Temperature dependence of meson screening masses; a comparison of effective model with lattice QCD

Temperature dependence of pion and sigma-meson screening masses is evaluated by the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with the entanglement vertex (EPNJL model). We propose a practical way of calculating meson screening masses in the NJL-type effective models. The method based on the Pauli-Villars regularization solves the well-known difficulty that the evaluation of screening masses is not easy in the NJL-type effective models. The method is applied to analyze temperature dependence of pion screening masses calculated with state-of-the-art lattice simulations with success in reproducing the lattice QCD results. We predict the temperature dependence of pole mass by using EPNJL model.

Determination of $U(1)_{rm A}$ restoration from pion and $a_0$-meson screening masses: Toward the chiral regime

We incorporate the effective restoration of $U(1)_{rm A}$ symmetry in the 2+1 flavor entanglement Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (EPNJL) model by introducing a temperature-dependent strength $K(T)$ to the Kobayashi-Maskawa-t Hooft (KMT) determinant interaction. $T$ dependence of $K(T)$ is well determined from pion and $a_0$-meson screening masses obtained by lattice QCD (LQCD) simulations with improved p4 staggered fermions. The strength is strongly suppressed in the vicinity of the pseudocritical temperature of chiral transition. The EPNJL model with the $K(T)$ well reproduces meson susceptibilities calculated by LQCD with domain-wall fermions. The model shows that the chiral transition is second order at the light-quark chiral-limit point where the light quark mass is zero and the strange quark mass is fixed at the physical value. This indicates that there exists a tricritical point. Hence the location is estimated.

Quark number density at imaginary chemical potential and its extrapolation to large real chemical potential by the effective model

We evaluate quark number densities at imaginary chemical potential by lattice QCD with clover-improved two-flavor Wilson fermion. The quark number densities are extrapolated to the small real chemical potential region by assuming some function forms. The extrapolated quark number densities are consistent with those calculated at real chemical potential with the Taylor expansion method for the reweighting factors. In order to study the large real chemical potential region, we use the two-phase model consisting of the quantum hadrodynamics model for the hadron phase and the entanglement-PNJL model for the quark phase. The quantum hadrodynamics model is constructed to reproduce nuclear saturation properties, while the entanglement-PNJL model reproduces well lattice QCD data for the order parameters such as the Polyakov loop, the thermodynamic quantities and the screening masses. Then, we calculate the mass-radius relation of neutron stars and explore the hadron-quark phase transition with the two-phase model.

Determination of the strength of the vector-type four-quark interaction in the entanglement Polyakov-extended Nambu-Jona-Lasino model

We determine the strength $G_{rm v}$ of the vector-type four-quark interaction in the entanglement Polyakov-extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (EPNJL) model from the results of recent lattice QCD simulations with two-flavor Wilson fermions. The quark-number density is normalized by the Stefan-Boltzmann limit for small baryon chemical potential $mu$ and temperature $T$ higher than the pseudo-critical temperature $T_c$ of the deconfinement transition. The strength determined from the normalized quark-number density is $G_{rm v}=0.33 G_{rm s}$ for the strength $G_{rm s}$ of the scalar-type four-quark interaction. We explore the hadron-quark phase transition in the $mu$-$T$ plane, using the two-phase model consisting of the quantum hadrodynamics model for the hadron phase and the EPNJL model for the quark phase. When $G_{rm v}=0.33 G_{rm s}$, the critical baryon chemical potential of the transition at zero $T$ is $mu_c sim 1.6$ GeV that accounts for two solar mass measurements of neutron stars in the framework of the quark-hadron hybrid star model.

Effective model approach to meson screening masses at finite temperature

Temperature dependence of pion and sigma-meson screening masses is evaluated by the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with the entanglement vertex. We propose a practical way of calculating meson screening masses in the NJL-type effective models. The method based on the Pauli-Villars regularization solves the well-known difficulty that the evaluaton of screening masses is not easy in the NJL-type effective models.The PNJL model with the entanglement vertex and the Pauli-Villars regularization well reproduces lattice QCD results on temperature dependence of the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop. The method is applied to analyze temperature dependence of pion screening mass calculated with state-of-the-art lattice simulations with success in reproducing the lattice QCD results.