Using numerical simulations of lattice QCD we calculate the effect of an external magnetic field on the equation of state of the quark-gluon plasma. The results are obtained using a Taylor expansion of the pressure with respect to the magnetic field
for the first time. The coefficients of the expansion are computed to second order in the magnetic field. Our setup for the external magnetic field avoids complications arising from toroidal boundary conditions, making a Taylor series expansion straightforward. This study is exploratory and is meant to serve as a proof of principle.
The properties of hot hadronic matter are of great importance to the studies of heavy-ion collisions, cosmology and compact star formation. I briefly outline the current methods in use in the lattice simulations of QCD thermodynamics at zero and nonz
ero density. I discuss the most recent results for the QCD phase transition, critical behavior and the equation of state.
In calculations of the hyperfine splitting in charmonium, the contributions of the disconnected diagrams are considered small and are typically ignored. We aim to estimate nonperturbatively the size of the resulting correction, which may eventually b
e needed in high precision calculations of the charmonium spectrum. We study this problem in the quenched and unquenched QCD cases. On dynamical ensembles the disconnected charmonium propagators contain light modes which complicate the extraction of the signal at large distances. In the fully quenched case, where there are no such light modes, the interpretation of the signal is simplified. We present results from lattices with $aapprox 0.09$ fm and $aapprox 0.06$ fm.
We extend our work on QCD thermodynamics with 2+1 quark flavors at nonzero chemical potential to finer lattices with $N_t=6$. We study the equation of state and other thermodynamic quantities, such as quark number densities and susceptibilities, and
compare them with our previous results at $N_t=4$. We also calculate the effects of the addition of the charm and bottom quarks on the equation of state at zero and nonzero chemical potential. These effects are important for cosmological studies of the early Universe.
We study the effects of the addition of the charm quark on the QCD equation of state at zero and nonzero chemical potential on lattices with $N_t=6$. Our ensembles are quenched with respect to charm and the charm quark is a valence staggered quark. A
long the trajectory of constant physics the ratio $m_s/m_c$ is kept constant after tuning the charm quark mass at a lattice spacing of about 0.09 fm. We find that the charm quark has a significant contribution to the equation of state at zero chemical potential already at temperatures between about $1.2T_c$ and $2T_c$. The additional contribution at nonzero chemical potential vanishes within the current statistical uncertainty.
We update results presented at Lattice 2005 on charmonium masses. New ensembles of gauge configurations with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks have been analyzed. Statistics have been increased for other ensembles. New results are also availab
le for P-wave mesons and for bottomonium on selected ensembles.
In calculations of the hyperfine splitting in charmonium, the contributions of the disconnected diagrams is considered small and is typically ignored. We aim to estimate nonperturbatively the size of the resulting error, which could potentially affec
t the high precision calculations of the charmonium spectrum. Following our work on the effects of the disconnected diagrams in unquenched QCD presented at Lattice 2007, we study the same problem in the quenched case. On dynamical ensembles the disconnected charmonium propagators contain light modes which complicate the extraction of the signal at large distances. In the fully quenched case, where there are no such light modes, the interpretation of the signal is simplified. We present results from lattices with $aapprox 0.09$ fm and $aapprox 0.063$ fm.
Experimentally the charmonium hyperfine splitting is $M_{J/psi}-M_{eta_c}=117$ MeV and current lattice results are generally below this value. The difference could be due to the effects of the disconnected flavor singlet diagrams which have not been
included in these calculations. Previous attempts to determine the disconnected flavor singlet corrections have led just to rough estimates in the range of $pm 20$ MeV. We present preliminary results for these corrections calculated on fine ($aapprox 0.09$ fm) Asqtad 2+1 flavor lattices provided by the MILC Collaboration.
