Microscopic universality and the chiral phase transition in two flavor QCD

We re-analyze data from available finite-temperature QCD simulations near the chiral transition, with the help of chiral random matrix theory (chRMT). Statistical properties of the lowest-lying eigenvalues of the staggered Dirac operator for SU(3) lattice gauge theory with dynamical fermions are examined. We consider temperatures below, near, and above the critical temperature T_c for the chiral phase transition. Below and above T_c the statistics are in agreement with the exact analytical predictions in the microscopic scaling regime. Above T_c we observed a gap in the spectral density and a distribution compatible with the Airy distribution. Near T_c the eigenvalue correlations appear inconsistent with chRMT. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RA 2999(99-185) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman