QCD Dirac Spectrum Research Articles

Hydrodynamical description of the QCD Dirac spectrum at finite chemical potential

We present a hydrodynamical description of the QCD Dirac spectrum at finite chemical potential as an uncompressible droplet in the complex eigenvalue space. For a large droplet, the fluctuation spectrum around the hydrostatic solution is gapped by a longitudinal Coulomb plasmon, and exhibits a frictionless odd viscosity. The stochastic relaxation time for the restoration/breaking of chiral symmetry is set by twice the plasmon frequency. The leading droplet size correction to the relaxation time is fixed by a universal odd viscosity to density ratio $\eta_O/\rho_0=(\beta-2)/4$ for the three Dyson ensembles $\beta=1,2,4$.

Determination of the chiral condensate from QCD Dirac spectrum on the lattice

We calculate the chiral condensate of QCD with 2, 2+1 and 3 flavors of sea quarks. Lattice QCD simulations are performed employing dynamical overlap fermions with up and down quark masses covering a range between 3 and 100 MeV. On L ~ 1.8-1.9 fm lattices at a lattice spacing ~ 0.11 fm, we calculate the eigenvalue spectrum of the overlap-Dirac operator. By matching the lattice data with the analytical prediction from chiral perturbation theory at the next-to-leading order, the chiral condensate in the massless limit of up and down quarks is determined.

QCD Dirac spectrum and components of the gauge field

We analyze the relation between the Dirac spectrum and the gauge field in SU(3) lattice QCD. We focus on how a certain component of the gauge field is related to the Dirac spectrum. First, we consider momentum components of the gauge field. It turns out that the broad momentum region is relevant for the low-lying Dirac spectrum and topological charges. The connection with chiral random matrix theory is also discussed. Second, we consider an SU(2) subgroup component of the SU(3) gauge field. The SU(2) subgroup component behaves like the SU(2) gauge field in the low-lying Dirac spectrum.

Anderson Localization in Quark-Gluon Plasma

At low temperature the low end of the QCD Dirac spectrum is well described by chiral random matrix theory. In contrast, at high temperature there is no similar statistical description of the spectrum. We show that at high temperature the lowest part of the spectrum consists of a band of statistically uncorrelated eigenvalues obeying essentially Poisson statistics and the corresponding eigenvectors are extremely localized. Going up in the spectrum the spectral density rapidly increases and the eigenvectors become more and more delocalized. At the same time the spectral statistics gradually crosses over to the bulk statistics expected from the corresponding random matrix ensemble. This phenomenon is reminiscent of Anderson localization in disordered conductors. Our findings are based on staggered Dirac spectra in quenched lattice simulations with the SU(2) gauge group.

Absence of Correlations in the QCD Dirac Spectrum at High Temperature

I propose a simple model of the distribution of the small eigenvalues of the QCD Dirac operator well above the finite temperature phase transition where chiral symmetry is restored and the spectral density at zero vanishes. Assuming the absence of correlations between different regions of the low-lying spectrum I derive analytic formulas for the distribution of the first two eigenvalues. I find good agreement with data obtained using the overlap Dirac operator in quenched SU(2) lattice simulations. This suggests that if chiral symmetry is restored spectral correlations are not important and all the statistical properties of the spectrum are encoded in the spectral density.

EFFECTIVE LOW-ENERGY THEORIES AND QCD DIRAC SPECTRA

We analyze the smallest Dirac eigenvalues by formulating an effective theory for the Dirac spectrum. We find that in a domain where the kinetic term of the effective theory can be ignored, the Dirac eigenvalues are distributed according to a Random Matrix Theory with the global symmetries of the QCD partition function. The kinetic term provides information on the slope of the average spectral density of the Dirac operator. In the second half of this lecture we interpret quenched QCD Dirac spectra (with eigenvalues scattered in the complex plane) in terms of an effective low energy theory.

Spectra of massive QCD Dirac operators from random matrix theory: all three chiral symmetry breaking patterns

The microscopic spectral eigenvalue correlations of QCD Dirac operators in the presence of dynamical fermions are calculated within the framework of Random Matrix Theory (RMT). Our approach treats the low-energy correlation functions of all three chiral symmetry breaking patterns (labeled by the Dyson index β = 1, 2 and 4) on the same footing, offering a unifying description of massive QCD Dirac spectra. RMT universality is explicitly proven for all three symmetry classes and the results are compared to the available lattice data for β = 4.

Chiral random matrix model for critical statistics

We propose a random matrix model that interpolates between the chiral random matrix ensembles and the chiral Poisson ensemble. By mapping this model on a non-interacting Fermi-gas we show that for energy differences less than a critical energy $E_c$ the spectral correlations are given by chiral Random Matrix Theory whereas for energy differences larger than $E_c$ the number variance shows a linear dependence on the energy difference with a slope that depends on the parameters of the model. If the parameters are scaled such that the slope remains fixed in the thermodynamic limit, this model provides a description of QCD Dirac spectra in the universality class of critical statistics. In this way a good description of QCD Dirac spectra for gauge field configurations given by a liquid of instantons is obtained.

Chiral Disorder and the QCD Dirac Spectrum

Using the Cell-Mann-Oakes-Renner (COR) relation together with semi-classical argu­ ments, we show that the bulk quark spectrum in QCD exhibits a variety of regimes includ­ ing the ergodic one described by random matrix theory. We suggest that a class of chiral transitions in QCD is of the metal-insulator type, universal spectral statistics at the critical point.

Macroscopic Universality: Why QCD in Matter is Subtle.

We use a chiral random matrix model with ${2N}_{f}$ flavors to mock up the QCD Dirac spectrum at finite chemical potential. We show that the $1/N$ approximation breaks down in the quenched state with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. The breakdown condition is set by the divergence of a two-point function that is shown to follow the general lore of macroscopic universality. In this state, the fermionic fluctuations are not suppressed in the large $N$ limit.