arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Rajiv V. Gavai.
I compute Polyakov loop, the deconfinement order parameter, for SU(2) lattice gauge theory using the fixed scale approach for several different scales and show how to obtain a renormalized physical order parameter. The generalization to other gauge theories, including quenched or full QCD, is straightforward.
I compute the deconfinement order parameter for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, the Polyakov loop, using the fixed scale approach for two different scales and show how one can obtain a physical, renormalized, order parameter. The generalization to other gauge theories, including quenched or full QCD, is straightforward.
Using both perturbation theory in the Euclidean formalism as well as the non-perturbative Fujikawa's method, we verify that the chiral anomaly equation remains unaffected in continuum QCD in the presence of nonzero chemical potential, μ. We extend our considerations to lattice fermions with exact chiral symmetry and discuss the consequences for the recent Bloch-Wettig proposal for the Dirac operator at finite chemical potential. We propose a new simpler method of incorporating μ.
Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions, predicts a transition of the usual matter to a new phase of matter, called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), at sufficiently high temperatures. The non-perturbative technique of defining a theory on a space-time lattice has been used to obtain this and other predictions about the nature of QGP. Heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN can potentially test these predictions and thereby test our theoretical understanding of confinement. This brief review aims at providing a glimpse of both these aspects of QGP.
Any mu^2-divergence is shown analytically to be absent for a class of actions for Overlap and Domain Wall Fermions with nonzero chemical potential. All such actions are, however, shown to violate the chiral invariance. While the parameter M of these actions can be shown to be irrelevant in the continuum limit, as expected, it is shown numerically that the continuum limit can be reached with relatively coarser lattices for M in the range of 1.5-1.6.
We propose an improvement of the differential method for the computation of the equation of state of QCD from lattice simulations. In contrast to the earlier differential method our technique yields positive pressure for all temperatures including in the transition region. Employing it on temporal lattices of 8, 10 and 12 sites and by extrapolating to zero lattice spacing we obtained the pressure, energy density, entropy density, specific heat and speed of sound in quenched QCD for 0.9 < T/Tc < 3. A comparison of our results is made with those from the dimensional reduction approach and a conformal symmetric theory at high-temperature.
We investigate mesonic screening correlators at T=2T_c using the overlap Fermions in the quenched approximation, where T_c is the QCD phase transition temperature. Using lattices with temporal extent up to 8, we found that both pseudoscalar and vector correlators exhibit a nice $cosh$ behaviour, leading to a plateau behaviour in the local screening masses as a function of distance. The rho and pi masses so determined show very little variation with the lattice spacing a. This augurs well for the use of chiral Fermions, and further suggests the small deviations of these masses from the ideal gas values are genuine effects of interactions.
I review a few selected topics in Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics, focusing more on the recent results. These include i) the equation of state and speed of sound, ii) J/ψsuppression, iii) flavour correlations and iv) the QCD phase diagram in the μ-T plane.
Fluctuations of conserved quantities in heavy-ion collisions have been argued to be diagnostic tools for the nature of the produced phase. These can be related to the predictions of quark number susceptibilities (QNS) from lattice QCD. Using the diagonal QNS, we extracted the Wroblewski parameter in a dynamical QCD computation. Our results on the cross correlations χ_{BQ}, χ_{BY}, χ_{BS} and χ_{QY} allow us to explore the charge and baryon number of objects that carry flavour. We present evidence that in the high temperature phase of QCD the different flavour quantum numbers are excited in linkages which are exactly the same as one expects from quarks.
We propose a new variant of the operator method for the computation of the equation of state of QCD, which yields positive pressure for all temperatures and all values of temporal lattice spacings. Using this new method, we calculate the continuum limit of pressure, energy density, entropy density, specific heat, and the speed of sound, in quenched QCD, for 0.9 \le T/T_c \le 3.
I present our recent results on the critical end point in the μ_B-T phase diagram of QCD with two flavours of light dynamical quarks and compare them with similar results from other groups. Implications for a possible energy scan at the RHIC are discussed. I also comment briefly on the new results of great relevance to heavy ion collisions from finite temperature lattice QCD simulations on speed of sound, specific heat and on the fate of J/ψ.
The Wroblewski parameter is a convenient indicator of strangeness production and can be employed to monitor a signal of quark-gluon plasma production : enhancement of strangeness production. It has been shown to be about a factor two higher in heavy ion collisions than in hadronic collisions. Using a method proposed by us earlier, we obtained lattice QCD results for the Wroblewski parameter from our simulations of QCD with two light quarks both below and above the chiral transition. Our first principles based and parameter free result compare well with the A-A data from SPS and RHIC.
We report the continuum limits of the speed of sound, c_s, and the specific heat at constant volume, c_v, in quenched QCD at temperatures of 2Tc and 3Tc. At these temperatures, c_s is within 2-sigma of the ideal gas value, whereas c_v differs significantly from the ideal gas. However, both are compatible with results expected in a theory with conformal symmetry. We investigate effective measures of conformal symmetry in the high temperature phase of QCD.
Enhancement of strangeness production has since long been proposed as a promising signal of quark-gluon plasma production. A convenient indicator for it is the Wroblewski parameter which has been shown to be about a factor two higher in heavy ion collisions. Using a method proposed by us earlier, we obtained lattice QCD results for the Wroblewski parameter from our simulations of QCD with two light quarks both below and above the chiral transition. Our first principles based and parameter free result compare well with the A-A data.
When the free energy density of QCD is expanded in a series in the chemical potential, mu, the Taylor coefficients are the non-linear quark number susceptibilities. We show that these depend on the prescription for putting chemical potential on the lattice, making all extrapolations in chemical potential prescription dependent at finite lattice spacing. To put bounds on the prescription dependence, we investigate the magnitude of the non-linear susceptibilities over a range of temperature, T, in QCD with two degenerate flavours of light dynamical quarks at lattice spacing 1/4T. The prescription dependence is removed in quenched QCD through a continuum extrapolation, and the dependence of the pressure, P, on mu is obtained.
We compare the efficiency of four different algorithms to compute the overlap Dirac operator, both for the speed, i.e., time required to reach a desired numerical accuracy, and for the adaptability, i.e., the scaling of speed with the condition number of the (square of the) Wilson Dirac operator. Although orthogonal polynomial expansions give good speeds at moderate condition number, they are highly non-adaptable. One of the rational function expansions, the Zolotarev approximation, is the fastest and is adaptable. The conjugate gradient approximation is adaptable, self-tuning, and nearly as fast as the ZA.
We have investigated the quark sector of quenched QCD for 1.5\le T/Tc\le3 in the continuum limit, using two different lattice discretisations of quarks and extrapolating from lattice spacings between 1/4T and 1/14T. At these temperatures, the flavour off-diagonal susceptibility, chi_{ud}/T^2, is compatible with zero at each lattice spacing, and hence also in the continuum limit. In the continuum limit, the light quark susceptibilities are about 10% less than the ideal gas results even at the highest T, in agreement with hard thermal loop predictions but marginally below a resummed perturbative computation. For the mass range appropriate to the strange quark, the flavour diagonal susceptibility is significantly smaller. Our estimate of the Wroblewski parameter is compatible with observations at RHIC and SPS. The continuum limit of screening masses in all (local) quark-bilinears is very close to the ideal gas results.
Quark number susceptibilities approach their ideal gas limit at sufficiently high temperatures. As in the case of other thermodynamic quantities, this limit itself is altered substantially on lattices with small temporal extent, N_t = 4-8, making it thus difficult to check the validity of perturbation theory. Unlike other observables, improving susceptibilities or number densities is subject to constraints of current conservation and absence of chemical potential dependent divergences. We construct such an improved number density and susceptibility for staggered fermions and show that they approximate the continuum ideal gas limit better on small temporal lattices.