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Register a new userOn the order of the QCD chiral phase transition for different numbers of quark flavours
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The nature of the QCD chiral phase transition in the limit of vanishing quark masses has remained elusive for a long time, since it cannot be simulated directly on the lattice and is strongly cutoff-dependent. We report on a comprehensive ongoing study using unimproved staggered fermions with $N_text{f}in[2,8]$ mass-degenerate flavours on $N_tauin{4,6,8}$ lattices, in which we locate the chiral critical surface separating regions with first-order transitions from crossover regions in the bare parameter space of the lattice theory. Employing the fact that it terminates in a tricritical line, this surface can be extrapolated to the chiral limit using tricritical scaling with known exponents. Knowing the order of the transitions in the lattice parameter space, conclusions for approaching the continuum chiral limit in the proper order can be drawn. While a narrow first-order region cannot be ruled out, we find initial evidence consistent with a second-order chiral transition in all massless theories with $N_text{f}leq 6$, and possibly up to the onset of the conformal window at $9lesssim N_text{f}^*lesssim 12$. A reanalysis of already published $mathcal{O}(a)$-improved $N_text{f}=3$ Wilson data on $N_tauin[4,12]$ is also consistent with tricritical scaling, and the associated change from first to second-order on the way to the continuum chiral limit. We discuss a modified Columbia plot and a phase diagram for many-flavour QCD that reflect these possible features.
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We study properties of the thermal transition in QCD, using anisotropic, fixed-scale lattice simulations with $N_f = 2+1$ flavours of Wilson fermion. Observables are compared for two values of the pion mass, focusing on chiral properties. Results are presented for the Polyakov loop, various susceptibilities, the chiral condensate and its susceptibility, and the onset of parity doubling in the light and strange baryonic sector.
We study the thermal transition of QCD with two degenerate light flavours by lattice simulations using $O(a)$-improved Wilson quarks. Temperature scans are performed at a fixed value of $N_t = (aT)^{-1}=16$, where $a$ is the lattice spacing and $T$ the temperature, at three fixed zero-temperature pion masses between 200 MeV and 540 MeV. In this range we find that the transition is consistent with a broad crossover. As a probe of the restoration of chiral symmetry, we study the static screening spectrum. We observe a degeneracy between the transverse isovector vector and axial-vector channels starting from the transition temperature. Particularly striking is the strong reduction of the splitting between isovector scalar and pseudoscalar screening masses around the chiral phase transition by at least a factor of three compared to its value at zero temperature. In fact, the splitting is consistent with zero within our uncertainties. This disfavours a chiral phase transition in the $O(4)$ universality class.
Attempts to extract the order of the chiral transition of QCD at zero chemical potential, with two dynamical flavors of massless quarks, from simulations with progressively decreasing pion mass have remained inconclusive because of their increasing numerical cost. In an alternative approach to this problem, we consider the path integral as a function of continuous number $N_text{f}$ of degenerate quarks. If the transition in the chiral limit is first-order for $N_text{f} ge 3$, a second-order transition for $N_text{f}=2$ then requires a tricritical point in between. This in turn implies tricritical scaling of the critical boundary line between the first-order and crossover regions as the chiral limit is approached. Non-integer numbers of fermion flavors are easily implemented within the staggered fermion discretization. Exploratory simulations at $mu=0$ and $N_text{f} = 2.8, 2.6, 2.4, 2.2, 2.1$, on coarse $N_tau = 4$ lattices, indeed show a smooth variation of the critical mass mapping out a critical line in the $(m,N_text{f})$-plane. For the smallest masses the line appears consistent with tricritical scaling, allowing for an extrapolation to the chiral limit.
We investigate the nature of the chiral phase transition in the massless two-flavor QCD using the renormalization group improved gauge action and the Wilson quark action on $32^3times 16$, $24^3times 12$, and $16^3times 8$ lattices. We calculate the spacial and temporal propagators of the iso-triplet mesons in the pseudo-scalar ($PS$), scalar ($S$), vector ($V$) and axial-vector ($AV$) channels on the lattice of three sizes. We first verify that the RG scaling is excellently satisfied for all cases. This is consistent with the claim that the chiral phase transition is second order. Then we compare the spacial and temporal effective masses between the axial partners, i.e. $PS$ vs $S$ and $V$ vs $AV$, on each of the three size lattices. We find the effective masses of all of six cases for the axial partners agree remarkably. This is consistent with the claim that at least $Z_4$ subgroup of the $U_A(1)$ symmetry in addition to the $SU_A(2)$ symmetry is recovered at the chiral phase transition point.
We study the thermal transition of QCD with two degenerate light flavours by lattice simulations using $mathcal{O}(a)$-improved Wilson quarks. Particular emphasis lies on the pattern of chiral symmetry restoration, which we probe via the static screening correlators. On $32^3$ volumes we observe that the screening masses in transverse iso-vector vector and axial-vector channels become degenerate at the transition temperature. The splitting between the screening masses in iso-vector scalar and pseudoscalar channels is strongly reduced compared to the splitting at zero temperature and is actually consistent with zero within uncertainties. In this proceedings article we extend our studies to matrix elements and iso-singlet correlation functions. Furthermore, we present results on larger volumes, including first results at the physical pion mass.
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