arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. D'Elia.
A scaling analysis is made of the order parameter describing monopole condensation at the deconfining transition of N_f=2 QCD around the chiral point. In accordance with scaling properties of the specific heat, studied in a previous paper, scaling is consistent with a first order transition. The status of dual superconductivity of the vacuum as a mechanism of color confinement is reviewed.
We argue that the order of the chiral transition for N_f=2 is a sensitive probe of the QCD vacuum, in particular of the mechanism of color confinement. A strategy is developed to investigate the order of the transition by use of finite size scaling analysis. An in-depth numerical investigation is performed with staggered fermions on lattices with N_t=4 and N_s=12,16,20,24,32 and quark masses am_q ranging from 0.01335 to 0.307036. The specific heat and a number of susceptibilities are measured and compared with the expectations of an O(4) second order and of a first order phase transition. A second order transition in the O(4) and O(2) universality classes are excluded. Substantial evidence emerges for a first order transition. A detailed comparison with previous works is performed.
Non-analyticity of QCD with a θterm at θ=0 may signal a spontaneous breaking of both parity and time reversal invariance. We address this issue by investigating the large volume limit of the topological susceptibility $χ$ in pure SU(3) gauge theory. We obtain an upper bound for the symmetry breaking order parameter and, as a byproduct, the value χ=(173.4(+/- 0.5)(+/- 1.2)(+1.1 / -0.2) MeV)^4 at β=6 (a approx= 0.1 fermi). The errors are the statistical error from our data, the one derived from the value used for Λ_L and an estimate of the systematic error respectively.
The large volume behaviour of the topological susceptibility in SU(3) gauge theory is investigated on the lattice to establish an upper limit on the parity violating terms.
We show that lattice results on four flavor QCD at nonzero temperature and baryon density compare well with the hadron resonance gas model up to T approx. 0.95 Tc, and approach a free field behaviour with a reduced effective number of flavor for T \ge 1.5 Tc. Chiral symmetry and confinement are interrelated, and we note analogies between the critical line of QCD and that of simple models with the same global symmetries.
We study the SO(3) lattice gauge theory in 3+1 dimensions with the adjoint Wilson action modified by a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ monopole suppression term and by means of the Pisa disorder operator. We find evidence for a finite temperature deconfinement transition driven by the condensation of U(1) magnetic charges. A finite-size scaling test shows consistency with the critical exponents of the 3D Ising model.
A careful study is made on the lattice of the phase diagram of QCD with two staggered flavors, to investigate the order of the chiral transition of N_f=2 QCD. The specific heat and the susceptibility of the chiral condensate are determined for different spatial sizes of the system, and a finite size scaling analysis provides a determination of the (pseudo)critical indices. The result is a strong indication that the chiral transition is first order.
The transition is studied by means of a disorder parameter detecting condensation of magnetic monopoles in the vacuum. The deconfining transition is found to coincide with the chiral transition and the susceptibility ρ, related to the disorder parameter, is consistent with a first order phase transition.
A strategy is developed to investigate the order of the transition using finite size scaling and its relation to color confinement. An in-depth numerical investigation has been performed with KS fermions on lattices with N_t=4 and N_s=12,16,20,24,32 and quark masses am_q ranging from 0.01335 to 0.35. The specific heat and a number of susceptibilities have been measured and compared with the expectation of an O(4) second order and a first order phase transition. A second order O(4) is excluded, whilst data are consistent with a first order.
We determine the topological susceptibility $χ$ at T=0 in pure SU(3) gauge theory and its behaviour at finite $T$ across the deconfining transition. We use an improved topological charge density operator. $χ$ drops sharply by one order of magnitude at the deconfining temperature $T_c$.
The order and the nature of the finite-temperature phase transition of QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks is investigated. An analysis of the critical exponent of the specific heat is performed through finite-size and finite-mass scaling of various susceptibilities. Dual superconductivity of QCD vacuum is investigated using a disorder parameter, namely the v.e.v. of a monopole creation operator. Hybrid R simulations were run at lattice spatial sizes of $12^3$, $16^3$, $20^3$ and $32^3$ and temporal size $N_t=4$, with quark masses in the range $am_q = 0.3 - 0.01$.
We investigate the deconfining phase transition in SU(3) pure gauge theory and in full QCD with two flavors of staggered fermions by means of a gauge invariant thermal partition functional. In the pure gauge case our finite size scaling analysis is in agreement with the well known weak first order phase transition. In the case of 2 flavors full QCD we find that the phase transition is consistent with weak first order, contrary to the expectation of a crossover for not too large quark masses.
The vacuum expectation value of an operator carrying magnetic charge is studied numerically for temperatures above the deconfinement temperature in SU(2) and SU(3) gauge theory. By analyzing its finite size behaviour, this is found to be exactly zero in the thermodynamical limit for any T > T_c whenever the magnetic charge of the operator is different from zero. These results show that magnetic charge is superselected in the hot phase of quenched QCD.
We study by numerical simulations on a lattice the behaviour of the gauge-invariant two-point correlation functions of the gauge-field strengths across the deconfinement phase transition, both for the pure-gauge SU(3) theory and for full QCD with two flavours. Quenched data agree within errors with previous determinations, but have much higher statistics. A best-fit analysis of the data has been performed, both for the quenched and the full-QCD case, showing that the electric gluon condensate drops to zero at the deconfining phase transition.
We discuss a few aspects of the phase diagram of two color lattice QCD: we investigate the long distance screening analyzing the behavior of the interquark potential at large distances; we present a first set of results for vector mesons and diquarks; we note similarities and differences between features at high temperature and high baryon density.
We study QCD at nonzero temperature and baryon density in the framework of the analytic continuation from imaginary chemical potential. We carry out simulations of QCD with four flavor of staggered fermions, and reconstruct the phase diagram in the temperature-imaginary μplane. We consider ansätze for the analytic continuation of the critical line and other observables motivated both by theoretical considerations and mean field calculations in four fermion models and random matrix theory. We determine the critical line, and the analytic continuation of the chiral condensate, up to μ_B approx. 500 MeV. The results are in qualitative agreement with the predictions of model field theories, and consistent with a first order chiral transition. The correlation between the chiral transition and the deconfinement transition observed at μ=0 persists at nonzero density.
We use a lattice thermal partition functional to study Abelian monopole condensation in full QCD with $N_f=2$ staggered fermions. We present preliminary results on $16^3\times4$ and $32^3\times4$ lattices.
We report on evidence from lattice simulations that confinement is produced by dual superconductivity of the vacuum in full QCD as in quenched QCD. Preliminary information is obtained on the order of the deconfining phase transition.