine qualitatively these unexpected features due to dense cold matter. The existence of the nuclear matter critical point results in thermodynamic branch points, which are located at complex chemical potential values, for $T>{T}_{c}\ensuremath{\simeq}20\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$, and exhibit a moderate model dependence up to rather large temperatures $T\ensuremath{\lesssim}100\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$. The behavior at higher temperatures is studied using the van der Waals hadron resonance gas (vdW-HRG) model. The baryon-baryon interactions have a decisive influence on the QCD thermodynamics close to ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}=0$. In particular, nuclear matter singularities limit the radius of convergence ${r}_{{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}/T}$ of the Taylor expansion in ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}/T$, with ${r}_{{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}/T}\ensuremath{\approx}2--3$ values at $T\ensuremath{\approx}140--170\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}$ obtained in the vdW-HRG model.

Surface tension of dense matter at the chiral phase transition

If a first-order phase transition separates nuclear and quark matter at large baryon density, an interface between these two phases has a nonzero surface tension. We calculate this surface tension within a nucleon-meson model for domain walls and bubbles. Various methods and approximations are discussed and compared, including a numerical evaluation of the spatial profile of the interface. We also compute the surface tension at the other first-order phase transitions of the model: the nuclear liquid-gas transition and, in the parameter regime where it exists, the direct transition from the vacuum to the (approximately) chirally symmetric phase. Identifying the chirally symmetric phase with quark matter - our model does not contain explicit quark degrees of freedom - we find maximal surface tensions of the vacuum-quark transition $\Sigma_{\rm VQ}\sim 15 \, {\rm MeV}/{\rm fm}^2$, relevant for the surface of quark stars, and of the nuclear-quark transition $\Sigma_{\rm NQ}\sim 10 \, {\rm MeV}/{\rm fm}^2$, relevant for hybrid stars and for quark matter nucleation in supernovae and neutron star mergers.

Axial anomaly and hadronic properties in a nuclear medium

We investigate meson and nucleon dynamics at finite baryon density and temperature by coupling the nucleon field and the omega meson to the three-flavor linear sigma model and calculate hadronic properties around the nuclear liquid-gas transition. We apply the functional renormalization group method, and find that mesonic fluctuations increase the strength of the coefficient of the $U_A(1)$ breaking determinant operator as a function of the chiral condensate. As a consequence, we find that the actual value of the anomaly increases discontinuously at the first order nuclear liquid-gas transition. We calculate how mesonic masses and partial restoration of chiral symmetry are modified due to such an effect.

Van der Waals Interactions in Hadron Resonance Gas: From Nuclear Matter to Lattice QCD.

An extension of the ideal hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is constructed which includes the attractive and repulsive van der Waals (VDW) interactions between baryons. This VDW-HRG model yields the nuclear liquid-gas transition at low temperatures and high baryon densities. The VDW parameters a and b are fixed by the ground state properties of nuclear matter, and the temperature dependence of various thermodynamic observables at zero chemical potential are calculated within the VDW-HRG model. Compared to the ideal HRG model, the inclusion of VDW interactions between baryons leads to a qualitatively different behavior of second and higher moments of fluctuations of conserved charges, in particular in the so-called crossover region T∼140-190 MeV. For many observables this behavior resembles closely the results obtained from lattice QCD simulations. This hadronic model also predicts nontrivial behavior of net-baryon fluctuations in the region of phase diagram probed by heavy-ion collision experiments. These results imply that VDW interactions play a crucial role in the thermodynamics of hadron gas. Thus, the commonly performed comparisons of the ideal HRG model with the lattice and heavy-ion data may lead to misconceptions and misleading conclusions.

Towards a theoretical description of dense QCD

The properties of matter at finite baryon densities play an important role for the astrophysics of compact stars as well as for heavy ion collisions or the description of nuclear matter. Because of the sign problem of the quark determinant, lattice QCD cannot be simulated by standard Monte Carlo at finite baryon densities. I review alternative attempts to treat dense QCD with an effective lattice theory derived by analytic strong coupling and hopping expansions, which close to the continuum is valid for heavy quarks only, but shows all qualitative features of nuclear physics emerging from QCD. In particular, the nuclear liquid gas transition and an equation of state for baryons can be calculated directly from QCD. A second effective theory based on strong coupling methods permits studies of the phase diagram in the chiral limit on coarse lattices.

Chiral symmetry restoration in the three-dimensional four-fermion model at nonzero temperature and density

The three-dimensional four-fermion model with a ${Z}_{2}$ chiral symmetry and $N=4$ fermion species is investigated numerically at non-zero temperature T and chemical potential \ensuremath{\mu}. The phase diagram in the $(\ensuremath{\mu},T)$ plane is mapped out quantitatively. A detailed finite size scaling analysis shows that the $T=0,$ $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ chiral phase transition is first order, whereas the $T\ensuremath{\ne}0,$ $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ transition remains second order down to very low T. Quantitative results for the location of the end of the first order line are given. The simulations at $T=0$ provided no evidence for a nuclear liquid-gas transition at $\ensuremath{\mu}<{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{c}.$