arXiv subjects

D. Sexty

Publications and source records attributed to D. Sexty.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Topological features of the deconfinement transition

The first order transition between the confining and the center symmetry breaking phases of the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is marked by discontinuities in various thermodynamics functions, such as the energy density or the value of the Polyakov loop. We investigate the non-analytical behaviour of the topological susceptibility and its higher cumulant around the transition temperature and make the connection to the curvature of the phase diagram in the $T-\theta$ plane and to the latent heat.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2022

Precision study of the continuum SU(3) Yang-Mills theory: how to use parallel tempering to improve on supercritical slowing down for first order phase transitions

We perform large scale simulations to characterize the transition in quenched QCD. It is shown by a rigorous finite size scaling that the transition is of first order. After this qualitative feature quantitative results are obtained with unprecedented precision: we calculate the transition temperature $w_0T_c$=0.25384(23), -- which is the first per-mill accurate result in QCD thermodynamics -- and the latent heat $\Delta E/T_c^4$=1.025(21)(27) in both cases carrying out controlled continuum and infinite volume extrapolations. As it is well known the cost of lattice simulations explodes in the vicinity of phase transitions, a phenomenon called critical slowing down for second order phase transitions and supercritical slowing down for first order phase transitions. We show that a generalization of the parallel tempering algorithm of Marinari and Parisi [Europhys. Lett. 19, 451 (1992)] originally for spin systems can efficiently overcome these difficulties even if the transition is of first order, like in the case of QCD without quarks, or with very heavy quarks. We also report on our investigations on the autocorrelation times and other details.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2020

Deconfinement transition line with the Complex Langevin equation up to $\mu /T \sim 5$

We study the deconfinement transition line in QCD for quark chemical potentials up to $\mu_q \sim 5 T$ ($\mu_B \sim 15 T$). To circumvent the sign problem we use the complex Langevin equation with gauge cooling. The plaquette gauge action is used with two flavors of naive Wilson fermions at a relatively heavy pion mass of roughly 1.3 GeV. A quadratic dependence describes the transition line well on the whole chemical potential range.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2019

Controlling Complex Langevin simulations of lattice models by boundary term analysis

One reason for the well known fact that the Complex Langevin (CL) method sometimes fails to converge or converges to the wrong limit has been identified long ago: it is insufficient decay of the probability density either near infinity or near poles of the drift, leading to boundary terms that spoil the formal argument for correctness. To gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, in a previous paper we have studied the emergence of such boundary terms thoroughly in a simple model, where analytic results can be compared with numerics. Here we continue this type of analysis for more physically interesting models, focusing on the boundaries at infinity. We start with abelian and non-abelian one-plaquette models, then we proceed to a Polyakov chain model and finally to high density QCD (HDQCD) and the 3D XY model. We show that the direct estimation of the systematic error of the CL method using boundary terms is in principle possible.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2018

Applying constrained simulations for low temperature lattice QCD at finite baryon chemical potential

We study the density of states method as well as reweighting to explore the low temperature phase diagram of QCD at finite baryon chemical potential. We use four flavors of staggered quarks, a tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action and four stout smearing steps on lattices with $N_s=4,6,8$ and $N_t=6 - 16$. We compare our results to that of the phase quenched ensemble and also determine the pion and nucleon masses. In the density of states approach we applied pion condensate or gauge action density fixing. We found that the density of states method performs similarly to reweighting. At $T \approx 100$ MeV, we found an indication of the onset of the quark number density at around $\mu/m_N \sim 0.16 - 0.18$ on $6^4$ lattices at $\beta=2.9$.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2018

Static memory materials

We simulate static memory materials on a two-dimensional lattice. The bulk properties of such materials depend on boundary conditions. Considerable information can be stored in various local patterns. We observe local probabilities oscillating with the distance from the boundary. The dependence of the local statistical information on this distance can be described by a linear evolution of classical wave functions, including the superposition principle and classical interference. We speculate that these new phenomena could open new algorithmic possibilities analogous to quantum computing.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

On complex Langevin dynamics and zeroes of the measure II: Fermionic determinant

Lattice QCD at non-vanishing chemical potential is studied using the complex Langevin equation (CLE). One of the conditions for the correctness of the results of the CLE is that the zeroes of the measure coming from the fermionic determinant are outside of the distribution of the configurations, or at least in a region where support for the distribution is very much suppressed. We investigate this issue for Heavy Dense QCD (HDQCD) and full QCD at high temperatures. In HDQCD it is found that the configurations move closest to the zeroes of the measure around the critical chemical potential of the onset transition, where the sign problem is diminished, but results remain largely unaffected. In full QCD at high temperatures the investigation of the spectrum of the Dirac operator yields a similar observation: the results are unaffected by the issue of the poles.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

Complex Langevin dynamics for dynamical QCD at nonzero chemical potential: a comparison with multi-parameter reweighting

We study lattice QCD at non-vanishing chemical potential using the complex Langevin equation. We compare the results with multi-parameter reweighting both from $μ=0$ and phase quenched ensembles. We find a good agreement for lattice spacings below $\approx$0.15 fm. On coarser lattices the complex Langevin approach breaks down. Four flavors of staggered fermions are used on $N_t=4, 6$ and 8 lattices. For one ensemble we also use two flavors to investigate the effects of rooting.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2015

Hopping parameter expansion to all orders using the complex Langevin equation

We propose two novel formulations of the hopping parameter expansion for finite density QCD using Wilson fermions, while keeping the gauge action intact. We use the complex Langevin equation to circumvent the sign problem in the theory. We perform simulations at very high order of the expansion, such that convergence is directly observable. We compare results to the full QCD results, and see agreement at sufficiently high orders. These results provide support for the use of complex Langevin dynamics to study QCD at nonzero density, both in the full and the expanded theory, and for the convergence of the latter.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2013

Amplified Fermion Production from Overpopulated Bose Fields

We study the real-time dynamics of fermions coupled to scalar fields in a linear sigma model, which is often employed in the context of preheating after inflation or as a low-energy effective model for quantum chromodynamics. We find a dramatic amplification of fermion production in the presence of highly occupied bosonic quanta for weak as well as strong couplings. For this we consider the range of validity of different methods: lattice simulations with male/female fermions, the mode functions approach and the quantum 2PI effective action with its associated kinetic theory. For strongly coupled fermions we find a rapid approach to a Fermi-Dirac distribution with time-dependent temperature and chemical potential parameters, while the bosons are still far from equilibrium.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Emergent gravity in two dimensions

We explore models with emergent gravity and metric by means of numerical simulations. A particular type of two-dimensional non-linear sigma-model is regularized and discretized on a quadratic lattice. It is characterized by lattice diffeomorphism invariance which ensures in the continuum limit the symmetry of general coordinate transformations. We observe a collective order parameter with properties of a metric, showing Minkowski or euclidean signature. The correlation functions of the metric reveal an interesting long-distance behavior with power-like decay. This universal critical behavior occurs without tuning of parameters and thus constitutes an example of "self-tuned criticality" for this type of sigma-models. We also find a non-vanishing expectation value of a "zweibein" related to the "internal" degrees of freedom of the scalar field, again with long-range correlations. The metric is well described as a composite of the zweibein. A scalar condensate breaks euclidean rotation symmetry.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Over-populated gauge fields on the lattice

We study nonequilibrium dynamics of SU(2) pure gauge theory starting from initial over-population, where intense classical gauge fields are characterized by a single momentum scale Q_s. Classical-statistical lattice simulations indicate a quick evolution towards an approximate scaling behavior with exponent 3/2 at intermediate times. Remarkably, the value for the scaling exponent may be understood as arising from the leading O(g^2) contribution in the presence of a time-dependent background field. The phenomenon is associated to weak wave turbulence describing an energy cascade towards higher momenta. This particular aspect is very similar to what is observed for scalar theories, where an effective cubic interaction arises because of the presence of a time-dependent Bose condensate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Bose condensation far from equilibrium

The formation of Bose condensates far from equilibrium can play an important role in our understanding of collision experiments of heavy nuclei or for the evolution of the early universe. In the relativistic quantum world particle number changing processes can counteract Bose condensation, and there is a considerable debate about the relevance of this phenomenon in this context. We show that the involved question of Bose condensation from initial over-population can be answered for the example of scalar field theories. Condensate formation occurs as a consequence of an inverse particle cascade with a universal power-law spectrum. This particle transport towards low momenta is part of a dual cascade, in which energy is also transfered by weak wave turbulence towards higher momenta. To highlight the importance of number changing processes for the subsequent decay of the condensate, we also compare to non-relativistic theories with exact number conservation. We discuss the relevance of these results for nonabelian gauge theories.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Out of equilibrium dynamics of coherent non-abelian gauge fields

We study out-of-equilibrium dynamics of intense non-abelian gauge fields. Generalizing the well-known Nielsen-Olesen instabilities for constant initial color-magnetic fields, we investigate the impact of temporal modulations and fluctuations in the initial conditions. This leads to a remarkable coexistence of the original Nielsen-Olesen instability and the subdominant phenomenon of parametric resonance. Taking into account that the fields may be correlated only over a limited transverse size, we model characteristic aspects of the dynamics of color flux tubes relevant in the context of heavy-ion collisions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Strong versus weak wave-turbulence in relativistic field theory

Nonthermal scaling phenomena can exhibit a characteristic dependence on the dimensionality d of space. For d=3 and 4 we simulate a relativistic scalar field theory on a lattice and compute turbulent scaling exponents. We recover Kolmogorov or weak wave-turbulence in the perturbative high-momentum regime, where it exhibits the scaling exponent kappa_w = d - 3/2. In the nonperturbative infrared regime, we find a different scaling exponent kappa_s = 4 (5) for d=3 (4), which is in agreement with the recently predicted anomalously large values kappa_s = d + 1 of strong turbulence. We show how the latter can be seen to characterize stationary transport of a conserved effective particle number.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Dynamic critical phenomena from spectral functions on the lattice

We investigate spectral functions in the vicinity of the critical temperature of a second-order phase transition. Since critical phenomena in quantum field theories are governed by classical dynamics, universal properties can be computed using real-time lattice simulations. For the example of a relativistic single-component scalar field theory in 2+1 dimensions, we compute the spectral function described by universal scaling functions and extract the dynamic critical exponent z. Together with exactly known static properties of this theory, we obtain a verification from first principles that the relativistic theory is well described by the dynamic universality class of relaxational models with conserved density (Model C).

hep-lat↗

arXiv2009

Turbulence in nonabelian gauge theory

Kolmogorov wave turbulence plays an important role for the thermalization process following plasma instabilities in nonabelian gauge theories. We show that classical-statistical simulations in SU(2) gauge theory indicate a Kolmogorov scaling exponent known from scalar models. In the range of validity of resummed perturbation theory this result is shown to agree with analytical estimates. We study the effect of classical-statistical versus quantum corrections and demonstrate that the latter lead to the absence of turbulence in the far ultraviolet.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Simulating plasma instabilities in SU(3) gauge theory

We compute nonequilibrium dynamics of plasma instabilities in classical-statistical lattice gauge theory in 3+1 dimensions. The simulations are done for the first time for the SU(3) gauge group relevant for quantum chromodynamics. We find a qualitatively similar behavior as compared to earlier investigations in SU(2) gauge theory. The characteristic growth rates are about 25 % lower for given energy density, such that the isotropization process is slower. Measured in units of the characteristic screening mass, the primary growth rate is independent of the number of colors.

hep-ph↗