QCD Pressure Research Articles

All Order Resummed Leading and Next-to-Leading Soft Modes of Dense QCD Pressure.

The cold and dense QCD equation of state at high baryon chemical potential μ_{B} involves at order α_{s}^{2} an all-loop summation of the soft mode m_{E}∼α_{s}^{1/2}μ_{B} contributions. Recently, the complete soft contributions at order α_{s}^{3} were calculated using the hard thermal loop formalism. By identifying massive renormalization group properties of the hard thermal loop theory, we resum to all orders α_{s}^{p}, p≥3 the leading and next-to-leading logarithmic soft contributions. We obtain compact analytical expressions that show visible deviations from the state-of-the art results, and noticeably reduce residual scale dependence. Our results should help to reduce uncertainties in extending the equation of state in the intermediate μ_{B} regime, relevant in particular for the phenomenology of neutron stars.

High order quark number susceptibilities in hot QCD from lattice electrostatic QCD

Building on the experience of [1], we develop a formalism to construct operators for higher derivatives of the pressure in hot QCD with respect to the quark chemical potential $\mu$. We provide formulae for the operators up to the sixth derivative, and obtain continuum-extrapolated results from lattice EQCD at zero and finite $\mu$ and at six different pairs of temperature T and number of massless quark flavors $n_f$. Our data is benchmarked against full-QCD lattice and perturbative results, allowing to judge the quality of the perturbative series expansion in EQCD and the dimensional reduction procedure as a whole.

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.

QCD equation of state at vanishing and high baryon density: Chiral Mean Field model

The thermodynamic properties of high temperature and high density QCD-matter are studied using the Chiral SU(3)-flavor parity-doublet Polyakov-loop quark-hadron mean-field model, CMF. The CMF model provides a proper description of lattice QCD data, heavy-ions physics, and static neutron stars. The behavior of lines of constant pressure with increase of baryon density is discussed. The rapid change of pressure behavior at μB/T ≈ 3 suggests a strong contribution of baryons to thermodynamic properties at this region. The position of this region is very close to the radius of convergence for a Taylor expansion of the QCD pressure. The role of mesons and unstable hadrons in the hydrodynamic expansion of strongly interacting matter is also discussed.

The critical point of Bootstrap and Lattice QCD

It is shown that the hadronic matter formed at high temperatures, according to the prescription of the statistical bootstrap principle, develops a critical point at nonzero baryon chemical potential. The location of the critical point is evaluated with the use of lattice QCD pressure.

Renormalization group improved pressure for cold and dense QCD

We apply the renormalization group optimized perturbation theory (RGOPT)to evaluate the QCD (matter) pressure at the two-loop level considering three flavors of massless quarks in a dense and cold medium. Already at leading order ($\alpha_s^0$), which builds on the simple one loop (RG resummed) term, our technique provides a non-trivial non-perturbative approximation which is completely renormalization group invariant. At the next-to-leading order the comparison between the RGOPT and the pQCD predictions shows that the former method provides results which are in better agreement with the state-of-the-art $higher \, order$ perturbative results, which include a contribution of order $\alpha_s^3 \ln^2 \alpha_s$. At the same time one also observes that the RGOPT predictions are less sensitive to variations of the arbitrary $\bar{\rm MS}$ renormalization scale than those obtained with pQCD. These results indicate that the RGOPT provides an efficient resummation scheme which may be considered as an alternative to lattice simulations at high baryonic densities.

Reliable estimation of the radius of convergence in finite density QCD

We study different estimators of the radius of convergence of the Taylor series of the pressure in finite density QCD. We adopt the approach in which the radius of convergence is estimated first in a finite volume, and the infinite-volume limit is taken later. This requires an estimator for the radius of convergence that is reliable in a finite volume. Based on general arguments about the analytic structure of the partition function in a finite volume, we demonstrate that the ratio estimator cannot work in this approach, and propose three new estimators, capable of extracting reliably the radius of convergence, which coincides with the distance from the origin of the closest Lee-Yang zero. We also provide an estimator for the phase of the closest Lee-Yang zero, necessary to assess whether the leading singularity is a true critical point. We demonstrate the usage of these estimators on a toy model, namely 4 flavors of unimproved staggered fermions on a small $6^3 \times 4$ lattice, where both the radius of convergence and the Taylor coefficients to any order can be obtained by a direct determination of the Lee-Yang zeros. Interestingly, while the relative statistical error of the Taylor expansion coefficients steadily grows with order, that of our estimators stabilizes, allowing for an accurate estimate of the radius of convergence. In particular, we show that despite the more than 100\% error bars on high-order Taylor coefficients, the given ensemble contains enough information about the radius of convergence.

Lepton-rich cold QCD matter in protoneutron stars

We investigate protoneutron star matter using the state-of-the-art perturbative equation of state for cold and dense QCD in the presence of a fixed lepton fraction in which both electrons and neutrinos are included. Besides computing the modifications in the equation of state due to the presence of trapped neutrinos, we show that stable strange quark matter has a more restricted parameter space. We also study the possibility of nucleation of unpaired quark matter in the core of protoneutron stars by matching the lepton-rich QCD pressure onto a hadronic equation of state, namely TM1 with trapped neutrinos. Using the inherent dependence of perturbative QCD on the renormalization scale parameter, we provide a measure of the uncertainty in the observables we compute.

Alternatives to the stochastic “noise vector” approach

Several important observables, like the quark condensate and the Taylor coefficients of the expansion of the QCD pressure with respect to the chemical potential, are based on the trace of the inverse Dirac operator and of its powers. Such traces are traditionally estimated with “noise vectors” sandwiching the operator. We explore alternative approaches based on polynomial approximations of the inverse Dirac operator.

Particle states of lattice QCD

We determine the degeneracy factor and the average particle mass of particles that produce the lattice QCD pressure and specific entropy at zero baryon chemical potential. The number of states of the gluons and the quarks are found to converge above T=230 MeV to almost constant values, close to the number of states of an ideal quark–gluon phase, while their assigned masses retain high values. The number of states and the average mass of a system containing quarks in interaction with gluons are found to decrease steeply with increase of temperature between T sim 150 and 160 MeV, a region contained within the region of the chiral transition. The minimum value of the number of states within this temperature interval indicates that the states are of hadronic nature.

Scale Invariant Resummed Thermal Perturbative Expansions

We illustrate how our recently developed renormalization group optimized perturbation (RGOPT) efficiently resums perturbative expansions in thermal field theories. The residual renormalization scale dependence of optimized thermodynamical quantities is drastically improved as compared to either standard perturbative expansions, or related methods such as the screened perturbation or (resummed) hard-thermal-loop perturbation. Our approach is illustrated briefly for the nonlinear sigma model, as a toy model for thermal QCD. Finally, preliminary applications of RGOPT to hard thermal loop resummation for the QCD pressure are sketched.

Phase diagram and thermal properties of strong-interaction matter

We introduce a novel procedure for computing the (mu,T)-dependent pressure in continuum QCD; and therefrom obtain a complex phase diagram and predictions for thermal properties of the system, providing the in-medium behaviour of the trace anomaly, speed of sound, latent heat and heat capacity.

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.

Debye screening mass of hot Yang-Mills theory to three-loop order

Building upon our earlier work, we compute a Debye mass of finite-temperature Yang-Mills theory to three-loop order. As an application, we determine a $g^7$ contribution to the thermodynamic pressure of hot QCD.

Hard-Thermal-Loop QCD thermodynamics and quark number susceptibility

The weak-coupling expansion of the QCD pressure is known up to the order g 6 log g . However, at experimentally relevant temperatures, the corresponding series is poorly convergent. In this proceedings, we discuss at which extent the gauge-invariant resummation scheme, Hard-Thermal-Loop perturbation theory (HTLpt), improves the apparent convergence. We first present HTLpt results for QCD thermodynamic functions up to three-loop order at vanishing chemical potential. Then, we report a preliminary HTLpt result of one-loop quark number susceptibility, probing the finite density equation of state. Our results are consistent with lattice data down to 2 − 3 T c , reinforcing the weakly-coupled quasiparticle picture in the intermediate coupling regime.

Effect of quark masses on the QCD pressure in a strong magnetic background

We compute the two-loop contribution to the QCD pressure in a strong magnetic background, for arbitrary quark masses. We show that, for very large fields, the chiral limit is trivial.

IBP methods at finite temperature

We demonstrate the applicability of integration-by-parts (IBP) identities in finite-temperature field theory. As a concrete example, we perform 3-loop computations for the thermodynamic pressure of QCD in general covariant gauges, and confirm earlier Feynman-gauge results.

Three-loop matching coefficients for hot QCD: reduction and gauge independence

We perform an integral reduction for the 3-loop effective gauge coupling and screening mass of QCD at high temperatures, defined as matching coefficients appearing in the dimensionally reduced effective field theory (EQCD). Expressing both parameters in terms of a set master (sum-) integrals, we show explicit gauge parameter independence. The lack of suitable methods for solving the comparatively large number of master integrals forbids the complete evaluation at the moment. Taking one generic class of masters as an example, we highlight the calculational techniques involved. The full result would allow to improve on one of the classic probes for the convergence of the weak-coupling expansion at high temperatures, namely the comparison of full and effective theory determinations of the spatial string tension. Furthermore, the full result would also allow to determine one new contribution of order O(g**7) to the pressure of hot QCD.

The pressure of strong coupling lattice QCD with heavy quarks, the hadron resonance gas and the large N limit

In this paper we calculate the pressure of pure lattice Yang-Mills theories and lattice QCD with heavy quarks by means of strong coupling expansions. Dynamical fermions are introduced with a hopping parameter expansion, which also allows for the incorporation of finite quark chemical potential. We show that in leading orders the results are in full agreement with expectations from the hadron resonance gas model, thus validating it with a first principles calculation. For pure Yang-Mills theories we obtain the corresponding ideal glueball gas, in QCD with heavy quarks our result equals that of an ideal gas of mesons and baryons. Another finding is that the Yang-Mills pressure in the large N limit is of order ∼N 0 to the calculated orders, when the inverse ’t Hooft coupling is used as expansion parameter. This property is expected in the confined phase, where our calculations take place.