Quark-gluon Plasma Equation Of State Research Articles

Analysis of static Wilson line correlators from lattice QCD at finite temperature with T-matrix approach

The thermodynamic T-matrix approach is used to study Wilson line correlators (WLCs) for a static quark-antiquark pair in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Selfconsistent results that incorporate constraints from the QGP equation of state can approximately reproduce WLCs computed in 2+1-flavor lattice-QCD (lQCD), provided the input potential exhibits less screening than in previous studies. Utilizing the updated potential to calculate pertinent heavylight T-matrices we evaluate thermal relaxation rates of heavy quarks in the QGP. We find a more pronounced temperature dependence for low-momentum quarks than in our previous results (with larger screening), which turns into a weaker temperature dependence of the (temperature-scaled) spatial diffusion coefficient, in fair agreement with the most recent lQCD data.

Constraining the equation of state with heavy quarks in the quasi-particle model of QCD matter

In a quasi-particle model of QCD matter at finite temperature with thermal masses for quarks and gluons from hard thermal loops, the equation of state (EOS) can be described by an effective temperature dependence of the strong coupling g(T). Assuming the same effective coupling between the exchanged gluon and thermal partons, the EOS can also be related to parton energy loss. Based on the quasi-particle linear Boltzmann transport (QLBT) model coupled to a (3+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamic model of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) evolution and a hybrid fragmentation-coalescence model for heavy quark hadronization, we perform a Bayesian analysis of the experimental data on D meson suppression RAA and anisotropy v2 at RHIC and the LHC. We achieve a simultaneous constraint on the QGP EOS and the heavy quark transport coefficient, both consistent with the lattice QCD results.

Probing the in-medium QCD force by open heavy-flavor observables

The determination of the color force in a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a key objective in the investigation of strong-interaction matter. Open and hidden heavy-flavor observables in heavy-ion collisions (HICs) are believed to provide insights into this problem by comparing calculations of heavy-quark (HQ) and quarkonium transport with pertinent experimental data. In this work, we utilize the $T$-matrix formalism to compute charm-quark transport coefficients for various input potentials previously extracted from simultaneous fits to lattice-QCD data for HQ free energies, quarkonium correlators, and the QGP equation of state. We investigate the impact of off-shell effects (spectral functions) in the QGP medium on the HQ transport, and compare to earlier results using the free or internal HQ energies as potential proxies. We then employ the transport coefficients in relativistic Langevin simulations for HICs to test the sensitivity of heavy-flavor observables to the HQ interactions in the QGP. We find that a strongly coupled $T$-matrix solution generates a HQ elliptic flow comparable to the results from the internal energy at low momentum, driven by a long-range remnant of the confining force, while falling off stronger with increasing three-momentum. The weakly coupled $T$-matrix solution, whose underlying potential is close to the free energy, leads to an elliptic flow well below the experimentally observed range.

Towards the quark-gluon plasma Equation of State with dynamical strange and charm quarks

We present an ongoing project aimed at determining the thermodynamic Equation of State (EoS) of quark-gluon matter from lattice QCD with two generations of dynamical quarks. We employ the Wilson twisted mass implementation for the fermionic fields and the improved Iwasaki gauge action. Relying on T = 0 data obtained by the ETM Collaboration the strange and charm quark masses are fixed at their physical values, while the pion mass takes four values in the range from 470 MeV down to 210 MeV. The temperature is varied within a fixed-lattice scale approach. The values for the pseudocritical temperature are obtained from various observables. For the EoS we show preliminary results for the pure gluonic contribution obtained at the pion mass value 370 MeV, where we can compare with previously obtained results with Nf = 2 degenerate light flavours.

The Quark-Gluon Plasma Equation of State and the Generalized Uncertainty Principle

The quark-gluon plasma (QGP) equation of state within a minimal length scenario or Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) is studied. The Generalized Uncertainty Principle is implemented on deriving the thermodynamics of ideal QGP at a vanishing chemical potential. We find a significant effect for the GUP term. The main features of QCD lattice results were quantitatively achieved in case ofnf=0,nf=2, andnf=2+1flavors for the energy density, the pressure, and the interaction measure. The exciting point is the large value of bag pressure especially in case ofnf=2+1flavor which reflects the strong correlation between quarks in this bag which is already expected. One can notice that the asymptotic behavior which is characterized by Stephan-Boltzmann limit would be satisfied.

Non-perturbative effects for the Quark-Gluon Plasma equation of state

The non-perturbative effects for the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) equation of state (EoS) are considered. The modifications of the bag model EoS are constructed to satisfy the main qualitative features observed for the QGP EoS in the lattice QCD calculations. A quantitative comparison with the lattice results is done for the SU(3) gluon plasma and for the QGP with dynamical quarks. Our analysis advocates a negative value of the bag constant B.

Heavy quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma

Using the color-singlet free energy F_1 and total internal energy U_1 obtained by Kaczmarek et al. for a static quark Q and an antiquark Qbar in quenched QCD, we study the binding energies and wave functions of heavy quarkonia in a quark-gluon plasma. By minimizing the grand potential in a simplified schematic model, we find that the proper color-singlet Q-Qbar potential can be obtained from the total internal energy U_1 by subtracting the gluon internal energy contributions. We carry out this subtraction in the local energy-density approximation in which the gluon energy density can be related to the local gluon pressure by the quark-gluon plasma equation of state. We find in this approximation that the proper color-singlet Q-Qbar potential is approximately F_1 for T ~ T_c and it changes to (3/4)F_1+(1/4)U_1 at high temperatures. In this potential model, the J/psi is weakly bound above the phase transition temperature T_c, and it dissociates spontaneously above 1.62 T_c, while chi_c and psi' are unbound in the quark-gluon plasma. The bottomium states Upsilon, chi_b and Upsilon' are bound in the quark-gluon plasma and they dissociate at 4.10 T_c, 1.18 T_c, and 1.38 T_c respectively. For comparison, we evaluate the heavy quarkonium binding energies also in other models using the free energy F_1 or the total internal energy U_1 as the Q-Qbar potential. The comparison shows that the model with the new Q-Qbar potential proposed in this manuscript gives dissociation temperatures that agree best with those from spectral function analyses. We evaluate the cross section for sigma(g+J/psi->c+cbar) and its inverse process, in order to determine the J/psi dissociation width and the rate of J/psi production by recombining c and cbar in the quark gluon plasma.

Phenomenological models of the quark-gluon plasma equation of state

Two phenomenological models describing an SU( N) quark-gluon plasma are presented. The first is obtained from high temperature expansions of the free energy of a massive gluon, while the second is derived by demanding color neutrality over a certain length scale. Each model has a single free parameter, exhibits behavior similar to lattice simulations over the range T d – 5 T d , and has the correct blackbody behavior for large temperatures. The N = 2 deconfinement transition is second order in both models, while N = 3,4, and 5 are first order. Both models appear to have a smooth large- N limit. In both models, the confined phase is characterized by a mutual repulsion of Polyakov loop eigenvalues that makes the Polyakov loop expectation value zero. In the deconfined phase, the rotation of the eigenvalues in the complex plane towards 1 is responsible for the approach to the blackbody limit over the range T d – 5 T d . The addition of quarks in SU(3) breaks Z(3) symmetry weakly and eliminates the deconfining phase transition for sufficiently light quarks.

Massive gluons and quarks and the equation of state obtained from SU(3) lattice QCD

We analyze recent results of SU(3) lattice QCD calculations with a phenomenological parametrization for the quark-gluon plasma equation of state based on a quasiparticle picture with massive quarks and gluons. At high temperature we obtain a good fit to the lattice data using perturbative thermal quark and gluon masses from an improved HTL scheme. At temperatures close to the confinement phase transition the fitted masses increase above the perturbative value, and a nonzero (but small) bag constant is required to fit the lattice data.

Phase transition of a finite quark-gluon plasma

The deconfinement transition region between hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is studied for finite volumes. Assuming simple model equations of state and a first order phase transition, we find that fluctuations in finite volumes hinder a sharp separation between the two phases around the critical temperature, leading to a rounding of the phase transition. For reaction volumes expected in heavy ion experiments, the softening of the equation of state is reduced considerably. This is especially true when the requirement of exact color singletness is included in the QGP equation of state.