String Tension and Thermodynamics with Tree Level and Tadpole Improved Actions

We calculate the string tension, deconfinement transition temperature and bulk thermodynamic quantities of the SU(3) gauge theory using tree level and tadpole improved actions. Finite temperature calculations have been performed on lattices with temporal extent N_tau = 3 and 4. Compared to calculations with the standard Wilson action on this size lattices we observe a drastic reduction of the cut-off dependence of bulk thermodynamic observables at high temperatures. In order to test the influence of improvement on long-distance observables at T_c we determine the ratio T_c/sqrt(sigma). For all actions, including the standard Wilson action, we find results which differ only little from each other. We do, however, observe an improved asymptotic scaling behaviour for the tadpole improved action compared to the Wilson and tree level improved actions.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX2e File, 8 coloured Postscript figures, new analysis added, recent Wilson action string tension results included, figures replace

QCD Thermodynamics with Improved Actions

The thermodynamics of the SU(3) gauge theory has been analyzed with tree level and tadpole improved Symanzik actions. A comparison with the continuum extrapolated results for the standard Wilson action shows that improved actions lead to a drastic reduction of finite cut-off effects already on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau=4$. Results for the pressure, the critical temperature, surface tension and latent heat are presented. First results for the thermodynamics of four-flavour QCD with an improved staggered action are also presented. They indicate similarly large improvement factors for bulk thermodynamics.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE96(finite temperature) 4 pages, LaTeX2e file, 6 eps-file

Renormalized Polyakov loops in many representations

We present a renormalization procedure for Polyakov loops which explicitly implements the fact that the renormalization constant depends only on the ultraviolet cutoff. Using this we study the renormalized Polyakov loops in all representations upto the {\bf 27} of the gauge group SU(3). We find good evidence for Casimir scaling of the Polyakov loops and for approximate large-N factorization. By studying many loops together, we are able to show that there is a matrix model with a single coupling which can describe the high temperature phase of QCD, although it is hard to construct explicitly. We present the first results for the non-vanishing renormalized octet loop in the thermodynamic limit below the SU(3) phase transition, and estimate the associated string breaking distance and the gluelump binding energy. By studying the connection of the direct renormalization procedure with a generalization of an earlier suggestion which goes by the name of the $Q\bar Q$ renormalization procedure, we find that they are functionally equivalent.Comment: 17 pages, 24 figures, revtex

SU(3) Latent Heat and Surface Tension from Tree Level and Tadpole Improved Actions

We analyze the latent heat and surface tension at the SU(3) deconfinement phase transition with tree level and tadpole improved Symanzik actions on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau = 3$ and 4 and spatial extent $N_\sigma/ N_\tau = 4$, 6 and 8. In comparison to the standard Wilson action we do find a drastic reduction of cut-off effects already with tree level improved actions. On lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau=4$ results for the surface tension and latent heat obtained with a tree level improved action agree well with those obtained with a tadpole improved action. A comparison with $N_\tau=3$ calculations, however, shows that results obtained with tadpole action remain unaffected by cut-off effects even on this coarse lattice, while the tree level action becomes sensitive to the cut-off. For the surface tension and latent heat we find $\sigma_I/ T_c^3 = 0.0155~(16)$ and $\Delta\epsilon/T_c^4 = 1.40~(9)$, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX2e File, 3 Postscript figure

Static quark anti-quark free energy and the running coupling at finite temperature

We analyze the free energy of a static quark anti-quark pair in quenched QCD at short and large distances. From this we deduce running couplings, g^2(r,T), and determine the length scale that separates at high temperature the short distance perturbative regime from the large distance non-perturbative regime in the QCD plasma phase. Ambiguities in the definition of a coupling beyond the perturbative regime are discussed in their relation to phenomenological considerations on heavy quark bound states in the quark gluon plasma. Our analysis suggests that it is more appropriate to characterize the non-perturbative properties of the QCD plasma phase close to T_c in terms remnants of the confinement part of the QCD force rather than a strong Coulombic force.Comment: 8 pages, 9 EPS-files, revtex

Staggered Fermion Actions with Improved Rotational Invariance

We introduce a class of improved actions for staggered fermions which to O(p^4) and O(p^6), respectively, lead to rotationally invariant propagators. We discuss the resulting reduction of flavour symmetry breaking in the meson spectrum and comment on the improvement in the calculation of thermodynamic observables.Comment: 3 pages and 4 figures, Contribution to Lattice 97 (Poster Session), late

Heavy quark free energies for three quark systems at finite temperature

We study the free energy of static three quark systems in singlet, octet, decuplet and average color channels in the quenched approximation and in 2-flavor QCD at finite temperature. We show that in the high temperature phase singlet and decuplet free energies of three quark systems are well described by the sum of the free energies of three diquark systems plus self energy contributions of the three quarks. In the confining low temperature phase we find evidence for a Y-shaped flux tube in SU(3) pure gauge theory, which is less evident in 2-flavor QCD due to the onset of string breaking. We also compare the short distance behavior of octet and decuplet free energies to the free energies of single static quarks in the corresponding color representations.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

The three flavour chiral phase transition with an improved quark and gluon action in lattice QCD

The finite-temperature chiral phase transition is investigated for three flavours of staggered quarks on a lattice of temporal extent N_t=4. In the simulation we use an improved fermion action which reduces rotational symmetry breaking of the quark propagator (p4-action), include fat-links to improve the flavour symmetry and use the tree level improved (1,2) gluon action. We study the nature of the phase transition for quark masses of ma=0.025, ma=0.05 and ma=0.1 on lattices with spatial sizes of 8^3 and 16^3.Comment: LATTICE98(hightemp), 3 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX2e-File, espcrc2.st

Thermodynamics of the PNJL model with nonzero baryon and isospin chemical potentials

We have extended the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model for two degenerate flavours to include the isospin chemical potential ($\mu_I$). All the diagonal and mixed derivatives of pressure with respect to the quark number (proportional to baryon number) chemical potential ($\mu_0$) and isospin chemical potential upto sixth order have been extracted at $\mu_0 = \mu_I = 0$. These derivatives give the generalized susceptibilities with respect to quark and isospin numbers. Similar estimates for the flavour diagonal and off-diagonal susceptibilities are also presented. Comparison to Lattice QCD (LQCD) data of some of these susceptibilities for which LQCD data are available, show similar temperature dependence, though there are some quantitative deviations above the crossover temperature. We have also looked at the effects of instanton induced flavour-mixing coming from the $U_A(1)$ chiral symmetry breaking 't Hooft determinant like term in the NJL part of the model. The diagonal quark number and isospin susceptibilities are completely unaffected. The off-diagonal susceptibilities show significant dependence near the crossover. Finally we present the chemical potential dependence of specific heat and speed of sound within the limits of chemical potentials where neither diquarks nor pions can condense.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, Added discussions and references, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Susceptibilities and speed of sound from PNJL model

We present the Taylor expansion coefficients of the pressure in quark number chemical potential $\mu_0=\mu_B / 3=\mu_u=\mu_d$, for the strongly interacting matter as described by the PNJL model for two light degenerate flavours of quarks u and d. The expansion has been done upto eighth order in $\mu_0$, and the results are consistent with recent estimates from Lattice. We have further obtained the specific heat $C_V$, squared speed of sound $v_s^2$ and the conformal measure \cC.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, References added, some discussions on Fig. 4 modified, one table added, results unchanged, version to appear in Phys. Rev.