arXiv subjects

Gergely Endrődi

Publications and source records attributed to Gergely Endrődi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On electric fields in hot QCD: infrared regularization dependence

We study the impact of background electric fields on a hot plasma of charged particles -- a setting relevant for the early stages of heavy-ion collisions as well as laser pulse experiments. Historically, the electric susceptibility -- encoding the behavior of the hot medium for weak fields -- has been defined within two different formalisms, leading to two distinct results at nonzero temperature. With the help of an exact fermion propagator in a homogeneous electric background field at nonzero temperature and finite volume on the one hand, and an improved perturbative result on the other, we identify the origin of this disagreement. The equilibrium conditions for the system are discussed and the role of the thermodynamic ensemble used to describe the system is highlighted. Finally, we construct the electric susceptibility in a simplified hadron resonance gas model, relevant for the strongly interacting medium in the low-temperature regime.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

The axion-photon coupling from lattice Quantum Chromodynamics

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interactions within the Standard Model of particle physics, which explains more than 99% of the mass of the visible Universe. However, there is evidence that a substantial portion of our Universe is made up of particles beyond the Standard Model, i.e. dark matter. A popular dark matter candidate is the axion -- a hypothetical particle that also solves the so-called strong CP-problem, the unexpected symmetry of QCD under time reversal. The experimental detection of axions hinges on their conversion rate to photons, controlled by the axion-photon coupling. This coupling depends on the specific axion model, but also receives a sizable model-independent contribution from QCD. Here we present the first non-perturbative determination of the QCD contribution using continuum extrapolated lattice simulations. The calculation is based on determining the response of the QCD vacuum to time reversal-odd combinations of background electromagnetic fields. We develop two independent methods exploiting different features of this response and obtain $g_{Aγγ}^{\rm QCD} f_A/e^2=-0.0224(10)$ in units of the axion scale $f_A$ and the elementary charge $e$. Armed with this first-principles result, we present a novel update on how experimental observations can be used to constrain the landscape of axion models, useful for guiding contemporary and future observational strategies.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2026

Quarkonium in non-zero isospin chemical potential environment at $T \simeq 0$

We study how the isospin asymmetry affects quarkonium states in QCD at near zero temperature. Using lattice Non-Relativistic QCD formalism, we calculate bottom quark correlators in the gauge field ensembles generated with $N_f = 2 + 1$ flavors of dynamical staggered quarks whose dynamics include the isospin chemical potential effect and then construct $S-$ and $P-$ wave quarkonium state correlators. From these quarkonium correlators, we consider the ratios of quarkonium correlators at non-zero isospin chemical potential to that at $μ_I a = 0.000$. Here, the gauge field ensemble with $μ_I a = 0.000, 0.048, 0.053, 0.059, 0.066, 0.080, 0.092$ and $0.106$ on a $32^3 \times 48$ lattice with non-zero isospin current strength $λa = 0.0010, 0.0018,$ and $0.0036$, where $m_π= 135$ MeV and $a = 0.1535$ fm from \cite{Brandt:2022hwy}, are used. Preliminary results suggest that for $μ_I a = 0.106$, the Upsilon mass gets heavier than the Upsilon mass in the vacuum and that below $μ_I a = 0.106$ the isospin asymmetry effect on the Upsilon mass is not monotonic.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2025

QCD phase structure at finite isospin chemical potential and smaller-than-physical quark mass

Introduction of a nonzero isospin chemical potential in QCD leads to the emergence of a pion condensed phase at sufficiently large $μ_I$, bounded by a second order transition line. At zero temperature the pion condensate appears at $μ_I = m_π/ 2$. Recent numerical studies at physical quark masses show that the pion condensation boundary remains vertical up to the meeting point with the chiral crossover line. If this result remains valid when the light quark mass (and the pion mass) goes to zero, then in the chiral limit at temperatures below the chiral transition pion condensation happens at arbitrary nonzero $μ_I$. We report on results of a lattice QCD simulation of a 2+1 flavour QCD at nonzero isospin chemical potential, at smaller-than-physical light quark mass, that support this scenario.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2025

Dense and magnetized QCD from imaginary chemical potential

In this work, we computed the equation of state of dense QCD in the presence of background magnetic fields using lattice QCD simulations at imaginary baryon chemical potential. Our simulations include 2+1+1 flavors of stout-smeared staggered fermions with masses at the physical point and a tree-level Symanzik-improved gauge action. Using several expansion schemes, we tuned our simulation parameters such that the equation of state satisfies strangeness neutrality and isospin asymmetry constraints, which are relevant to the phenomenology of heavy-ion collisions. Our results suggest a strong change in the equation of state due to the magnetic field, in particular, around the crossover temperature. A continuum extrapolation of our data is still needed for future applications of our equation of state to heavy-ion-collision phenomenology.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2025

Pion condensation at non-zero isospin chemical potential with Wilson fermions

In contrast to the case of non-zero baryon chemical potential, the isospin chemical potential does not introduce a sign problem and can be simulated on the lattice. When the isospin chemical potential is large enough, a phase transition to a Bose-Einstein condensate of pions takes place. Currently available results in the literature on the phase diagram and the equation of state in this setup employ staggered fermions. We present preliminary results on the onset of the pion condensation phase in simulations with Wilson fermions.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2025

Condensation of lighter-than-physical pions in QCD

We report on the results of the 2+1 flavour QCD simulations at nonzero isospin chemical potential performed at half the physical light quark mass. At low temperatures and large isospin chemical potential Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) occurs, creating a pion condensed phase, separated from the hadronic and quark-gluon plasma phases by the BEC transition line. For physical quark masses, the section of this line between the hadronic and BEC phases was found to be almost perfectly vertical, i.e. aligned with the temperature axis. We show that for lighter than physical pions, this section remains vertical, and approaches the axis of vanishing chemical potential linearly with the pion mass, giving a prediction of the phase diagram in the chiral limit.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2024

Strongly interacting matter in extreme magnetic fields

Magnetic fields are ubiquitous across different physical systems of current interest; from the early Universe, compact astrophysical objects and heavy-ion collisions to condensed matter systems. A proper treatment of the effects produced by magnetic fields during the dynamical evolution of these systems, can help to understand observables that otherwise show a puzzling behavior. Furthermore, when these fields are comparable to or stronger than Λ_QCD, they serve as excellent probes to help elucidate the physics of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density. In this work we provide a comprehensive review of recent developments on the description of QED and QCD systems where magnetic field driven effects are important. These include the modification of meson static properties such as masses and form factors, the chiral magnetic effect, the description of anomalous transport coefficients, superconductivity in extreme magnetic fields, the properties of neutron stars, the evolution of heavy-ion collisions, as well as effects on the QCD phase diagram. We describe recent theory and phenomenological developments using effective models as well as LQCD methods. The work represents a state-of-the-art review of the field, motivated by presentations and discussions during the "Workshop on Strongly Interacting Matter in Strong Electromagnetic Fields" that took place in the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) in the city of Trento, Italy, September 25-29, 2023.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Constraining fermionic condensates

We study spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum field theories with fermionic order parameters and construct, for the first time in the literature, the constraint effective potential for it. The Grassmann-valued constraint we encounter is handled using its large-volume expansion, corresponding to a saddle-point approximation. We test the method in the chiral Gross-Neveu model and demonstrate its consistency with the standard approach. The machinery we developed opens up a new avenue to investigate the spontaneous symmetry breaking and restoration in field theories, in particular for the chiral symmetry breaking in the strong interactions.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2024

On the absence of the Chiral Magnetic Effect in equilibrium QCD

In this paper we investigate the chiral magnetic effect (CME): the generation of an electric current due to a homogeneous background magnetic field and a homogeneous chiral imbalance in QCD. We demonstrate that the leading coefficient describing the CME vanishes in equilibrium, both for free fermions as well as in full QCD. Our full QCD results are based on continuum extrapolated lattice simulations using dynamical staggered quarks with physical masses as well as quenched Wilson quarks. We show that it is crucial that a gauge invariant ultraviolet regularization is used to compute the CME and elaborate on why some of the existing in-equilibrium calculations of this effect gave a nonzero result. We stress that our findings imply the absence of a time-independent CME current flowing in equilibrium QCD, but do not concern the CME as an out-of-equilibrium, time-dependent effect.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2024

The Chiral Separation Effect from lattice QCD at the physical point

In this paper we study the Chiral Separation Effect by means of first-principles lattice QCD simulations. For the first time in the literature, we determine the continuum limit of the associated conductivity using 2+1 flavors of dynamical staggered quarks at physical masses. The results reveal a suppression of the conductivity in the confined phase and a gradual enhancement toward the perturbative value for high temperatures. In addition to our dynamical setup, we also investigate the impact of the quenched approximation on the conductivity, using both staggered and Wilson quarks. Finally, we highlight the relevance of employing conserved vector and anomalous axial currents in the lattice simulations.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2023

Electromagnetic effects on topological observables in QCD

In this proceedings article we present a selected set of our lattice results regarding the effect that background electromagnetic fields have on the topology of QCD. In particular, we report on the lattice spacing-dependence of the axion-photon coupling as well as on the response of the topological susceptibility to strong magnetic fields at nonzero temperatures. We demonstrate that the ratio of topological susceptibilities at finite to zero magnetic field has a well behaved continuum limit at low temperatures using a reweighting technique. Moreover, we study the scaling of the axion-photon coupling towards the continuum limit and show that it is less severely affected by discretisation effects.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2023

Flattening of the quantum effective potential in fermionic theories

We present methods to constrain fermionic condensates on the level of the path integral, which grant access to the quantum effective potential in the infinite volume limit. In the case of a spontaneously broken symmetry, this potential possesses a manifestly flat region, which is inaccessible to the standard approach on the lattice. However, by constraining the appropriate order parameters such as the chiral condensate, one is then able to probe the flat region. We demonstrate our method of constraining fermionic condensates in the 2-dimensional Gross-Neveu model, which exhibits a spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. We show how the potential flattens for increasing volume and that the flat region is dominated by inhomogeneous field configurations.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2023

On electric fields in hot QCD: perturbation theory

We investigate the response of a hot gas of quarks to external electric fields via leading-order perturbation theory. In particular, we discuss how equilibrium is maintained in the presence of the electric field and calculate the electric susceptibility, providing its high-temperature expansion for arbitrary quark mass. Furthermore, we point out that there is a mismatch between this, direct determination of the susceptibility at zero field and the weak-field expansion of the effective action at nonzero electric fields, as obtained using Schwinger's exact propagator. We discuss the origin of this mismatch and elaborate on the generalization of our results to full QCD in electric fields.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Pion condensation at lower than physical quark masses

In QCD at large enough isospin chemical potential Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) takes place, separated from the normal phase by a phase transition. From previous studies the location of the BEC line at the physical point is known. In the chiral limit the condensation happens already at infinitesimally small isospin chemical potential for zero temperature according to chiral perturbation theory. The thermal chiral transition at zero density might then be affected, depending on the shape of the BEC boundary, by its proximity. As a first step towards the chiral limit, we perform simulations of 2+1 flavors QCD at half the physical quark masses. The position of the BEC transition is then extracted and compared with the results at physical masses.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2022

QCD thermodynamics with stabilized Wilson fermions

Stabilized Wilson fermions are a reformulation of Wilson clover fermions that incorporates several numerical stabilizing techniques, but also a local change of the fermion action - the original clover term being replaced with an exponentiated version of it. We intend to apply the stabilized Wilson fermions toolbox to the thermodynamics of QCD, starting on the $N_f=3$ symmetric line on the Columbia plot, and to compare the results with those obtained with other fermion discretizations.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2022

QCD topology with electromagnetic fields and the axion-photon coupling

The introduction of non-orthogonal electric and magnetic fields in the QCD vacuum enhances the weight of topological sectors with a nonzero topological charge. For weak fields, there is a linear response for the expectation value of the topological charge. We study this linear response and relate it to the QCD correction to the axion-photon coupling. We also analyse the magnetic field dependence of the topological susceptibility for a range of temperatures around $T_c$. In this work we use lattice simulations with improved staggered quarks at physical masses, including background magnetic and (imaginary) electric fields.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2022

Anomalous transport phenomena on the lattice

The interrelation between quantum anomalies and electromagnetic fields leads to a series of non-dissipative transport effects in QCD. In this work we study anomalous transport phenomena with lattice QCD simulations using improved staggered quarks in the presence of a background magnetic field. In particular, we calculate the conductivities both in the free case and in the interacting case, analysing the dependence of these coefficients with several parameters, such as the temperature and the quark mass.

hep-lat↗