No Arabic abstract
A three-dimensional effective lattice theory of Polyakov loops is derived from QCD by expansions in the fundamental character of the gauge action, u, and the hopping parameter, kappa, whose action is correct to kappa^n u^m with n+m=4. At finite baryon density, the effective theory has a sign problem which meets all criteria to be simulated by complex Langevin as well as by Monte Carlo on small volumes. The theory is valid for the thermodynamics of heavy quarks, where its predictions agree with simulations of full QCD at zero and imaginary chemical potential. In its region of convergence, it is moreover amenable to perturbative calculations in the small effective couplings. In this work we study the challenging cold and dense regime. We find unambiguous evidence for the nuclear liquid gas transition once the baryon chemical potential approaches the baryon mass, and calculate the nuclear equation of state. In particular, we find a negative binding energy per nucleon causing the condensation, whose absolute value decreases exponentially as mesons get heavier. For decreasing meson mass, we observe a first order liquid gas transition with an endpoint at some finite temperature, as well as gap between the onset of isospin and baryon condensation.
After combined character and hopping expansions and integration over the spatial gauge links, lattice QCD reduces to a three-dimensional $SU(3)$ Polyakov loop model with complicated interactions. A simple truncation of the effective theory is valid for heavy quarks on reasonably fine lattices and can be solved by linked cluster expansion in its effective couplings. This was used ealier to demonstrate the onset transition to baryon matter in the cold and dense regime. Repeating these studies for general $N_c$, one finds that for large $N_c$ the onset transition becomes first-order, and the pressure scales as $psim N_c$ through three consecutive orders in the hoppoing expansion. These features are consistent with the formal definition of quarkyonic matter given in the literature. We discuss the implications for $N_c=3$ and physical QCD.
A previously derived three-dimensional effective lattice theory describing the thermodynamics of QCD with heavy quarks in the cold and dense region is extended through order $sim u^5kappa^8$ in the combined character and hopping expansion of the original four-dimensional Wilson action. The systematics of the effective theory is investigated to determine its range of validity in parameter space. We demonstrate the severe cut-off effects due to lattice saturation, which afflict any lattice results at finite baryon density independent of the sign problem or the quality of effective theories, and which have to be removed by continuum extrapolation. We then show how the effective theory can be solved analytically by means of a linked cluster expansion, which is completely unaffected by the sign problem, in quantitative agreement with numerical simulations. As an application, we compute the cold nuclear equation of state of heavy QCD. Our continuum extrapolated result is consistent with a polytropic equation of state for non-relativistic fermions.
Complete flavour decompositions of the scalar, axial and tensor charges of the proton, deuteron, diproton and $^3$He at SU(3)-symmetric values of the quark masses corresponding to a pion mass $m_pisim806$ MeV are determined using lattice QCD. At the physical quark masses, the scalar charges constrain mean-field models of nuclei and the low-energy interactions of nuclei with potential dark matter candidates. The axial and tensor charges of nuclei constrain their spin content, integrated transversity and the quark contributions to their electric dipole moments. External fields are used to directly access the quark-line connected matrix elements of quark bilinear operators, and a combination of stochastic estimation techniques is used to determine the disconnected sea-quark contributions. Significant nuclear modifications are found, with particularly large, O(10%), effects in the scalar charges. Typically, these nuclear effects reduce the effective charge of the nucleon (quenching), although in some cases an enhancement is not excluded. Given the size of the nuclear modifications of the scalar charges resolved here, contributions from correlated multi-nucleon effects should be quantified in the analysis of dark matter direct-detection experiments using nuclear targets.
On the basis of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock method with the nucleon-nucleon forces obtained from lattice QCD simulations, the properties of the medium-heavy doubly-magic nuclei such as 16^O and 40^Ca are investigated. We found that those nuclei are bound for the pseudo-scalar meson mass M_PS ~ 470 MeV. The mass number dependence of the binding energies, single-particle spectra and density distributions are qualitatively consistent with those expected from empirical data at the physical point, although these hypothetical nuclei at heavy quark mass have smaller binding energies than the real nuclei.
We determine the magnetic susceptibility of thermal QCD matter by means of first principles lattice simulations using staggered quarks with physical masses. A novel method is employed that only requires simulations at zero background field, thereby circumventing problems related to magnetic flux quantization. After a careful continuum limit extrapolation, diamagnetic behavior (negative susceptibility) is found at low temperatures and strong paramagnetism (positive susceptibility) at high temperatures. We revisit the decomposition of the magnetic susceptibility into spin- and orbital angular momentum-related contributions. The spin term -- related to the normalization of the photon lightcone distribution amplitude at zero temperature -- is calculated non-perturbatively and extrapolated to the continuum limit. Having access to both the full magnetic susceptibility and the spin term, we calculate the orbital angular momentum contribution for the first time. The results reveal the opposite of what might be expected based on a free fermion picture. We provide a simple parametrization of the temperature- and magnetic field-dependence of the QCD equation of state that can be used in phenomenological studies.