QCD Thermodynamics from the Lattice

We review the current methods and results of lattice simulations of quantum chromodynamics at nonzero temperatures and densities. The review is intended to introduce the subject to interested nonspecialists and beginners. It includes a brief overview of lattice gauge theory, a discussion of the determination of the crossover temperature, the QCD phase diagram at zero and nonzero densities, the equation of state, some in-medium properties of hadrons including charmonium, and some plasma transport coefficients.Comment: 74 pp. 31 figs. To appear in the European Physical Journal A and Advances in Physics of Particles and Nuclei. Added references, corrected typos, and updated the discussion of the thermal heavy quark/antiquark potential. Added and updated references. Final versio

Numerical Tests of the Improved Fermilab Action

Recently, the Fermilab heavy-quark action was extended to include dimension-six and -seven operators in order to reduce the discretization errors. In this talk, we present results of the first numerical simulations with this action (the OK action), where we study the masses of the quarkonium and heavy-light systems. We calculate combinations of masses designed to test improvement and compare results obtained with the OK action to their counterparts obtained with the clover action. Our preliminary results show a clear improvement.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Talk presented at 28th International Symposium On Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2010) 13-19 Jun 2010, Villasimius, Sardinia, Ital

Isentropic thermodynamics in the PNJL model

We discuss the isentropic trajectories on the QCD phase diagram in the temperature and the quark chemical potential plane using the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with the Polyakov loop coupling (PNJL model). We impose a constraint on the strange quark chemical potential so that the strange quark density is zero, which is the case in the ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We compare our numerical results with the truncated estimates by the Taylor expansion in terms of the chemical potential to quantify the reliability of the expansion used in the lattice QCD simulation. We finally discuss the strange quark chemical potential induced by the strangeness neutrality condition and relate it to the ratio of the Polyakov loop and the anti-Polyakov loop.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

On the Parity Degeneracy of Baryons

The gross features of the observed baryon excitation spectrum below 2 GeV are well explained if the spectrum generating algebra of its intrinsic orbital angular momentum states is o(4)*su(2)_I. The spins of the resonances are obtained through the coupling of a Lorentz bi-spinor (1/2,0)+ (0,1/ 2) to a multiplet of the type (j,j) in its O(4)/O(3) reduction. The parities of the resonances follow from those of the O(3) members of the (j,j) multiplets. In this way relativistic SL(2,C) representations are constructed. For example, the first S11, P11, and D13 states with masses around 1500 MeV fit into the (1/2, 1/2)* [(1/2,0)+(0,1/2)] representation. The observed parities of the resonances correspond to natural parities of the (1/2,1/2) states. The second P11, S11, D13- together with the first P13, F15, D15, and (a predicted) F17 -resonances, centered around 1700 MeV, are organized into the (3/2,3/2)*[(1/2,0)+(0,1/2)] representation. I argue that the members of the (3/2,3/2) multiplet carry unnatural parities and that in this region chiral symmetry is restored. In the N(939)- N(1650) transition the chiral symmetry mode is changed, and therefore, a chiral phase transition is predicted to take place.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex, 1 figure; published in Mod.Phys.Lett. A12 (1997) 2373; minor misprints corrected, no statement change

Locality of the fourth root of staggard fermion determinant in the interacting case

Journal ArticleThe fourth root approximation in LQCD simulations with dynamical staggered fermions requires justification. We test its validity numerically in the interacting theory in a renormalization group framework

Heavy-light decay constants with dynamical gauge configurations and Wilson or improved valence quark actions

ManuscriptWe describe a calculation of heavy-light decay constants including virtual quark loop effects. We have generated dynamical gauge configurations at three _x000C_ values using two flavors of Kogut-Susskind quarks with a range of masses. These are analyzed with a Wilson valence quark action. Preliminary results based on a "fat-link" clover valence quark action are also reported. Results from the two methods differ by 30 to 50 MeV, which is presumably due to significant - but as yet unobserved - lattice spacing dependence in one or both of the approaches

Light hadron properties with improved staggered quarks

ManuscriptPreliminary results from simulations with 2+1 dynamical quark flavors at a lattice spacing of 0.09 fm are combined with earlier results at a = 0.13 fm. We examine the approach to the continuum limit and investigate the dependence of the pseudoscalar masses and decay constants as the sea and valence quark masses are separately varied