Nonequilibrium quantum fields from first principles

Calculations of nonequilibrium processes become increasingly feasable in quantum field theory from first principles. There has been important progress in our analytical understanding based on 2PI generating functionals. In addition, for the first time direct lattice simulations based on stochastic quantization techniques have been achieved. The quantitative descriptions of characteristic far-from-equilibrium time scales and thermal equilibration in quantum field theory point out new phenomena such as prethermalization. They determine the range of validity of standard transport or semi-classical approaches, on which most of our ideas about nonequilibrium dynamics were based so far. These are crucial ingredients to understand important topical phenomena in high-energy physics related to collision experiments of heavy nuclei, early universe cosmology and complex many-body systems.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Acta Phys. Hung. version, minor change

Nonequilibrium Goldstone phenomenon in Hybrid Inflation

We study the onset of Goldstone phenomenon in a hybrid inflation scenario. The physically motivated range of parameters is analyzed in order to meet the cosmological constraints. Classical equations of motion are solved and the evolution through the spontaneous symmetry breaking is followed. We emphasize the role of topological defects that partially maintain the disordered phase well after the waterfall. We study the emergence of the Goldstone excitations and their role in the onset of the radiation dominated universe.Comment: 10 pages with 7 figures. Contribution to Strong and Electroweak Matter (Heidelberg, 2002

Fate of the classical false vacuum

Thermalisation of configurations with initial white noise power spectrum is studied in numerical simulations of a classical one-component $\Phi^4$ theory in 2+1 dimensions, coupled to a small amplitude homogenous external field. The study is performed for energy densities corresponding to the broken symmetry phase of the system in equilibrium. The effective equation of the order parameter motion is reconstructed from its trajectory which starts from an initial value near the metastable point and ends in the stable ground state. This phenomenological theory quantitatively accounts for the decay of the false vacuum. The large amplitude transition of the order parameter between the two minima displays characteristics reflecting dynamical aspects of the Maxwell construction.Comment: RevTeX 16 pages, 10 Postscript figures, version accepted in Phys. Rev.

Lattice SU(3) thermodynamics and the onset of perturbative behaviour

We present the equation of state (pressure, trace anomaly, energy density and entropy density) of the SU(3) gauge theory from lattice field theory in an unprecedented precision and temperature range. We control both finite size and cut-off effects. The studied temperature window ($0.7... 1000 T_c$) stretches from the glueball dominated system into the perturbative regime, which allows us to discuss the range of validity of these approaches. From the critical couplings on fine lattices we get T_c/\Lambdamsbar=1.26(7) and use this ratio to express the perturbative free energy in $T_c$ units. We also determine the preferred renormalization scale of the Hard Thermal Loop scheme and we fit the unknown $g^6$ order perturbative coefficient at extreme high temperatures $T>100T_c$. We furthermore quantify the nonperturbative contribution to the trace anomaly using two simple functional forms.Comment: 7 pages, Contribution to the The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory; June 14 - 19, 2010, Villasimius, Sardinia, Ital

Topological features of the deconfinement transition

The first order transition between the confining and the center symmetry breaking phases of the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is marked by discontinuities in various thermodynamics functions, such as the energy density or the value of the Polyakov loop. We investigate the non-analytical behaviour of the topological susceptibility and its higher cumulant around the transition temperature and make the connection to the curvature of the phase diagram in the $T-\theta$ plane and to the latent heat.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Ab-initio calculation of the proton and the neutron's scalar couplings for new physics searches

Many low-energy, particle-physics experiments seek to reveal new fundamental physics by searching for very rare scattering events on atomic nuclei. The interpretation of their results requires quantifying the non-linear effects of the strong interaction on the spin-independent couplings of this new physics to protons and neutrons. Here we present a fully-controlled, ab-initio calculation of these couplings to the quarks within those constituents of nuclei. We use lattice quantum chromodynamics computations for the four lightest species of quarks and heavy-quark expansions for the remaining two. We determine each of the six quark contributions with an accuracy better than 15%. Our results are especially important for guiding and interpreting experimental searches for our universe's dark matter.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figure

Hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moments of leptons from first principles

We compute the leading, strong-interaction contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, muon and tau using lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) simulations. Calculations include the effects of $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$ quarks and are performed directly at the physical values of the quark masses and in volumes of linear extent larger than $6\,\mathrm{fm}$. All connected and disconnected Wick contractions are calculated. Continuum limits are carried out using six lattice spacings. We obtain $a_e^\mathrm{LO-HVP}=189.3(2.6)(5.6)\times 10^{-14}$, $a_\mu^\mathrm{LO-HVP}=711.1(7.5)(17.4)\times 10^{-10}$ and $a_\tau^\mathrm{LO-HVP}=341.0(0.8)(3.2)\times 10^{-8}$, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures (in 13 PDF files), RevTeX 4.1. Minor changes to results and to text. References updated. Matches version published in Physical Review Letter

The approach to thermalization in the classical phi^4 theory in 1+1 dimensions: energy cascades and universal scaling

We study the dynamics of thermalization and the approach to equilibrium in the classical phi^4 theory in 1+1 spacetime dimensions. At thermal equilibrium we exploit the equivalence between the classical canonical averages and transfer matrix quantum traces of the anharmonic oscillator to obtain exact results for the temperature dependence of several observables, which provide a set of criteria for thermalization. We find that the Hartree approximation is remarkably accurate in equilibrium. The non-equilibrium dynamics is studied by numerically solving the equations of motion in light-cone coordinates for a broad range of initial conditions and energy densities.The time evolution is described by several stages with a cascade of energy towards the ultraviolet. After a transient stage, the spatio-temporal gradient terms become larger than the nonlinear term and a stage of universal cascade emerges.This cascade starts at a time scale t_0 independent of the initial conditions (except for very low energy density). Here the power spectra feature universal scaling behavior and the front of the cascade k(t) grows as a power law k(t) sim t^alpha with alpha lesssim 0.25. The wake behind the cascade is described as a state of Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) with all correlations being determined by the equilibrium functional form with an effective time dependent temperatureTeff(t) which slowly decreases as sim t^{-alpha}.Two well separated time scales emerge while Teff(t) varies slowly, the wavectors in the wake with k < k(t) attain LTE on much shorter time scales.This universal scaling stage ends when the front of the cascade reaches the cutoff at a time t_1 sim a^{-1/alpha}. Virialization starts to set much earlier than LTE. We find that strict thermalization is achieved only for an infinite time scale.Comment: relevance for quantum field theory discussed providing validity criteria. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Ab initio calculation of the neutron-proton mass difference

The existence and stability of atoms rely on the fact that neutrons are more massive than protons. The measured mass difference is only 0.14% of the average of the two masses. A slightly smaller or larger value would have led to a dramatically different universe. Here, we show that this difference results from the competition between electromagnetic and mass isospin breaking effects. We performed lattice quantum-chromodynamics and quantum-electrodynamics computations with four nondegenerate Wilson fermion flavors and computed the neutron-proton mass-splitting with an accuracy of 300 kilo-electron volts, which is greater than 0 by 5 standard deviations. We also determine the splittings in the Sigma, Xi, D, and Xi(cc) isospin multiplets, exceeding in some cases the precision of experimental measurements

Isospin splittings in the light-baryon octet from lattice QCD and QED

While electromagnetic and up-down quark mass difference effects on octet baryon masses are very small, they have important consequences. The stability of the hydrogen atom against beta decay is a prominent example. Here we include these effects by adding them to valence quarks in a lattice QCD calculation based on $N_f=2+1$ simulations with 5 lattice spacings down to 0.054 fm, lattice sizes up to 6 fm and average up-down quark masses all the way down to their physical value. This allows us to gain control over all systematic errors, except for the one associated with neglecting electromagnetism in the sea. We compute the octet baryon isomultiplet mass splittings, as well as the individual contributions from electromagnetism and the up-down quark mass difference. Our results for the total splittings are in good agreement with experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Version accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. Let