15539886
Thermodynamics of the PNJL model
QCD thermodynamics is investigated by means of the Polyakov-loop-extended Nambu–Jona–Lasinio (PNJL) model, in which quarks couple simultaneously to the chiral condensate and to a background temporal gauge field representing Polyakov loop dynamics. The behaviour of the Polyakov loop as a function of temperature is obtained by minimising the thermodynamic potential of the system. A Taylor series expansion of the pressure is performed. Pressure difference and quark number density are then evaluated up to sixth order in the quark chemical potential and compared to the corresponding lattice data. The validity of the Taylor expansion is discussed within our model through a comparison between the full results and the truncated ones.
14960863
Polyakov loop, diquarks, and the two-flavor phase diagram
An updated version of the PNJL model is used to study the thermodynamics of N{sub f}=2 quark flavors interacting through chiral four-point couplings and propagating in a homogeneous Polyakov loop background. Previous PNJL calculations are extended by introducing explicit diquark degrees of freedom and an improved effective potential for the Polyakov loop field. The mean field equations are treated under the aspect of accommodating group theoretical constraints and issues arising from the fermion sign problem. The input is fixed exclusively by selected pure-gauge lattice QCD results and by pion properties in vacuum. The resulting (T,{mu}) phase diagram is studied with special emphasis on the critical point, its dependence on the quark mass and on Polyakov loop dynamics. We present successful comparisons with lattice QCD thermodynamics expanded to finite chemical potential {mu}.
56465034
The chiral and deconfinement crossover transitions: PNJL model beyond mean field ∗
Abstract The Polyakov loop extended Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model (PNJL model) in a mean field framework shows astonishingly good agreement with lattice QCD calculations which needs to be better understood. The present work reports on further developments concerning both Polyakov loop and mesonic fluctuations beyond mean field approximation. Corrections beyond mean field are of special interest for the thermal expectation values of the Polyakov loop 〈 Φ 〉 and its conjugate 〈 Φ ∗ 〉 , which differ once the quark chemical potential is non-zero. Mesonic fluctuations are also considered with emphasis on the role of pionic modes.
119349228
Stability of strange quark matter in the MIT bag model and in the Color Dielectric Model
We utilize the MIT bag model and two different versions of the Color Dielectric Model in order to study the properties of strange matter, and to discuss the stability of strangelets. We also investigate the effect of the introduction of perturbative gluons. The MIT bag model and the Double Minimum version of the Color Dielectric Model allow the existence of strangelets, while the Single Minimum version excludes this possibility.
55793321
The QCD equation of state with dynamical quarks
The present paper concludes our investigation on the QCD equation of state with 2 + 1 staggered flavors and one-link stout improvement. We extend our previous study [JHEP01 (2006) 089] by choosing even finer lattices. Lattices with Nt=6, 8 and 10 are used, and the continuum limit is approached by checking the results at Nt= 12. A Symanzik improved gauge and a stout-link improved staggered fermion action is utilized. We use physical quark masses, that is, for the lightest staggered pions and kaons we fix the mπ/fK and mK/fK ratios to their experimental values. The pressure, the interaction measure, the energy and entropy density and the speed of sound are presented as functions of the temperature in the range 100 ... 1000MeV. We give estimates for the pion mass dependence and for the contribution of the charm quark. We compare our data to the equation of state obtained by the “hotQCD” collaboration.
18827525
Thermodynamics of two-color QCD and the Nambu Jona-Lasinio model
We investigate two-flavor and two-color QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential in comparison with a corresponding Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model. By minimizing the thermodynamic potential of the system, we confirm that a second-order phase transition occurs at a value of the chemical potential equal to half the mass of the chiral Goldstone mode. For chemical potentials beyond this value the scalar diquarks undergo Bose condensation and the diquark condensate is nonzero. We evaluate the behavior of the chiral condensate, the diquark condensate, the baryon charge density and the masses of scalar diquark, antidiquark and pion, as functions of the chemical potential. Very good agreement is found with lattice QCD (N{sub c}=2) results. We also compare with a model based on leading-order chiral effective field theory.
119250353
Leading quantum correction to energy of ‘short’ spiky strings
We consider semiclassical quantization of spiky strings spinning in the AdS3 part of AdS5 × S5 using an integrability-based (algebraic curve) method. In the ‘short-string’ (small-spin) limit the expansion of string energy starts with its flat-space expression. We compute the leading quantum string correction to ‘short’ spiky string energy and find the explicit form of the corresponding one-loop coefficient a01. It turns out to be rational and expressed in terms of the harmonic sums as functions of the number n of spikes. In the special case of n = 2 when the spiky string reduces to the single-folded spinning string, the coefficient a01 takes the value (−1/4) found in Gromov et al (2011 J. High Energy Phys. JHEP08(2011)046). We also consider a similar computation for the m-folded string and more general spiky string with an extra ‘winding’ number, finding similar expressions for a01. These results may be useful for a description of energies of higher excited states in the quantum AdS5 × S5 string spectrum, generalizing earlier discussions of the string counterparts of the Konishi operator.