Taylor- and fugacity expansion for the effective center model of QCD at finite density

Using the effective center model of QCD we test series expansions for finite chemical potential $\mu$. In particular we study two variants of Taylor expansion as well as the fugacity series. The effective center model has a dual representation where the sign problem is absent and reliable Monte Carlo simulations are possible at arbitrary $\mu$. We use the results from the dual simulation as reference data to assess the Taylor- and fugacity series approaches. We find that for most of parameter space fugacity expansion is the best (but also numerically most expensive) choice for reproducing the dual simulation results, while conventional Taylor expansion is reliable only for very small $\mu$. We also discuss the results of a modified Taylor expansion in $e^{\pm \mu} - 1$ which at the same numerical effort clearly outperforms the conventional Taylor series.Comment: presented at the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2013), 29 July - 3 August 2013, Mainz, Germany. Reference adde

Worm algorithms for the 3-state Potts model with magnetic field and chemical potential

We discuss worm algorithms for the 3-state Potts model with external field and chemical potential. The complex phase problem of this system can be overcome by using a flux representation where the new degrees of freedom are dimer and monomer variables. Working with this representation we discuss two different generalizations of the conventional Prokof'ev-Svistunov algorithm suitable for Monte Carlo simulations of the model at arbitrary chemical potential and evaluate their performance.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Monte Carlo simulation of the SU(3) spin model with chemical potential in a flux representation

We present a simulation of the SU(3) spin model with chemical potential using a recently proposed flux representation. In this representation the complex phase problem is avoided and a Monte Carlo simulation in terms of the fluxes becomes possible. We explore the phase diagram of the model as a function of temperature and chemical potential