arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A. A. Nikolaev.
We discuss some selected recent developments in the field of lattice QCD at nonzero temperature and density, describing in particular the transition from the hadronic gas to the quark-gluon plasma, as seen in simulations using Wilson fermions.
The static longitudinal and transverse gluon propagators in the Landau gauge are studied in $2+1$ lattice QCD with nonzero isospin chemical potential $μ_I$. Parameterization of the momentum dependence of the propagators is provided for all values of the chemical potential under study. We find that the longitudinal propagator is infrared suppressed at nonzero $μ_I$ with suppression increasing with increasing $μ_I$. It is found, respectively, that the electric screening mass is increasing with increasing $μ_I$. Additionally, we analyze the difference between two propagators as a function of the momentum and thus compare interactions in chromoelectric and chromomagnetic sectors.
In this paper we study thermodynamic properties of dense cold $SU(2)$ QCD within lattice simulation with dynamical rooted staggered quarks which in the continuum limit correspond to $N_f=2$ quark flavours. We calculate baryon density, renormalized chiral and diquark condensates for various baryon chemical potentials in the region $μ\in (0,\,2000)$ MeV. It is found, that in the region $μ\in (0,\,540)$ MeV the system is well described by the ChPT predictions. In the region $μ> 540$ MeV the system becomes sufficiently dense and ChPT is no longer applicable to describe lattice data. For chemical potentials $μ> 900$ MeV we observe formation of the Fermi sphere, and the system is similar to the one described by the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory where the the diquarks play a role of Cooper pairs. In order to study how nonzero baryon density influences the gluon background we calculate chromoelectric and chromomagnetic fields, as well as the topological susceptibility. We find that the chromoelectric field and the topological susceptibility decrease, whereas the chromomagnetic field increases with rising of baryon chemical potential. Finally we study the equation of state of dense two-color quark matter.
We study properties of the thermal transition in QCD, using anisotropic, fixed-scale lattice simulations with $N_f = 2+1$ flavours of Wilson fermion. Observables are compared for two values of the pion mass, focusing on chiral properties. Results are presented for the Polyakov loop, various susceptibilities, the chiral condensate and its susceptibility, and the onset of parity doubling in the light and strange baryonic sector.
The transverse and longitudinal gluon propagators in the Landau gauge are studied in the two-color lattice QCD at nonzero quark chemical potential $μ_q$. Parameterization of the momentum dependence of the propagators is provided for all values of chemical potential under study. We find that the longitudinal propagator is infrared suppressed at nonzero $μ_q$ with suppression increasing with increasing $μ_q$. The transverse propagator dependence on $μ_q$ was found to be opposite: it is enhanced at large $μ_q$. It is found, respectively, that the electric screening mass is increasing while the magnetic screening mass is decreasing with increasing $μ_q$. Nice agreement between the electric screening mass computed from the longitudinal propagator and the Debye mass computed earlier from the singlet static quark-antiquark potential was found. We discuss how the dependence of the propagators on the chemical potential correlates with the respective dependence of the string tension. Additionally, we consider the difference between two propagators as a function of the momentum and make interesting observations.
In order to study the fate of mesons in thermal QCD at finite baryon chemical potential, we consider light mesonic correlation functions using the Taylor expansion to ${\cal O}((μ/T)^2)$, in both the hadronic and quark-gluon plasma phases. We use the FASTSUM anisotropic fixed-scale lattices with $N_f = 2+1$ flavours of Wilson fermion. We find that mesonic correlators are sensitive to finite-density corrections and that the second-order terms indicate the chiral crossover in the vector and axial-vector channels.
In this paper we study the properties of QCD at nonzero chiral density $ρ_5$, which is introduced through chiral chemical potential $μ_5$. The study is performed within lattice simulation of QCD with dynamical rooted staggered fermions. We first check that $ρ_5$ is generated at nonzero $μ_5$ and in the chiral limit observe $ρ_5 \sim Λ_{QCD}^2 μ_5$. We also test the possible connection between confinement and topological fluctuations. To this end, we measured the topological susceptibility $χ_{\mbox{\footnotesize top}}$ and string tension $σ$ for various values of $μ_5$. We observed that both string tension and chiral susceptibility grow with $μ_5$ and there is a strong correlation between these quantities. We thus conclude that the chiral chemical potential enhances topological fluctuations and that these fluctuations can indeed be closely related to the strength of confinement.
Using numerical simulations of lattice QCD with physical quark masses, we reveal the influence of magnetic-field background on chiral and deconfinement crossovers in finite-temperature QCD at low baryonic density. In the absence of thermodynamic singularity, we identify these transitions with inflection points of the approximate order parameters: normalized light-quark condensate and renormalized Polyakov loop, respectively. We show that the quadratic curvature of the chiral transition temperature in the ``temperature--chemical potential'' plane depends rather weakly on the strength of the background magnetic field. At weak magnetic fields, the thermal width of the chiral crossover gets narrower as the density of the baryon matter increases, possibly indicating a proximity to a real thermodynamic phase transition. Remarkably, the curvature of the chiral thermal width flips its sign at $eB_{\mathrm{fl}} \simeq 0.6\,\mathrm{GeV}^2$, so that above the flipping point $B > B_{\mathrm{fl}}$, the chiral width gets wider as the baryon density increases. Approximately at the same strength of magnetic field, the chiral and deconfining crossovers merge together at $T \approx 140\,\mathrm{MeV}$. The phase diagram in the parameter space ``temperature-chemical potential-magnetic field'' is outlined, and single-quark entropy and single-quark magnetization are explored. The curvature of the chiral thermal width allows us to estimate an approximate position of the chiral critical endpoint at zero magnetic field: $(T_c^{\text{CEP}}, μ_B^{\text{CEP}})= (100(25)\, \text{MeV},\ 800(140)\,\text{MeV})$.
In this paper we study the interactions among a static quark-antiquark pair in the presence of dense two-color quark matter with lattice simulation. To this end we compute Polyakov line correlation functions and determine the renormalized color averaged, color singlet and color triplet grand potentials. The color singlet grand potential allows us to elucidate the number of quarks induced by a static quark antiquark source, as well as the internal energy of such a pair in dense quark matter. We furthermore determine the screening length, which in the confinement phase is synonymous with the string breaking distance. The screening length is a decreasing function of baryon density, due to the possibility to break the interquark string via a scalar diquark condensate at high density. We also study the large distance properties of the color singlet grand potential in a dense medium and find that it is well described by a simple Debye screening formula, parameterized by a Debye mass and an effective coupling constant. The latter is of order of unity, i.e. even at large density two-color quark matter is a strongly correlated system.
We simulate lattice QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions at imaginary baryon chemical potential. Results for the baryon number density computed in the confining and deconfining phases at imaginary baryon chemical potential are used to determine the baryon number density and higher cumulants at the real chemical potential via analytical continuation.
In this paper we study the confinement/deconfinement transition in lattice $SU(2)$ QCD at finite quark density and zero temperature. The simulations are performed on an $32^4$ lattice with rooted staggered fermions at a lattice spacing $a = 0.044 \mathrm{~fm}$. This small lattice spacing allowed us to reach very large baryon density (up to quark chemical potential $μ_q > 2000 \mathrm{~MeV}$) avoiding strong lattice artifacts. In the region $μ_q\sim 1000 \mathrm{~MeV}$ we observe for the first time the confinement/deconfinement transition which manifests itself in rising of the Polyakov loop and vanishing of the string tension $σ$. After the deconfinement is achieved at $μ_q > 1000 \mathrm{~MeV}$, we observe a monotonous decrease of the spatial string tension $σ_s$ which ends up with $σ_s$ vanishing at $μ_q > 2000 \mathrm{~MeV}$. From this observation we draw the conclusion that the confinement/deconfinement transition at finite density and zero temperature is quite different from that at finite temperature and zero density. Our results indicate that in very dense matter the quark-gluon plasma is in essence a weakly interacting gas of quarks and gluons without a magnetic screening mass in the system, sharply different from a quark-gluon plasma at large temperature.
In this paper the interaction potential between static charges in suspended graphene is studied within the quantum Monte Carlo approach. We calculated the dielectric permittivity of suspended graphene for the set of temperatures and extrapolated our results to zero temperature. The dielectric permittivity at zero temperature has the following properties. At zero distance $ε=2.24\pm0.02$. Then it rises and at a large distance the dielectric permittivity reaches the plateau $ε\simeq4.20\pm0.66$. The results obtained in this paper allow to draw a conclusion that full account of many-body effects in the dielectric permittivity of suspended graphene gives $ε$ very close to the one-loop results. Contrary to the one-loop result, the two-loop prediction for the dielectric permittivity deviates from our result. So, one can expect large higher order corrections to the two-loop prediction for the dielectric permittivity of suspended graphene.
In this paper we carry out a low-temperature scan of the phase diagram of dense two-color QCD with $N_f=2$ quarks. The study is conducted using lattice simulation with rooted staggered quarks. At small chemical potential we observe the hadronic phase, where the theory is in a confining state, chiral symmetry is broken, the baryon density is zero and there is no diquark condensate. At the critical point $μ= m_π/2$ we observe the expected second order transition to Bose-Einstein condensation of scalar diquarks. In this phase the system is still in confinement in conjunction with non-zero baryon density, but the chiral symmetry is restored in the chiral limit. We have also found that in the first two phases the system is well described by chiral perturbation theory. For larger values of the chemical potential the system turns into another phase, where the relevant degrees of freedom are fermions residing inside the Fermi sphere, and the diquark condensation takes place on the Fermi surface. In this phase the system is still in confinement, chiral symmetry is restored and the system is very similar to the quarkyonic state predicted by SU($N_c$) theory at large $N_c$.
New approach to computation of canonical partition functions in $N_f=2$ lattice QCD is presented. We compare results obtained by new method with results obtained by known method of hopping parameter expansion. We observe agreement between two methods indicating validity of the new method. We use results for the number density obtained in the confining and deconfining phases at imaginary chemical potential to determine the phase transition line at real chemical potential.
At finite baryon density lattice QCD first-principle calculations can not be performed due to the sign problem. In order to circumvent this problem, we use the canonical approach, which provides reliable analytical continuation from the imaginary chemical potential region to the real chemical potential region. We briefly present the canonical partition function method, describe our formulation, and show the results, obtained for two temperatures: $T/T_c = 0.93$ and $T/T_c = 0.99$ in lattice QCD with two flavors of improved Wilson fermions.
We study lattice QCD with $N_f=2$ Wilson fermions at nonzero imaginary chemical potential and nonzero temperature. We relate the Roberge - Weiss phase transition to the properties of dyons which are constituents of the KvBLL calorons. We present numerical evidence that the characteristic features of the spectral gap of the overlap Dirac operator as function of an angle modifying the boundary condition are determined by the $Z_3$ sector of the respective imaginary chemical potential. We then demonstrate that dyon excitations in thermal configurations could be responsible (in line with perturbative excitations) for these phenomena.
We propose and test a new approach to computation of canonical partition functions in lattice QCD at finite density. We suggest a few steps procedure. We first compute numerically the quark number density for imaginary chemical potential $iμ_{qI}$. Then we restore the grand canonical partition function for imaginary chemical potential using fitting procedure for the quark number density. Finally we compute the canonical partition functions using high precision numerical Fourier transformation. Additionally we compute the canonical partition functions using known method of the hopping parameter expansion and compare results obtained by two methods in the deconfining as well as in the confining phases. The agreement between two methods indicates the validity of the new method. Our numerical results are obtained in two flavor lattice QCD with clover improved Wilson fermions.
In this paper the phase diagram of Dirac semimetals is studied within lattice Monte-Carlo simulation. In particular, we concentrate on the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking which results in semimetal/insulator transition. Using numerical simulation we determined the values of the critical coupling constant of the semimetal/insulator transition for different values of the anisotropy of the Fermi velocity. This measurement allowed us to draw tentative phase diagram for Dirac semimetals. It turns out that within the Dirac model with Coulomb interaction both Na$_3$Bi and Cd$_3$As$_2$ known experimentally to be Dirac semimetals would lie deeply in the insulating region of the phase diagram. It probably shows a decisive role of screening of the interelectron interaction in real materials, similar to the situation in graphene.