Quark Chemical Potential Research Articles

Complex Langevin dynamics in large N unitary matrix models

Using complex Langevin dynamics we examine the phase structure of complex unitary matrix models and compare the numerical results with analytic results found at large $N$. The actions we consider are manifestly complex, and thus the dominant contribution to the path integral comes from the space of complexified gauge field configuration. For this reason, the eigenvalues of unitary matrix lie off the unit circle and venture out in the complex plane. One example of a complex unitary matrix model, with Polyakov line as the unitary matrix, is an effective description of a QCD at finite density and temperature with $N$ number of colors and $N_f$ number of quark flavors defined on the manifold $S^1 \times S^3$. A distinct feature of this model, the occurrence of a series of Gross-Witten-Wadia transitions, as a function of the quark chemical potential, is reproduced using complex Langevin simulations. We simulate several other observables including Polyakov lines and quark number density, for large $N$ and $N_f$ and found excellent match with the analytic results.

QCD phase diagram from chiral symmetry restoration: analytic approach at high and low temperature using the Linear Sigma Model with Quarks

We use the linear sigma model with quarks to study the QCD phase diagram from the point of view of chiral symmetry restoration. We compute the leading order effective potential for high and low temperatures and finite quark chemical potential, up to the contribution of the ring diagrams to account for the plasma screening effects. We fix the values of the model couplings using physical values for the input parameters such as the vacuum pion and sigma masses, the critical temperature at vanishing quark chemical potential and the conjectured end point value of the baryon chemical potential of the transition line at vanishing temperature. We find that the critical end point (CEP) is located at low temperatures and high quark chemical potentials $(\mu^{\text{CEP}}>320\ {\mbox{MeV}},T^{\text{CEP}}<40\ {\mbox{MeV}})$.

Fierz-complete NJL model study. II. Toward the fixed-point and phase structure of hot and dense two-flavor QCD

Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-type models are often employed as low-energy models for the theory of the strong interaction to analyze its phase structure at finite temperature and quark chemical potential. In particular at low temperature and large chemical potential, where the application of fully first-principles approaches is currently difficult at best, this class of models still plays a prominent role to guide our understanding of the dynamics of dense strong-interaction matter. In this work, we consider a Fierz-complete version of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with two massless quark flavors and study its renormalization group flow and fixed-point structure at leading order of the derivative expansion of the effective action. Sum rules for the various four-quark couplings then allow us to monitor the strength of the breaking of the axial $U_{\rm A}(1)$ symmetry close to and above the phase boundary. We find that the dynamics in the ten-dimensional Fierz-complete space of four-quark couplings can only be reduced to a one-dimensional space associated with the scalar-pseudoscalar coupling in the strict large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit. Still, the interacting fixed point associated with this one-dimensional subspace appears to govern the dynamics at small quark chemical potential even beyond the large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit. At large chemical potential, corrections beyond the large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit become important and the dynamics is dominated by diquarks, favoring the formation of a chirally symmetric diquark condensate. In this regime, our study suggests that the phase boundary is shifted to higher temperatures when a Fierz-complete set of four-quark interactions is considered.

Chiral phase transition at finite chemical potential in 2+1 -flavor soft-wall anti–de Sitter space QCD

The phase transition from hadronic matter to chirally-symmetric quark-gluon plasma is expected to be a rapid crossover at zero quark chemical potential ($\mu$), becoming first order at some finite value of $\mu$, indicating the presence of a critical point. Using a three-flavor soft-wall model of AdS/QCD, we investigate the effect of varying the light and strange quark masses on the order of the chiral phase transition. At zero quark chemical potential, we reproduce the Columbia Plot, which summarizes the results of lattice QCD and other holographic models. We then extend this holographic model to examine the effects of finite quark chemical potential. We find that the the chemical potential does not affect the critical line that separates first-order from rapid crossover transitions. This excludes the possibility of a critical point in this model, suggesting that a different setup is necessary to reproduce all the features of the QCD phase diagram.

Spontaneous magnetization under a pseudovector interaction between quarks in high density quark matter

Spontaneous magnetization and magnetic susceptibility originated from the pseudovector-type four-point interaction between quarks are calculated in quark matter with zero temperature and finite quark chemical potential by using the two-flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model. It is shown that both the chiral condensate and spin polarized condensate coexist in a narrow region of the quark chemical potential. And then, it is also shown that, in this narrow region, the spontaneous magnetization appears. Also, the magnetic susceptibility due to quarks with the positive energy is evaluated in the spin polarized phase.

Anomaly matching for the phase diagram of massless ZN -QCD

We elucidate that the phase diagram of massless $N$-flavor QCD under $\mathbb{Z}_N$ flavor-twisted boundary condition (massless $\mathbb{Z}_N$-QCD) is constrained by an 't Hooft anomaly involving two-form gauge fields. As a consequence, massless $\mathbb{Z}_N$-QCD turns out to realize persistent order at any temperatures and quark chemical potentials, namely, the symmetric and gapped phase is strictly forbidden. This is the first result on the finite-$(T,\mu)$ phase diagram in QCD-type theories based on anomaly matching related to center and discrete axial symmetries.

Low-temperature behavior of the quark-meson model

We revisit the phase diagram of strong-interaction matter for the two-flavor quark-meson model using the Functional Renormalization Group. In contrast to standard mean-field calculations, an unusual phase structure is encountered at low temperatures and large quark chemical potentials. In particular, we identify a regime where the pressure decreases with increasing temperature and discuss possible reasons for this unphysical behavior.

One-dimensional QCD in thimble regularization

QCD in 0+1 dimensions is numerically solved via thimble regularization. In the context of this toy model, a general formalism is presented for SU(N) theories. The sign problem that the theory displays is a genuine one, stemming from a (quark) chemical potential. Three stationary points are present in the original (real) domain of integration, so that contributions from all the thimbles associated to them are to be taken into account: we show how semiclassical computations can provide hints on the regions of parameter space where this is absolutely crucial. Known analytical results for the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop are correctly reproduced: this is in particular trivial at high values of the number of flavors N_f. In this regime we notice that the single thimble dominance scenario takes place (the dominant thimble is the one associated to the identity). At low values of N_f computations can be more difficult. It is important to stress that this is not at all a consequence of the original sign problem (not even via the residual phase). The latter is always under control, while accidental, delicate cancelations of contributions coming from different thimbles can be in place in (restricted) regions of the parameter space.

Binding Energies and Dissociation Temperatures of Heavy Quarkonia at Finite Temperature and Chemical Potential in theN-Dimensional Space

TheN-dimensional radial Schrödinger equation has been solved using the analytical exact iteration method (AEIM), in which the Cornell potential is generalized to finite temperature and chemical potential. The energy eigenvalues have been calculated in theN-dimensional space for any state. The present results have been applied for studying quarkonium properties such as charmonium and bottomonium masses at finite temperature and quark chemical potential. The binding energies and the mass spectra of heavy quarkonia are studied in theN-dimensional space. The dissociation temperatures for different states of heavy quarkonia are calculated in the three-dimensional space. The influence of dimensionality number (N) has been discussed on the dissociation temperatures. In addition, the energy eigenvalues are only valid for nonzero temperature at any value of quark chemical potential. A comparison is studied with other recent works. We conclude that the AEIM succeeds in predicting the heavy quarkonium at finite temperature and quark chemical potential in comparison with recent works.

Using the Linear Sigma Model with quarks to describe the QCD phase diagram and to locate the critical end point

We study the QCD phase diagram using the linear sigma model coupled to quarks. We compute the effective potential at finite temperature and quark chemical potential up to ring diagrams contribution. We show that, provided the values for the pseudo-critical temperature Tc = 155 MeV and critical baryon chemical potential μBc ≃ 1 GeV, together with the vacuum sigma and pion masses. The model couplings can be fixed and that these in turn help to locate the region where the crossover transition line becomes first order.

Transport coefficients of a hot QCD medium and their relative significance in heavy-ion collisions

The main focus of this article is to obtain various transport coefficients for a hot QCD medium that is produced while colliding two heavy nuclei ultra-relativistically. As the hot QCD medium follows dissipative hydrodynamics while undergoing space-time evolution, the knowledge of the transport coefficients such as thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, shear and bulk viscosities are essential to understand the underlying physics there. The approach adopted here is semi-classical transport theory. The determination of all these transport coefficients requires knowledge of the medium away from equilibrium. In this context, we setup the linearized transport equation employing the Chapman-Enskog technique from kinetic theory of many particle system with a collision term that includes the binary collisions of quarks/antiquarks and gluons. In order to include the effects of a strongly interacting, thermal medium, a quasi-particle description of realistic hot QCD equation of state has been employed through the equilibrium modeling of the momentum distributions of gluons and quarks with non-trivial dispersion relations while extending the model for finite but small quark chemical potential. The effective coupling for strong interaction has been redefined following the charge renormalization under the scheme of the quasiparticle model. The consolidated effects on transport coefficients are seen to have significant impact on their temperature dependence. The relative significances of momentum and heat transfer as well as charge diffusion processes in hot QCD have been investigated by studying the ratios of the respective transport coefficients.

Fierz-complete NJL model study: Fixed points and phase structure at finite temperature and density

Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-type models are frequently employed as low-energy models in various research fields. With respect to the theory of the strong interaction, this class of models is indeed often used to analyze the structure of the phase diagram at finite temperature and quark chemical potential. The predictions from such models for the phase structure at finite quark chemical potential are of particular interest as this regime is difficult to access with lattice Monte Carlo approaches. In this work, we consider a Fierz-complete version of a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. By studying its renormalization group flow, we analyze in detail how Fierz-incomplete approximations affect the predictive power of such model studies. In particular, we investigate the curvature of the phase boundary at small chemical potential, the critical value of the chemical potential above which no spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs, and the possible interpretation of the underlying dynamics in terms of difermion-type degrees of freedom. We find that the inclusion of four-fermion channels other than the conventional scalar-pseudoscalar channel is not only important at large chemical potential but also leaves a significant imprint on the dynamics at small chemical potential as measured by the curvature of the finite-temperature phase boundary.

Topological deconfinement transition in QCD at finite isospin density

The confinement–deconfinement transition is discussed from topological viewpoints. The topological change of the system is achieved by introducing the dimensionless imaginary chemical potential (θ). Then, the non-trivial free-energy degeneracy becomes the signal of the deconfinement transition and it can be visualized by using the map of the thermodynamic quantities to the circle S1 along θ. To understand this “topological” deconfinement transition at finite real quark chemical potential (μR), we consider the isospin chemical potential (μiso) in the effective model of QCD. The phase diagram at finite μiso is identical with that at finite μR outside of the pion-condensed phase at least in the large-Nc limit via the well-known orbifold equivalence. In the present effective model, the topological deconfinement transition does not show a significant dependence on μiso and then we can expect that this tendency also appears at small μR. Also, the chiral transition and the topological deconfinement transition seems to be weakly correlated. If we will access lattice QCD data for the temperature dependence of the quark number density at finite μiso with θ=π/3, our surmise can be judged.

Proper time regularization and the QCD chiral phase transition

We study the QCD chiral phase transition at finite temperature and finite quark chemical potential within the two flavor Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model, where a generalization of the proper-time regularization scheme is motivated and implemented. We find that in the chiral limit the whole transition line in the phase diagram is of second order, whereas for finite quark masses a crossover is observed. Moreover, if we take into account the influence of quark condensate to the coupling strength (which also provides a possible way of how the effective coupling varies with temperature and quark chemical potential), it is found that a CEP may appear. These findings differ substantially from other NJL results which use alternative regularization schemes, some explanation and discussion are given at the end. This indicates that the regularization scheme can have a dramatic impact on the study of the QCD phase transition within the NJL model.

Spin polarization and color superconductivity in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model at finite temperature

We investigate the possible existence of spin polarization and color superconductivity in the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with a tensor-type interaction at finite density and temperature. The thermodynamic potential is calculated by the functional integral method. Numerical results indicate that at low temperature and quark chemical potential the chiral condensed phase exists, and at intermediate chemical potential the color superconducting phase appears. In addition, depending on the magnitude of the tensor coupling, at large chemical potential and low temperature, a color superconducting phase and a spin polarized phase may coexist while at intermediate temperatures only the spin polarized phase occurs.

Magnetic-field induced critical endpoint

The phase diagram of strong interaction matter is analyzed utilizing the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. Special emphasis is placed on its dependence on an external magnetic field and isospin chemical potential. Using flavor mixing induced by instanton effects the influence of isospin breaking due to the magnetic field and the isospin chemical potential is compared. It is found that at low temperatures and large quark chemical potential the magnetic field, depending on its strength, induces a new critical endpoint or a triple point.

A comparative study on two different approaches of bulk viscosity in the Polyakov–Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

We have gone through a comparative study on two different kinds of bulk viscosity expressions by using a common dynamical model. The Polyakov–Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model in the realm of mean-field approximation, including up to eight quark interactions for 2+1 flavor quark matter, is treated for this common dynamics. We have probed the numerical equivalence as well as discrepancy of two different expressions for bulk viscosity at vanishing quark chemical potential. Our estimation of bulk viscosity to entropy density ratio follows a decreasing trend with temperature, which is observed in most of the earlier investigations. We have also extended our estimation for finite values of quark chemical potential.

Direct URCA-processes in neutron star quark core with strong magnetic field.

Neutrino emissivity in direct URCA processes in superdense strongly magnetized quark medium is calculated. In calculations, we use the covariant method of density matrixes for charge fermions in uniform constant magnetic field. One-gluon exchanges between quarks are also take into account.In evaluations, the strength of magnetic field corresponds to the case, where the quarks of medium occupy a lot of Landau levels, while the electrons are in ground Landau level. The analytical dependence of neutrino emissivity on chemical potentials of quarks and electrons, temperature and magnetic field strength is obtained and briefly discussed. The result could be important in application to a massive strongly magnetized neutron star with quark core.

Holographic study of the QCD matter under external conditions

Holographic QCD is based on the AdS/CFT duality and offers new nonperturbative approaches to understand the strongly interacting regime of gauge theories. One of the primary questions in Quantum Chromodynamics is the clarification of the whole phase diagram of matter out of quarks and gluons as a function of temperature, baryon or quark chemical potential, and other external parameters.We use methods of the bottom-up AdS/QCD approach to bring out the phase structure of several holographic models in which transition to a deconfined phase is related to a (first order) Hawking-Page phase transition. The impact of phenomenological model parameters on the critical temperature and chemical potential is studied in detail. Comparison of the model predictions with results of experimental investigations, lattice QCD simulations and other methods is also done.

Quark mass correction to chiral separation effect and pseudoscalar condensate

We derived an analytic structure of the quark mass correction to chiral separation effect (CSE) in small mass regime. We confirmed this structure by a D3/D7 holographic model study in a finite density, finite magnetic field background. The quark mass correction to CSE can be related to correlators of pseudo-scalar condensate, quark number density and quark condensate in static limit. We found scaling relations of these correlators with spatial momentum in the small momentum regime. They characterize medium responses to electric field, inhomogeneous quark mass and chiral shift. Beyond the small momentum regime, we found existence of normalizable mode, which possibly leads to formation of spiral phase. The normalizable mode exists beyond a critical magnetic field, whose magnitude decreases with quark chemical potential.