The energy-momentum tensor and equation of state are studied in finite-temperature (2+1)-flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks using the method proposed by Makino and Suzuki based on the gradient flow. We find that the results of the gradient flow are consistent with the previous results using the $T$-integration method at $T mathrel{rlap{raise 0.511ex hbox{$<$}}{lower 0.511ex hbox{$sim$}}} 280$ MeV ($N_tmathrel{rlap{raise 0.511ex hbox{$>$}}{lower 0.511ex hbox{$sim$}}}10$), while a disagreement is found at $T mathrel{rlap{raise 0.511ex hbox{$>$}}{lower 0.511ex hbox{$sim$}}} 350$ MeV ($N_t mathrel{rlap{raise 0.511ex hbox{$<$}}{lower 0.511ex hbox{$sim$}}} 8$) presumably due to the small-$N_t$ lattice artifact. We also report on the results on the renormalized chiral condensate and its disconnected susceptibility using the method of Hieda and Suzuki. The results show a clear signal of the expected chiral restoration crossover even with Wilson-type quarks which violate the chiral symmetry explicitly.
We study the energy-momentum tensor and the equation of state as well as the chiral condensate in (2+1)-flavor QCD at the physical point applying the method of Makino and Suzuki based on the gradient flow. We adopt a nonperturbatively O(a)-improved Wilson quark action and the renormalization group-improved Iwasaki gauge action. At Lattice 2016, we have presented our preliminary results of our study in (2+1)-flavor QCD at a heavy u, d quark mass point. We now extend the study to the physical point and perform finite-temperature simulations in the range T simeq 155--544 MeV (Nt = 4--14 including odd Nts) at a simeq 0.09 fm. We show our final results of the heavy QCD study and present some preliminary results obtained at the physical point so far.
We present results for the equation of state in (2+1)-flavor QCD using the highly improved staggered quark action and lattices with temporal extent $N_{tau}=6,~8,~10$, and $12$. We show that these data can be reliably extrapolated to the continuum limit and obtain a number of thermodynamic quantities and the speed of sound in the temperature range $(130-400)$ MeV. We compare our results with previous calculations, and provide an analytic parameterization of the pressure, from which other thermodynamic quantities can be calculated, for use in phenomenology. We show that the energy density in the crossover region, $145~ {rm MeV} leq T leq 163$ MeV, defined by the chiral transition, is $epsilon_c=(0.18-0.5)~{rm GeV}/{rm fm}^3$, $i.e.$, $(1.2-3.1) epsilon_{rm nuclear}$. At high temperatures, we compare our results with resummed and dimensionally reduced perturbation theory calculations. As a byproduct of our analyses, we obtain the values of the scale parameters $r_0$ from the static quark potential and $w_0$ from the gradient flow.
We compute the topological charge and its susceptibility in finite temperature (2+1)-flavor QCD on the lattice applying a gradient flow method. With the Iwasaki gauge action and nonperturbatively $O(a)$-improved Wilson quarks, we perform simulations on a fine lattice with~$asimeq0.07,mathrm{fm}$ at a heavy $u$, $d$ quark mass with $m_pi/m_rhosimeq0.63$ but approximately physical $s$ quark mass with $m_{eta_{ss}}/m_phisimeq0.74$. In a temperature range from~$Tsimeq174,mathrm{MeV}$ ($N_t=16$) to $697,mathrm{MeV}$ ($N_t=4$), we study two topics on the topological susceptibility. One is a comparison of gluonic and fermionic definitions of the topological susceptibility. Because the two definitions are related by chiral Ward-Takahashi identities, their equivalence is not trivial for lattice quarks which violate the chiral symmetry explicitly at finite lattice spacings. The gradient flow method enables us to compute them without being bothered by the chiral violation. We find a good agreement between the two definitions with Wilson quarks. The other is a comparison with a prediction of the dilute instanton gas approximation, which is relevant in a study of axions as a candidate of the dark matter in the evolution of the Universe. We find that the topological susceptibility shows a decrease in $T$ which is consistent with the predicted $chi_mathrm{t}(T) propto (T/T_{rm pc})^{-8}$ for three-flavor QCD even at low temperature $T_{rm pc} < Tle1.5 T_{rm pc}$.
We study the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with nonperturbatively improved Wilson quarks coupled with the RG-improved Iwasaki glue. We apply the $T$-integration method to nonperturbatively calculate the equation of state by the fixed-scale approach. With the fixed-scale approach, we can purely vary the temperature on a line of constant physics without changing the system size and renormalization constants. Unlike the conventional fixed-$N_t$ approach, it is easy to keep scaling violations small at low temperature in the fixed scale approach. We study 2+1 flavor QCD at light quark mass corresponding to $m_pi/m_rho simeq 0.63$, while the strange quark mass is chosen around the physical point. Although the light quark masses are heavier than the physical values yet, our equation of state is roughly consistent with recent results with highly improved staggered quarks at large $N_t$.
We report on the status of our study towards the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks. To reduce the computational cost which is quite demanding for Wilson-type quarks, we adopt the fixed scale approach, i.e. the temperature T is varied by N_t at fixed lattice spacing. Since the conventional integral method to obtain the pressure is inapplicable at a fixed scale, we adopt the T-integral method, to calculate the pressure non-perturbatively. Reduction of the computational cost of T=0 simulations thus achieved is indispensable to study EOS in QCD with dynamical quarks.