arXiv subjects

Lorenz von Smekal

Publications and source records attributed to Lorenz von Smekal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Tricritical dynamics in $\mathrm{^3He}$-$\mathrm{^4He}$ mixtures and QCD

In this paper we study the universal critical dynamics near the tricritical points in $\mathrm{^3He}$-$\mathrm{^4He}$ mixtures and QCD with two massless quark flavors. In particular, we use the real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group to understand how the tricritical region connects the $O(4)$ Model G dynamics of the two-flavor chiral phase transition to that of Model H for the QCD critical point with explicitly broken chiral symmetry. We show that in presence of an additional subdiffusive energy-like density, the tricritical dynamics inherits the strong dynamic scaling of Model G, where the critical fluctuations of order parameter and conserved $O(N)$ charges relax at identical rates. The strong scaling in the planar $O(2)$ case relevant for the $λ$-line and the tricritical point in the liquid $\mathrm{^3He}$-$\mathrm{^4He}$ mixtures arises as an interesting limiting case. Including the explicit symmetry breaking by the finite light-quark masses in QCD, the energy-like density of the tricritical dynamics mixes linearly with the $Z_2$ order parameter to eventually produce the characteristic slow fluctuations of the entropy per baryon near the QCD critical point.

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arXiv2026

Renormalization-Group Invariant Parity-Doublet Model for Nuclear and Neutron-Star Matter

The Parity-Doublet Model (PDM) is a chirally invariant effective theory for strong-interaction matter involving nucleons and their opposite-parity partners in a parity-doubling framework. We introduce a multiplicatively renormalizable mean-field approach to include the baryonic vacuum contributions to the resulting grand-canonical potential in an explicitly renormalization-group invariant form. As an application, we evaluate the pertinent thermodynamics of two-flavor symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter, focusing on the restoration of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry at baryon densities and temperatures relevant for the astrophysics of neutron stars. Special attention is paid to the effect of the baryonic vacuum fluctuations on the evolution of the chiral condensate with baryon density and temperature for specific choices of the chirally invariant baryon mass m0 to demonstrate the importance of consistently including these vacuum fluctuations in the PDM.

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arXiv2026

Non-equilibrium scaling across first-order transitions with relativistic scalar fields

We investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a relativistic $Z_2$-symmetric scalar field theory with Langevin dynamics in two and three spatial dimensions under linear driving across magnetic first-order phase transitions, close to and far below the critical temperature $T_c$. Using classical-statistical lattice simulations, we find that if the driving timescale is sufficiently fast, the system exhibits finite-time scaling behavior independent of temperature and dimensionality, identical to that observed in mean-field simulations. In slow quenches near $T_c$ this mean-field behavior crosses over to critical Kibble-Zurek scaling behavior, while for temperatures $T \ll T_c$ nucleation and growth dominate the transition dynamics, resulting in corrections to scaling. Near the transition point where the order parameter changes sign, the crossover between mean-field and critical out-of-equilibrium dynamics is found to be well described by the leading algebraic correction to Kibble-Zurek scaling. We find that universal non-equilibrium scaling behavior can be observed for $T \lesssim T_c$, provided the driving is fast enough to avoid nucleation but slow enough for correlations to form, and compute the associated universal scaling functions for the order parameter.

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arXiv2026

QCD Anderson transition at zero and non-zero external magnetic fields

The QCD Anderson transition is believed to be connected to both deconfinement and chiral crossovers. These crossovers are substantially affected when external magnetic fields ($B$) are present, most prominently, e.g., via magnetic catalysis and inverse magnetic catalysis. In this work, we use lattice QCD to investigate the Anderson transition in two different setups: (1) at $B=0$ by studying the low-lying eigenmodes of the overlap operator using gauge configurations with $2+1+1$ quark flavors of twisted-mass Wilson fermions. We estimate the mobility edge below which eigenmodes are localized via the inflection point of the so-called relative volume. Previous work has shown that, contrary to expectations, this estimate does not vanish at the temperature of the chiral phase transition. A possible scenario for this apparent contradiction was discussed, and in this work, we present an alternative observable for measuring localization that supports this scenario. And (2) by studying the localization properties of the staggered Dirac operator at $B\neq0$ on configurations with $2+1$ dynamical staggered fermions and 2 stout-smearing steps. Our preliminary results on two lattice spacings ($24^3\times 6$ and $24^3\times 8$) indicate a non-monotonic behavior of the mobility edge with the magnetic field across different temperatures, which hints at a reduction in the Anderson transition temperature in the presence of an external magnetic field.

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arXiv2026

Universal scaling of transport coefficients near the liquid-gas critical point

We employ a novel real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group (FRG) to compute universal scaling functions of the thermal diffusivity and the shear viscosity in the vicinity of the liquid-gas critical point, i.e., for the dynamic universality class of Model H from the Halperin-Hohenberg classification. We map out the universal dependence of the transport coefficients on temperature, external magnetic field, and wavenumber, and provide a detailed comparison with the Kawasaki approximation, which is here obtained from a perturbative one-loop approximation to our real-time FRG flow. In contrast to the Kawasaki approximation, the non-perturbative scaling functions from the full real-time FRG flow show a mild dependence on the thermodynamic path towards the critical point. We further compare our FRG results for the universal wavenumber and temperature dependence of the thermal diffusivity with experimental data from critical fluids.

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arXiv2026

Numerical simulations of non-relativistic stochastic fluids via the Metropolis algorithm

Stochastic hydrodynamics provides a dynamical framework for the evolution of fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions, but poses significant challenges in numerical simulations. We present an algorithm for the simulation of non-relativistic stochastic fluids in two spatial dimensions in a box. We use the robust Metropolis algorithm, handling fluctuations and dissipation at once by systematically replacing dissipative terms in the hydrodynamic equations by random forces. The algorithm can easily be modified for numerical simulations of other hydrodynamic theories. We present test cases as well as numerical calculations of the renormalization of shear viscosity.

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arXiv2025

Kinetic Mixing and Axial Charges in the Parity-Doublet Model

The standard parity doublet model with its mass-mixing mechanism fails to describe the axial charge $g_A$ of the nucleon. While $g_A = 1$ in the original Gell-Mann--Levy model, which reproduces the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly of QCD, in the presence of a chirally invariant baryon mass the mass mixing leads to $g_A < 1 $ whereas phenomenologically it is about 1.28. We propose to remedy this problem by introducing kinetic-mixing terms corresponding to meson-baryon derivative couplings, similar in spirit to the two-mixing-angle scenario of the $η$-$η'$ mixing. This extended parity doublet model contains five parameters in the effective baryonic Lagrangian. Three of them can be determined by using the empirical results for the axial charge of the nucleon together with the masses of the nucleon and its parity partner, the $N^*(1535)$ resonance. We discuss various options how to determine the remaining parameters, touching upon the mass of both parity partners if the chiral condensate is put to zero; the mass of the nucleon in the chiral limit; and the values of meson-baryon coupling constants related to the decays of the resonance to pion-nucleon and sigma-nucleon.

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arXiv2025

Universal critical dynamics near the chiral phase transition and the QCD critical point

We use a novel real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group (FRG) for dynamical systems with reversible mode couplings to study Model G and H, which are the conjectured dynamic universality classes of the two-flavor chiral phase transition and the QCD critical point, respectively. We compute the dynamic critical exponent in both models in spatial dimensions $2<d<4$. We discuss qualitative commonalities and differences in the non-perturbative RG flow, such as weak scaling relations which hold in either case versus the characteristic strong scaling of Model G which is absent in Model H. For Model G, we also extract a novel dynamic scaling function that describes the universal momentum and temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient of iso-(axial-)vector charges in the symmetric phase.

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arXiv2025

Renormalization group invariant mean-field model for QCD at finite isospin density

QCD at nonzero isospin chemical potentials has phenomenological relevance for a series of physical systems and provides an ideal testground for the modeling of dense strongly interacting matter. The two-flavor quark-meson model is known to effectively describe the condensation of charged pions in QCD that occurs in this setting. In this paper, we derive a renormalization-group invariant mean-field formulation of the model and demonstrate that the resulting phase diagram and equation of state are in quantitative agreement with data from lattice QCD simulations at small and intermediate isospin chemical potentials. In particular, the speed of sound from the model shows an excess over the conformal bound as previously seen in lattice computations in agreement with chiral perturbation theory. We then consider the speed of sound in the limit of large isospin chemical potentials and see that it approaches the conformal limit from above, in qualitative agreement with recent lattice results and in quantitative agreement with perturbation theory in the presence of a BCS gap. Finally, we consider the phase diagram in the approach to the chiral limit. We find that within the model the chiral phase transition connects to the pion condensation phase boundary in the chiral limit and we discuss the implications for the properties of the chiral transition point.

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arXiv2025

Effects of dissipation on phase diagram and bosonic excitations in the quark-meson model

In this work we study the quark-meson model within a real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group (FRG) on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour. First, we discuss in detail the symmetry of thermal equilibrium for the fermionic sector of the Keldysh action. We take into account dissipation for the bosonic degrees of freedom in the spirit of the Caldeira-Leggett model by coupling the system to an $O(4)$ invariant external heat bath. We study the effect of dissipation on static equilibrium properties, most prominently on the FRG flow of the effective potential and thus on the resulting phase diagram. We find that, unlike in classical systems, through the contributions from non-zero Matsubara modes the dissipative dynamics can in general have an effect on static observables. We investigate these effects within two phenomenological models for the temperature dependence of the pion damping to verify that they are quantitatively small. To estimate their largest possible influence, we consider limits where the damping constants approach infinity.

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arXiv2025

Universal critical dynamics near the chiral phase transition and the QCD critical point

We use a novel real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group (FRG) for dynamical systems with reversible mode couplings to study Model H, the conjectured dynamic universality class of the QCD critical point. We emphasize the structural similarities with Model G, conjectured to be the dynamic universality class of the chiral phase transition in the limit of two massless quark flavors. Importantly, our formulation of the real-time FRG preserves all relevant symmetries throughout the FRG flow which, e.g., guarantees the non-renormalization of the reversible mode couplings, as but one exact result. We derive non-perturbative RG flow equations for the kinetic coefficients of both, Model G and H, in parallel, and discuss commonalities and differences in the resulting fixed-point structure and dynamic critical exponents, such as weak-scaling relations which hold in either case versus the characteristic strong scaling of Model G which is absent in Model H.

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arXiv2025

QCD Anderson transition with overlap valence quarks on a twisted-mass sea -- an update

We investigate the QCD Anderson transition by studying the low-lying eigenmodes of the overlap operator in the background of gauge configurations with 2+1+1 quark flavors of twisted-mass Wilson fermions. The mobility edge, below which eigenmodes are localized, is estimated by the inflection point of the relative volume. The analysis of its temperature dependence suggests a close relation of localization to chiral symmetry restoration. We update our previous work [1] by including recent results on lower temperatures and switching to improved estimates of the lattice spacing and pseudocritical temperature respectively pion mass. Contrary to the previous prediction, our the mobility edge estimate does not vanish at the temperature of the chiral phase transition. We discuss a possible scenario, supported by literature, for why this could be the case. [1] R. Kehr, D. Smith and L. von Smekal, QCD Anderson transition with overlap valence quarks on a twisted-mass sea, Phys. Rev. D 109 (2024) 074512 [2304.13617].

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arXiv2024

Universal non-equilibrium scaling of cumulants across a critical point

We study the critical dynamics of a scalar field theory with $Z_2$ symmetry in the dynamic universality class of Model A in two and three spatial dimensions with classical-statistical lattice simulations. In particular, we measure the non-equilibrium behavior of the system under a quench protocol in which the symmetry-breaking external field is changed at a constant rate through the critical point. Using the well-established Kibble-Zurek scaling theory we compute non-equilibrium scaling functions of cumulants of the order parameter up to fourth order. Together with the static critical exponents and the dynamic critical exponent, these fully describe the universal non-equilibrium evolution of the system near the critical point. We further extend the analysis to include finite-size effects and observe good collapse of our data onto two-dimensional universal non-equilibrium and finite-size scaling functions.

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arXiv2024

Medium induced mixing, spatial modulations and critical modes in QCD

The mixing between the chiral condensate and the density in hot and dense QCD matter is familiar. We show that the mixing relevant for the ground state is considerably more extensive, and in particular also involves gluonic degrees of freedom. As a result, the Hessian of the QCD effective action is non-Hermitian, but retains a symmetry under combined charge- and complex conjugation. This can lead to complex-conjugate pairs of eigenvalues of this Hessian, signaling regimes with spatially modulated correlations. Furthermore, based on the analytic structure of the quark determinant at a chiral critical point, we demonstrate that the corresponding massless critical mode is composed of the chiral condensate, the density and the Polyakov loops. Due to an avoided crossing, the critical mode turns out to be disconnected from the chiral condensate in vacuum. We present general arguments for all these features and illustrate them through explicit model calculations.

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arXiv2024

QCD Anderson transition with overlap valence quarks on a twisted-mass sea

In this work we probe the QCD Anderson transition by studying spectral distributions of the massless overlap operator on gauge configurations created by the twisted mass at finite temperature collaboration (tmfT) with 2+1+1 flavors of dynamical quarks and the Iwasaki gauge action. We assess finite-size and discretization effects by considering two different lattice spacings and several physical volumes, and mimic the approach to the continuum limit through stereographic projection. Fitting the inflection points of the participation ratios of the overlap Dirac eigenmodes, we obtain estimates of the temperature dependence of the mobility edge, below which quark modes are localized. We observe that it is well-described by a quadratic polynomial and systematically vanishes at temperatures below the pseudocritical one of the chiral transition. In fact, our best estimates within errors overlap with that of the chiral phase transition temperature of QCD in the chiral limit.

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arXiv2024

Dynamic critical behavior of the chiral phase transition from the real-time functional renormalization group

In the chiral limit the complicated many-body dynamics around the second-order chiral phase transition of two-flavor QCD can be understood by appealing to universality. We present a novel formulation of the real-time functional renormalization group that describes the stochastic hydrodynamic equations of motion for systems in the same dynamic universality class, which corresponds to Model G in the Halperin-Hohenberg classification. Our approach preserves all relevant symmetries of such systems with reversible mode couplings. We show that the calculations indeed produce the non-trivial value $z=d/2$ for the dynamic critical exponent, where $d$ is the number of spatial dimensions. From the momentum and temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient of the conserved charge densities, we extract the dimensionless universal scaling function.

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arXiv2024

Medium modification of pion production in low energy Au+Au collisions

There is a major mismatch between the charged pion yields in Au+Au collisions at low energies calculated by various transport models and the experimental measured values from the Hades collaboration. In this work, reasonable improvements on the equation of state, in-medium modification of cross sections, and the influence of the nuclear potential for Delta resonances will be investigated in the framework of the GiBUU transport model. As a result, we demonstrate that theoretical calculations can indeed describe the charged pion yields measured by Hades for Au+Au collisions rather well, but that a mismatch then remains between calculations and data for the yields of neutral pions extracted from dileptons within the same experiment.

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arXiv2023

Critical dynamics in a real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group

We present first calculations of critical spectral functions of the relaxational Models A, B, and C in the Halperin-Hohenberg classification using a real-time formulation of the functional renormalization group (FRG). We revisit the prediction by Son and Stephanov that the linear coupling of a conserved density to the non-conserved order parameter of Model A gives rise to critical Model-B dynamics. We formulate both 1-loop and 2-loop self-consistent expansion schemes in the 1PI vertex functions as truncations of the effective average action suitable for real-time applications, and analyze in detail how the different critical dynamics are properly incorporated in the framework of the FRG on the closed-time path. We present results for the corresponding critical spectral functions, extract the dynamic critical exponents for Models A, B, and C, in two and three spatial dimensions, respectively, and compare the resulting values with recent results from the literature.

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