QCD phase transitions via a refined truncation of Dyson-Schwinger equations

We investigate both the chiral and deconfinement phase transitions of QCD matter in a refined scheme of Dyson-Schwinger equations, which have been shown to be successful in giving the meson mass spectrum and matching the interaction with the results from ab initio computation. We verify the equivalence of the chiral susceptibility criterion with different definitions for the susceptibility and confirm that the chiral susceptibility criterion is efficient to fix not only the chiral phase boundary but also the critical end point (CEP), especially when one could not have the effective thermodynamical potential. We propose a generalized Schwinger function criterion for the confinement. We give the phase diagram of both phase transitions and show that in the refined scheme the position of the CEP shifts to lower chemical potential and higher temperature. Based on our calculation and previous results of the chemical freeze out conditions, we propose that the CEP locates in the states of the matter generated by the Au--Au collisions with $\sqrt{s_{NN}^{}}=9\sim15$ GeV.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Interface Effect in QCD Phase Transitions via Dyson-Schwinger Equation Approach

With the chiral susceptibility criterion we obtain the phase diagram of strong-interaction matter in terms of temperature and chemical potential in the framework of Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) of QCD.After calculating the pressure and some other thermodynamic properties of the matter in the DSE method, we get the phase diagram in terms of temperature and baryon number density. We also obtain the interface tension and the interface entropy density to describe the inhomogeneity of the two phases in the coexistence region of the first order phase transition. After including the interface effect, we find that the total entropy density of the system increases in both the deconfinement (dynamical chiral symmetry restoration) and the hadronization (dynamical chiral symmetry breaking) processes of the first order phase transitions and thus solve the entropy puzzle in the hadronization process.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, and 1 tabl

Statefinder hierarchy exploration of the extended Ricci dark energy

We apply the statefinder hierarchy plus the fractional growth parameter to explore the extended Ricci dark energy (ERDE) model, in which there are two independent coefficients $\alpha$ and $\beta$. By adjusting them, we plot evolution trajectories of some typical parameters, including Hubble expansion rate $E$, deceleration parameter $q$, the third and fourth order hierarchy $S_3^{(1)}$ and $S_4^{(1)}$ and fractional growth parameter $\epsilon$, respectively, as well as several combinations of them. For the case of variable $\alpha$ and constant $\beta$, in the low-redshift region the evolution trajectories of $E$ are in high degeneracy and that of $q$ separate somewhat. However, the $\Lambda$CDM model is confounded with ERDE in both of these two cases. $S_3^{(1)}$ and $S_4^{(1)}$, especially the former, perform much better. They can differentiate well only varieties of cases within ERDE except $\Lambda$CDM in the low-redshift region. For high-redshift region, combinations $\{S_n^{(1)},\epsilon\}$ can break the degeneracy. Both of $\{S_3^{(1)},\epsilon\}$ and $\{S_4^{(1)},\epsilon\}$ have the ability to discriminate ERDE with $\alpha=1$ from $\Lambda$CDM, of which the degeneracy cannot be broken by all the before-mentioned parameters. For the case of variable $\beta$ and constant $\alpha$, $S_3^{(1)}(z)$ and $S_4^{(1)}(z)$ can only discriminate ERDE from $\Lambda$CDM. Nothing but pairs $\{S_3^{(1)},\epsilon\}$ and $\{S_4^{(1)},\epsilon\}$ can discriminate not only within ERDE but also ERDE from $\Lambda$CDM. Finally we find that $S_3^{(1)}$ is surprisingly a better choice to discriminate within ERDE itself, and ERDE from $\Lambda$CDM as well, rather than $S_4^{(1)}$.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figures; published versio

A Universal Constraint on the Infrared Behavior of the Ghost Propagator in QCD

With proposing a unified description of the fields variation at the level of generating functional, we obtain a new identity for the quark-gluon interaction vertex based on gauge symmetry, which is similar to the Slavnov-Taylor Identities(STIs) based on the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin transformation. With these identities, we find that in Landau gauge, the dressing function of the ghost propagator approaches to a constant as its momentum goes to zero, which provides a strong constraint on the infrared behaviour of ghost propagator.Comment: 4 pages, no figur

A search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations

We report the result of a search for sterile neutrinos with the latest cosmological observations. Both cases of massless and massive sterile neutrinos are considered in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. The cosmological observations used in this work include the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the Hubble constant direct measurement data, the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts data, the Planck lensing data, and the cosmic shear data. We find that the current observational data give a hint of the existence of massless sterile neutrino (as dark radiation) at the 1.44$\sigma$ level, and the consideration of an extra massless sterile neutrino can indeed relieve the tension between observations and improve the cosmological fit. For the case of massive sterile neutrino, the observations give a rather tight upper limit on the mass, which implies that actually a massless sterile neutrino is more favored. Our result is consistent with the recent result of neutrino oscillation experiment done by the Daya Bay and MINOS collaborations, as well as the recent result of cosmic ray experiment done by the IceCube collaboration.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.