arXiv subjects

Jens Braun

Publications and source records attributed to Jens Braun.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Fierz-complete NJL model study II: towards the fixed-point and phase structure of hot and dense two-flavor QCD

Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-type models are often employed as low-energy models for the theory of the strong interaction to analyze its phase structure at finite temperature and quark chemical potential. In particular at low temperature and large chemical potential, where the application of fully first-principles approaches is currently difficult at best, this class of models still plays a prominent role to guide our understanding of the dynamics of dense strong-interaction matter. In this work, we consider a Fierz-complete version of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with two massless quark flavors and study its renormalization group flow and fixed-point structure at leading order of the derivative expansion of the effective action. Sum rules for the various four-quark couplings then allow us to monitor the strength of the breaking of the axial $U_{\rm A}(1)$ symmetry close to and above the phase boundary. We find that the dynamics in the ten-dimensional Fierz-complete space of four-quark couplings can only be reduced to a one-dimensional space associated with the scalar-pseudoscalar coupling in the strict large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit. Still, the interacting fixed point associated with this one-dimensional subspace appears to govern the dynamics at small quark chemical potential even beyond the large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit. At large chemical potential, corrections beyond the large-$N_{\rm c}$ limit become important and the dynamics is dominated by diquarks, favoring the formation of a chirally symmetric diquark condensate. In this regime, our study suggests that the phase boundary is shifted to higher temperatures when a Fierz-complete set of four-quark interactions is considered.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

A complex Langevin approach to ultracold fermions

The theoretical treatment of Fermi systems consisting of particles with unequal masses is challenging. Even in one spatial dimension analytic solutions are limited to special configurations and numerical progress with Monte Carlo simulations is hindered by the sign-problem. To circumvent this issue, we exploit the Complex Langevin approach and study one-dimensional mass-imbalanced two-component Fermi gases with attractive and repulsive interactions. We find perfect agreement with results obtained by other methods in a range of parameter space. Promisingly, our approach is not limited to the specific model presented here and can easily be extended to finite spin polarization and, most notably, can also be applied in higher dimensions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Evolution from few- to many-body physics in one-dimensional Fermi systems: One- and two-body density matrices, and particle-partition entanglement

We study the evolution from few- to many-body physics of fermionic systems in one spatial dimension with attractive pairwise interactions. We determine the detailed form of the momentum distribution, the structure of the one-body density matrix, and the pairing properties encoded in the two-body density matrix. From the low- and high-momentum scaling behavior of the single-particle momentum distribution we estimate the speed of sound and Tan's contact, respectively. Both quantities are found to be in agreement with previous calculations. Based on our calculations of the one-body density matrices, we also present results for the particle-partition entanglement entropy, for which we find a logarithmic dependence on the total particle number.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

QCD-inspired determination of NJL model parameters

The QCD phase diagram at finite temperature and density has attracted considerable interest over many decades now, not least because of its relevance for a better understanding of heavy-ion collision experiments. Models provide some insight into the QCD phase structure but usually rely on various parameters. Based on renormalization group arguments, we discuss how the parameters of QCD low-energy models can be determined from the fundamental theory of the strong interaction. We particularly focus on a determination of the temperature dependence of these parameters in this work and comment on the effect of a finite quark chemical potential. We present first results and argue that our findings can be used to improve the predictive power of future model calculations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

In-medium bound-state formation and inhomogeneous condensation in Fermi gases in a hard-wall box

The formation of bosonic bound states underlies the formation of a superfluid ground state in the many-body phase diagram of ultracold Fermi gases. We study bound-state formation in a spin- and mass-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas confined in a box with hard-wall boundary conditions. Because of the presence of finite Fermi spheres, the center-of-mass momentum of the potentially formed bound states can be finite, depending on the parameters controlling mass and spin imbalance as well as the coupling strength. We exploit this observation to estimate the potential location of inhomogeneous phases in the many-body phase diagram as a function of spin- and mass imbalance as well as the box size. Our results suggest that a hard-wall box does not alter substantially the many-body phase diagram calculated in the thermodynamic limit. Therefore, such a box may serve as an ideal trap potential to bring experiment and theory closely together and facilitate the search for exotic inhomogeneous ground states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

From Quarks and Gluons to Hadrons: Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Dynamical QCD

We present an analysis of the dynamics of two-flavour QCD in the vacuum. Special attention is payed to the transition from the high energy quark-gluon regime to the low energy regime governed by hadron dynamics. This is done within a functional renormalisation group approach to QCD amended by dynamical hadronisation techniques. The latter allow us to describe conveniently the transition from the perturbative high-energy regime to the nonperturbative low-energy limit without suffering from a fine-tuning of model parameters. In the present work, we apply these techniques to two-flavour QCD with physical quark masses and show how the dynamics of the dominant low-energy degrees of freedom emerge from the underlying quark-gluon dynamics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Formation of Selfbound States in a One-Dimensional Nuclear Model -- A Renormalization Group based Density Functional Study

In nuclear physics, Density Functional Theory (DFT) provides the basis for state-of-the art studies of ground-state properties of heavy nuclei. However, the direct relation of the density functional underlying these calculations and the microscopic nuclear forces is not yet fully understood. We present a combination of DFT and Renormalization Group (RG) techniques which allows to study selfbound many-body systems from microscopic interactions. We discuss its application with the aid of systems of identical fermions interacting via a long-range attractive and short-range repulsive two-body force in one dimension. We compute ground-state energies, intrinsic densities, and density correlation functions of these systems and compare our results to those obtained from other methods. In particular, we show how energies of excited states as well as the absolute square of the ground-state wave function can be extracted from the correlation functions within our approach. The relation between many-body perturbation theory and our DFT-RG approach is discussed and illustrated with the aid of the calculation of the second-order energy correction for a system of $N$ identical fermions interacting via a general two-body interaction. Moreover, we discuss the control of spuriously emerging fermion self-interactions in DFT studies within our framework. In general, our approach may help to guide the development of energy functionals for future quantitative DFT studies of heavy nuclei from microscopic interactions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Crystalline Ground States in Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio Models

Nambu--Jona-Lasinio-type models have been used extensively to study the dynamics of the theory of the strong interaction at finite temperature and quark chemical potential on a phenomenological level. In addition to these studies, which are often performed under the assumption that the ground state of the theory is homogeneous, searches for the existence of crystalline phases associated with inhomogeneous ground states have attracted a lot of interest in recent years. In this work, we study the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model and find that the existence of a crystalline phase is stable against a variation of the parametrization of the underlying Polyakov loop potential. To this end, we adopt two prominent parametrizations. Moreover, we observe that the existence of a quarkyonic phase depends crucially on the parametrization, in particular in the regime of the phase diagram where inhomogeneous chiral condensation is favored.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Towards a Renormalization Group Approach to Density Functional Theory - General Formalism and Case Studies -

We discuss a two-point particle irreducible (2PPI) approach to many-body physics which relies on a renormalization group (RG) flow equation for the associated effective action. In particular, the general structure and properties of this RG flow equation are analyzed in detail. Moreover, we discuss how our 2PPI RG approach relates to Density Functional Theory and argue that it can in principle be used to study ground-state properties of non-relativistic many-body systems from microscopic interactions, such as (heavy) nuclei. For illustration purposes, we use our formalism to compute the ground-state properties of two toy models.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Phase structure of mass- and spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases

We study the phase diagram of mass- and spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases, in search for the emergence of spatially inhomogeneous phases. To account for fluctuation effects beyond the mean-field approximation, we employ renormalization group techniques. We thus obtain estimates for critical values of the temperature, mass and spin imbalance, above which the system is in the normal phase. In the unpolarized, equal-mass limit, our result for the critical temperature is in accordance with state-of-the-art Monte Carlo calculations. In addition, we estimate the location of regions in the phase diagram where inhomogeneous phases are likely to exist. We show that an intriguing relation exists between the general structure of the many-body phase diagram and the binding energies of the underlying two-body bound-state problem, which further supports our findings. Our results suggest that inhomogeneous condensates form for mass ratios of the spin-down and spin-up fermions greater than three. The extent of the inhomogeneous phase in parameter space increases with increasing mass imbalance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Delayed Magnetic Catalysis

We study the effect of an external magnetic field on the chiral phase transition in the theory of the strong interaction by means of a renormalization-group (RG) fixed-point analysis, relying on only one physical input parameter, the strong coupling at a given large momentum scale. To be specific, we consider the interplay of the RG flow of four-quark interactions and the running gauge coupling. Depending on the temperature and the strength of the magnetic field, the gauge coupling can drive the quark sector to criticality, resulting in chiral symmetry breaking. In accordance with lattice Monte-Carlo simulations, we find that the chiral phase transition temperature decreases for small values of the external magnetic field. For large magnetic field strengths, however, our fixed-point study predicts that the phase transition temperature increases monotonically.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

On the Search for Inhomogeneous Phases in Fermionic Models

We revisit the Gross-Neveu model with N fermion flavors in 1+1 dimensions and compute its phase diagram at finite temperature and chemical potential in the large-N limit. To this end, we double the number of fermion degrees of freedom in a specific way which allows us to detect inhomogeneous phases in an efficient manner. We show analytically that this "fermion doubling trick" predicts correctly the position of the boundary between the chirally symmetric phase and the phase with broken chiral symmetry. Most importantly, we find that the emergence of an inhomogeneous ground state is predicted correctly. We critically analyze our approach based on this trick and discuss its applicability to other theories, such as fermionic models in higher dimensions, where it may be used to guide the search for inhomogeneous phases.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

The Effect of Fluctuations on the QCD Critical Point in a Finite Volume

We investigate the effect of a finite volume on the critical behavior of the theory of the strong interaction (QCD) by means of a quark-meson model for two quark flavors. In particular, we analyze the effect of a finite volume on the location of the critical point in the phase diagram existing in our model. In our analysis, we take into account the effect of long-range fluctuations with the aid of renormalization group techniques. We find that these quantum and thermal fluctuations, absent in mean-field studies, play an import role for the dynamics in a finite volume. We show that the critical point is shifted towards smaller temperatures and larger values of the quark chemical potential if the volume size is decreased. This behavior persists for antiperiodic as well as periodic boundary conditions for the quark fields as used in many lattice QCD simulations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Zero-temperature equation of state of mass-imbalanced resonant Fermi gases

We calculate the zero-temperature equation of state of mass-imbalanced resonant Fermi gases in an ab initio fashion, by implementing the recent proposal of imaginary-valued mass difference to bypass the sign problem in lattice Monte Carlo calculations. The fully non-perturbative results thus obtained are analytically continued to real mass imbalance to yield the physical equation of state, providing predictions for upcoming experiments with mass-imbalanced atomic Fermi gases. In addition, we present an exact relation for the rate of change of the equation of state at small mass imbalances, showing that it is fully determined by the energy of the mass-balanced system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

On the Phase Structure of Many-Flavor QED${}_3$

We analyze the many-flavor phase diagram of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in 2+1 (Euclidean) space-time dimensions. We compute the critical flavor number above which the theory is in the quasi-conformal massless phase. For this, we study the renormalization group fixed-point structure in the space of gauge interactions and pointlike fermionic self-interactions, the latter of which are induced dynamically by fermion-photon interactions. We find that a reliable estimate of the critical flavor number crucially relies on a careful treatment of the Fierz ambiguity in the fermionic sector. Using a Fierz-complete basis, our results indicate that the phase transition towards a chirally-broken phase occurring at small flavor numbers could be separated from the quasi-conformal phase at larger flavor numbers, allowing for an intermediate phase which is dominated by fluctuations in a vector channel. If these interactions approach criticality, the intermediate phase could be characterized by a Lorentz-breaking vector condensate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Phases of spin- and mass-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gases in harmonic traps

We analyze the phase structure of mass- and spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases in harmonic traps. To this end, we employ Density Functional Theory in the local density approximation. Depending on the values of the control parameters measuring mass and spin imbalance, we observe that three regions exist in the trap, namely: a superfluid region at the center, surrounded by a mixed region of resonantly interacting spin-up and spin-down fermions, and finally a fully polarized phase surrounding the previous two regions. We also find regimes in the phase diagram where the existence of a superfluid region at the center of the trap is not energetically favored. We point out the limitations of our approach at the present stage, and call for more detailed (ab initio) studies of the equation of state of uniform, mass-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Inhomogeneous phases in one-dimensional mass- and spin-imbalanced Fermi gases

We compute the phase diagram of strongly interacting fermions in one dimension at finite temperature, with mass and spin imbalance. By including the possibility of the existence of a spatially inhomogeneous ground state, we find regions where spatially varying superfluid phases are favored over homogeneous phases. We obtain estimates for critical values of the temperature, mass and spin imbalance, above which these phases disappear. Finally, we show that an intriguing relation exists between the general structure of the phase diagram and the binding energies of the underlying two-body bound-state problem.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Fermi gases with imaginary mass imbalance and the sign problem in Monte Carlo calculations

Fermi gases in strongly coupled regimes, such as the unitary limit, are inherently challenging for many-body methods. Although much progress has been made with purely analytic methods, quantitative results require ab initio numerical approaches, such as Monte Carlo (MC) calculations. However, mass-imbalanced and spin-imbalanced gases are not accessible to MC calculations due to the infamous sign problem. It was recently pointed out that the sign problem, for finite spin imbalance, can be circumvented by resorting to imaginary polarizations and analytic continuation. Large parts of the phase diagram spanned by temperature and polarization then become accessible to MC calculations. We propose to apply a similar strategy to the mass-imbalanced case, which opens up the possibility to study the associated phase diagram with MC calculations. In particular, our analysis suggests that a detection of a (tri-)critical point in this phase diagram is possible. We also discuss calculations in the zero-temperature limit with our approach.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗