arXiv subjects

Micheal Kahangirwe

Publications and source records attributed to Micheal Kahangirwe.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Including Thermal Mesons and Meson Resonances in the Chiral Mean-Field Equation of State

The Chiral Mean-Field (CMF) model describes dense matter in terms of baryons and quarks interacting through scalar and vector meson mean fields. In the mean-field approximation, the meson fields are replaced by their expectation values. Their role in generating interactions and in-medium properties is retained, but explicit thermal mesonic excitations are absent. This becomes increasingly problematic at high temperature, where mesons contribute significantly to the thermodynamics of hadronic matter. Here, we keep the original CMF description of dense matter and add the thermal mesonic degrees of freedom using the mesonic sector of the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) module in the MUSES framework. Ground-state pseudoscalar and vector mesons account for the missing thermal excitations, while mesonic resonances provide, within the HRG picture, an effective description of mesonic interactions through resonance formation. We study how these contributions affect the pressure, entropy density, energy density, and baryon density, and compare the resulting equation of state with continuum-extrapolated lattice-QCD calculations.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

An Extended Chiral Mean-Field Model with Medium-Modified Thermal Mesons for Hot and Dense Hadronic Matter

In this conference proceeding we review an extension of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model that consistently incorporates interacting thermal mesons with self-consistent in-medium masses. In this approach, the in-medium masses of pseudoscalar and vector mesons are evaluated through the explicit chiral symmetry-breaking and vector-interaction terms in the Lagrangian respectively, before applying the mean-field approximation. These medium-modified meson properties introduce additional feedback into the CMF equations of motion, leading to a revised equation of state. The impact of this refinement is analyzed by comparing the hadronic model predictions with recent lattice QCD data and other hadronic descriptions, such as the hadron resonance gas model. The modified CMF framework, featuring an improved meson treatment (mCMF),demonstrates enhanced consistency with lattice-QCD results for thermodynamic observables across a broad range of temperatures and baryon chemical potentials.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Deep-learning classification of physically admissible nuclear-matter equations of state

Thermodynamic stability and causality impose fundamental constraints on the equation of state (EoS) of nuclear matter. Verifying these constraints conventionally requires calculating quantities such as the specific heat, baryon-number susceptibility, and speed of sound, which can become computationally expensive when many candidate EoSs must be examined. We investigate whether the normalized pressure surface, $Q(T,μ_B)=P(T,μ_B)/T^4$, alone contains sufficient information to determine the physical admissibility of an EoS. We develop a supervised convolutional neural network (CNN) that uses only this pressure representation to classify EoSs as physically admissible or inadmissible. The network is provided with training labels obtained from direct thermodynmaic stability and causality check and its does not get any information about the parameters of the underlying EoS framework. For EoSs generated within an Ising-mapping framework, the model achieves $97.65%$ accuracy on unseen test data. Applied independently to EoSs from a distinct holographic framework, it achieves perfect classification of the test set. These results show that pressure surfaces contain geometric signatures of thermodynamic stability and causality violations that can be learned directly by a CNN. Because the classifier relies only on the pressure surface, it avoids evaluating higher-order thermodynamic observables during inference and is largely independent of the EoS-generation framework. When the pressure surface is supplied as a two-dimensional array, the machine-learning validation is approximately 20 times faster than direct validation. Our results establish a fast, framework-independent approach for identifying physically admissible EoSs directly from their pressure surfaces.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Studying the QCD Matter produced in Heavy-Ion Collisions using the MUSES Calculation Engine

The equation of state of hot and dense matter is essential for describing heavy-ion collisions at all collision energies. Here, we explore the capabilities of the latest version of the MUSES Calculation Engine, $\textit{Calliope}$, focusing on software modules and workflows that compute the equation of state and observable properties of the matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. These include several equations of state, ranging from first-principles lattice QCD to phenomenological approaches, with or without a critical point, and with phase-space dimensionality ranging from two dimensions defined by temperature $T$ and baryon chemical potential $μ_B$, to four dimensions after the addition of strangeness and electric-charge chemical potentials $μ_S$ and $μ_Q$. We also discuss modules that provide additional thermodynamic quantities and observables relevant for heavy-ion modeling, including elements of the pressure Hessian matrix and transport coefficients. Workflow examples are constructed that merge two equations of state thermodynamically consistently to extend phase-diagram coverage, and feed the results into an equation of state inverter to produce inputs suitable for hydrodynamic simulations. Finally, we apply this framework to perform a relativistic viscous hydrodynamic simulation with equations of state with an extended $T$ and $μ_B$ coverage and a movable critical point, including effects from transport coefficients that phenomenologically encode critical scaling, at collision energies $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7, 19.6$, and $39$ GeV.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2025

Convergence properties of $T'$-Expansion Scheme: Hadron Resonance Gas and Cluster Expansion Model

In this study, we assess the effectiveness and robustness of the recently proposed $T'$-expansion scheme for expanding the equation of state of strongly interacting matter to finite density, by comparing its performance relative to the conventional Taylor expansion method in various effective QCD models. We use baryon number density and its susceptibilities to calculate the expansion coefficients in the $T'$-expansion scheme with and without the Stefan-Boltzmann limit correction. Our methodology involves comparing truncation orders to exact solutions to assess the scheme's accuracy. We utilize Ideal, Excluded Volume, and van der Waals formulations of the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model at low temperatures, and the Cluster Expansion Model at higher temperatures. Our findings indicate that the $T'$-expansion scheme offers superior convergence properties near and above the chiral crossover temperature, where the chiral-criticality-inspired scaling $(\partial/ \partial T)_{μ_B} \sim (\partial^2/\partial μ_B^2)_T$ holds. However, it shows limited improvement in the HRG models, indicating that it may not be the most suitable choice for describing the hadronic phase.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2025

A new 4D lattice QCD equation of state: extended density coverage from a generalized $T^\prime$-expansion

We present a new equation of state for QCD in which the temperature $T$ and the three chemical potentials for baryon number $μ_B$, electric charge $μ_Q$ and strangeness $μ_S$ can be varied independently. This result is based on a generalization of the $T'$-expansion scheme, thanks to which the diagonal $μ_B$ extrapolation was pushed up to a baryo-chemical potential $μ_B/T \sim 3.5$ for the first time. This considerably extended the coverage of the Taylor expansion, limited to $μ_B/T < 2.5-3$. As a consequence, we are able to offer a substantially larger coverage of the four-dimensional QCD phase diagram as well, compared to previously available Taylor expansion results. Our results are based on new continuum estimated lattice results on the full set of second and fourth order fluctuations.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2025

Building Neutron Stars with the MUSES Calculation Engine

Exploring the equation of state of dense matter is an essential part of interpreting the observable properties of neutron stars. We present here the first results for dense matter in the zero-temperature limit generated by the MUSES Calculation Engine, a composable workflow management system that orchestrates calculation and data processing stages comprising a collection of software modules designed within the MUSES framework. The modules presented in this work calculate equations of state using algorithms spanning three different theories/models: (1) Crust Density Functional Theory, valid starting at low densities, (2) Chiral Effective Field Theory, valid around saturation density, and (3) the Chiral Mean Field model, valid beyond saturation density. Lepton contributions are added through the Lepton module to each equation of state, ensuring charge neutrality and the possibility of $β$-equilibrium. Using the Synthesis module, we match the three equations of state using different thermodynamic variables and different methods. We then couple the complete equation of state to a novel full-general-relativity solver (QLIMR) module that calculates neutron star properties. We find that the matching performed using different thermodynamic variables affects differently the range obtained for neutron star masses and radii (although never beyond a few percent difference). We also investigate the universality of equation of state-independent relations for our matched stars. Finally, for the first time, we use the Flavor Equilibration module to estimate bulk viscosity and flavor relaxation charge fraction and rates (at low temperature) for Chiral Effective Field Theory and the Chiral Mean Field model.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Finite density QCD equation of state: critical point and lattice-based $T'$-expansion

We present a novel construction of the QCD equation of state (EoS) at finite baryon density. Our work combines a recently proposed resummation scheme for lattice QCD results with the universal critical behavior at the QCD critical point. This allows us to obtain a family of equations of state in the range $0 \leq μ_B \leq 700$ MeV and 25 MeV $\leq T \leq 800$ MeV, which match lattice QCD results near $μ_B=0$ while featuring a critical point in the 3D Ising model universality class. The position of the critical point can be chosen within the range accessible to beam-energy scan heavy-ion collision experiments. The strength of the singularity and the shape of the critical region are parameterized using a standard parameter set. We impose stability and causality constraints and discuss the available ranges of critical point parameter choices, finding that they extend beyond earlier parametric QCD EoS proposals. We present thermodynamic observables, including baryon density, pressure, entropy density, energy density, baryon susceptibility and speed of sound, that cover a wide range in the QCD phase diagram relevant for experimental exploration.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Theoretical and Experimental Constraints for the Equation of State of Dense and Hot Matter

This review aims at providing an extensive discussion of modern constraints relevant for dense and hot strongly interacting matter. It includes theoretical first-principle results from lattice and perturbative QCD, as well as chiral effective field theory results. From the experimental side, it includes heavy-ion collision and low-energy nuclear physics results, as well as observations from neutron stars and their mergers. The validity of different constraints, concerning specific conditions and ranges of applicability, is also provided.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Lattice-based equation of state with 3D Ising critical point

The BEST Collaboration equation of state combining lattice data with the 3D Ising critical point encounters limitations due to the truncated Taylor expansion up to $\frac{μ_B}{T} \sim 2.5$. This truncation consequently restricts its applicability at high densities. Through a resummation scheme, the lattice results have been extended to $\frac{μ_B}{T} = 3.5$. In this article, we amalgamate these ideas with the 3D-Ising model, yielding a family of equations of state valid up to $μ_B=700 \text{MeV}$ with the correct critical behavior. Our equations of state feature tunable parameters, providing a stable and causal framework-a crucial tool for hydrodynamics simulations.

nucl-th↗