arXiv subjects

Chris Allton

Publications and source records attributed to Chris Allton.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Light baryons below and above the deconfinement transition: medium effects and parity doubling

We study what happens to the Nucleon, Delta and Omega baryons in the hadronic gas and the quark-gluon plasma, with particular interest in parity doubling and its emergence as the plasma is heated. This is done using simulations of lattice QCD, employing the FASTSUM anisotropic Nf=2+1 ensembles, with four temperatures below and four above the deconfinement transition temperature. Below Tc we find that the positive-parity groundstate masses are largely temperature independent, whereas the negative-parity ones are reduced considerably as the temperature increases. This may be of interest for heavy-ion phenomenology. Close to the transition, the masses are nearly degenerate, in line with the expectation from chiral symmetry restoration. Above Tc we find a clear signal of parity doubling in all three channels, with the effect of the heavier s quark visible.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2016

Parity doubling of nucleons, Delta and Omega baryons across the deconfinement phase transition

In this work we analyse positive- and negative-parity channels for the nucleon (spin $1/2$ octet), $Δ$ and $Ω$ baryons (spin $3/2$ decuplet) using lattice QCD. In Nature, at zero temperature, chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken, causing positive- and negative-parity ground states to have different masses. However, chiral symmetry is expected to be restored (for massless quarks) around the crossover temperature, implying that the two opposite parity channels should become degenerate. Here we study what happens in a temperature range which includes both the hadronic and the quark gluon plasma (QGP) phase. By analysing the correlation and spectral functions via exponential fits and the Maximum Entropy Method respectively, we have found parity doubling for the nucleon and $Δ$ baryon channels in the QGP phase. For the $Ω$ baryon we see a clear signal of parity doubling at the crossover temperature, which is however not complete, due to the nonzero strange quark mass. Moreover, in-medium effects in the hadronic phase are evident for all three baryons, in particular for the negative-parity ground states. This might have implications for the hadron resonance gas model. In this work we used the FASTSUM anisotropic $N_f = 2 + 1$ ensembles.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2016

Parity doubling of nucleons and Delta baryons across the deconfinement phase transition

At zero temperature the negative-parity ground states of the nucleon and delta baryons are non-degenerate with the positive-parity partners due to spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. However, chiral symmetry is expected to be restored at sufficiently high temperature, in particular when going from the hadronic to the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase. This would imply that channels with opposite parity become degenerate. We study the nucleon (spin $1/2$) and $Δ$ (spin $3/2$) baryons in both parity sectors using lattice QCD. The range of temperatures spans both the hadronic and QGP phases. Using the FASTSUM anisotropic $N_f = 2 + 1$ ensembles, we analyze the correlation functions and the spectral functions using respectively exponential fits and the Maximum Entropy Method. We find clear evidence of in-medium effects in the hadronic phase, especially for the negative-parity ground state, and of parity doubling in the QGP phase.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2016

Finite Temperature Lattice QCD - Baryons in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Baryonic correlation functions provide an ideal tool to study parity doubling and chiral symmetry using lattice simulations. We present a study using $2+1$ flavors of anisotropic Wilson clover fermions on the FASTSUM ensembles and find clear evidence that parity doubling emerges in the quark-gluon plasma. This result is confirmed on the level of spectral functions, which are obtained using a MEM reconstruction. We further highlight the importance of Gaussian smearing in this study.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

Probing parity doubling in nucleons at high temperature

The spectrum of nucleons and their parity partners is studied as a function of temperature spanning the deconfinement transition. We analyse our results using the correlation functions directly, exponential fits in the hadronic phase, and the Maximum Entropy Method. These techniques all indicate that there is degeneracy in the parity partners' channels in the deconfined phase. This is in accordance with the expectation that there is parity doubling and chiral symmetry in the deconfined phase. In the hadronic phase, we also find that the nucleon ground state is largely independent of temperature, whereas there are substantial temperature effects in the negative parity channel. All results are obtained using our FASTSUM 2+1 flavour ensembles.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

Nucleons and parity doubling across the deconfinement transition

It is expected that nucleons and their parity partners become degenerate when chiral symmetry is restored. We investigate this question in the context of the thermal transition from the hadronic phase to the quark-gluon plasma, using lattice QCD simulations with N_f=2+1 flavours. We observe a clear sign of parity doubling in the quark-gluon plasma. Besides, we find that the nucleon ground state is, within the uncertainty, largely independent of the temperature, whereas temperature effects are substantial in the negative-parity (N^*) channel, already in the confined phase.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

The Charmonium Potential at Non-Zero Temperature

The potential between charm and anti-charm quarks is calculated non-perturbatively using physical, rather than static quarks at temperatures on both sides of the deconfinement transition $T_{\rm C}$, using a lattice simulation with 2+1 dynamical quark flavours. We used the HAL QCD time-dependent method, originally developed for inter-nucleon potentials. Our lattices are anisotropic, with temporal lattice spacing less than the spatial one which enhances the information content of our correlators at each temperature. Local-extended charmonium correlators were calculated efficiently by contracting propagators in momentum rather than coordinate space. We find no significant variation in the central potential for temperatures in the confined phase. As the temperature increases into the deconfinement phase, the potential flattens, consistent with the expected weakening interaction. We fit the potential to both the (a) Cornell and (b) Debye-screened potential forms, with the latter better reproducing the data. The zero temperature string tension obtained from (a) agrees with results obtained elsewhere, and it decreases with temperature, but at a slower rate than from the static quark approximation. The Debye mass from (b) is close to zero for small temperatures, but starts to increase rapidly around $T_{\rm C}$. The spin-dependent potential is found to have a repulsive core and a distinct temperature dependence above $T_{\rm C}$ at distances $\sim 1$ fm.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

Electrical conductivity and charge diffusion in thermal QCD from the lattice

We present a lattice QCD calculation of the charge diffusion coefficient, the electrical conductivity and various susceptibilities of conserved charges, for a range of temperatures below and above the deconfinement crossover. The calculations include the contributions from up, down and strange quarks. We find that the diffusion coefficient is of the order of 1/(2πT) and has a dip around the crossover temperature. Our results are obtained with lattice simulations containing 2+1 dynamical flavours on anisotropic lattices. The Maximum Entropy Method is used to construct spectral functions from correlators of the conserved vector current.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2014

Quark-gluon plasma phenomenology from anisotropic lattice QCD

The FASTSUM collaboration has been carrying out simulations of N_f=2+1 QCD at nonzero temperature in the fixed-scale approach using anisotropic lattices. Here we present the status of these studies, including recent results for electrical conductivity and charge diffusion, and heavy quarkonium (charm and beauty) physics.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2014

The bottomonium spectrum at finite temperature from $N_f=2+1$ lattice QCD

We present results on the bottomonium spectrum at temperatures above and below the deconfinement crossover temperature, $T_c$, from dynamical lattice QCD simulations. The heavy quark is treated with a non-relativistic effective field theory on the lattice and serves as a probe of the hot medium. Ensembles with a finer spatial lattice spacing and a greater range of temperatures below $T_c$ than those previously employed by this collaboration are used. In addition, there are $N_f=2+1$ flavours of Wilson clover quark in the sea with $M_π\approx400$ MeV and we perform a more careful tuning of the bottom quark mass in this work. We calculate the spectral functions of S and P wave bottomonium states using the maximum entropy method and confirm earlier findings on the survival of the ground state S wave states up to at least $2T_c$ and the immediate dissociation of the P wave states above $T_c$.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2014

2+1 flavour thermal studies on an anisotropic lattice

The FASTSUM collaboration has initiated a detailed study of thermal QCD using 2+1 flavours of improved Wilson quarks on anisotropic lattices. Spatial volumes of (3fm)^3 and (4fm)^3 are used at fixed cut-off with temperatures ranging from 40 to 350 MeV (corresponding to temporal lattice extents of 128 to 16 lattice units). Results presented here include the deconfinement temperature and a study of the restoration of chiral symmetry, together with a brief summary of our collaboration's other results from these ensembles.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Spectral functions of charmonium from 2 flavour anisotropic lattice data

The spectral functions of QCD can give us insight into properties of hadrons, and they are useful in probing the QCD vacuum. I will discuss the correlators and spectral functions of charmonium in high temperature two flavour QCD. The spectral functions have been obtained using the Maximum Entropy Method from anisotropic lattice data using the conserved vector current. This work has been done as part of the FASTSUM collaboration. We find that the spectral functions for zero momentum are stable. At non-zero momentum the spectral functions are less stable but still produce resonance and transport peaks. This work is part of our programme to calculate the heavy quark diffusion constant.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Bottomonium spectrum at finite temperature

We investigate the modification of S and P wave states in the bottomonium spectrum above and below the deconfinement crossover temperature through their spectral functions obtained from the maximum entropy method. Anisotropic ensembles with $N_f=2+1$ Wilson clover fermions with tadpole-improvement are used while the bottom quark is treated with an improved non-relativistic action. We observe significant modifications of the P wave $χ_{b1}$ ground state directly above the crossover temperature, $T_c$, while the S wave $Υ$ ground state remains relatively unchanged up to temperatures of almost $2T_c$. This evidence supports earlier conclusions from our FASTSUM collaboration of the immediate dissociation of the P wave states above $T_c$ and the survival of the S wave ground states up to $2T_c$.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

P wave bottomonium spectral functions in the QGP from lattice NRQCD

We present an overview of bottomonium spectral functions in the quark-gluon plasma, obtained by the FASTSUM collaboration, using lattice QCD simulations with two light quark flavours on anisotropic lattices. The bottom quark is treated nonrelativistically. While we find that the S wave ground states survive up to the highest temperature we consider, we have strong indications that P wave states melt immediately above Tc.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Transport coefficients of the QGP

The FASTSUM collaboration presents a study on the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity $σ$ in the quark-gluon plasma, using the methods of lattice QCD. Correlators of the exactly conserved vector current are measured at different temperatures across the deconfinement transition, using ensembles of $2+1$ flavours of dynamical fermions on anisotropic lattices. We then employ bayesian methods (MEM) to extract the relevant spectral functions, which are found to be consistent with $σ/T$ rising as a function of $T$. The robustness of the results is verified by a detailed analysis of the systematics involved in the bayesian reconstruction of the spectral functions.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Charmonium Potentials At Non-Zero Temperature

The charmonium potential at non-zero temperature has been studied using gauge configurations with anisotropic lattices and 2+1 dynamical flavors of light sea quarks. We use the HAL QCD time-dependent method developed for the study of nucleon-nucleon potentials. To serve as in-put, local-extended charmonium correlators were calculated. The results are consistent with the expectation that the potential between heavy quarks should become deconfining at high temperatures.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Electrical conductivity of the quark-gluon plasma across the deconfinement transition

A lattice calculation is presented for the electrical conductivity of the QCD plasma with 2+1 dynamical flavours at nonzero temperature. We employ the conserved lattice current on anisotropic lattices using a tadpole-improved clover action and study the behaviour of the conductivity over a wide range of temperatures, both below and above the deconfining transition. The conductivity is extracted from a spectral-function analysis using the Maximal Entropy Method and a discussion of its systematics is provided.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Quark-gluon plasma phenomenology from the lattice

The FASTSUM Collaboration has calculated several quantities relevant for QCD studies at non-zero temperature using the lattice technique. We report here our results for the (i) interquark potential in charmonium; (ii) bottomonium spectral functions; and (iii) electrical conductivity. All results were obtained with 2+1 flavours of dynamical fermions on an anisotropic lattice which allows greater resolution in the temporal direction.

hep-lat↗