Heavy Dynamical Fermions in Lattice QCD

It is expected that the only effect of heavy dynamical fermions in QCD is to renormalize the gauge coupling. We derive a simple expression for the shift in the gauge coupling induced by $N_f$ flavors of heavy fermions. We compare this formula to the shift in the gauge coupling at which the confinement-deconfinement phase transition occurs (at fixed lattice size) from numerical simulations as a function of quark mass and $N_f$. We find remarkable agreement with our expression down to a fairly light quark mass. However, simulations with eight heavy flavors and two light flavors show that the eight flavors do more than just shift the gauge coupling. We observe confinement-deconfinement transitions at $\beta=0$ induced by a large number of heavy quarks. We comment on the relevance of our results to contemporary simulations of QCD which include dynamical fermions.Comment: COLO-HEP-311, 26 pages and 6 postscript figures; file is a shar file and all macros are (hopefully) include

The beta function and equation of state for QCD with two flavors of quarks

We measure the pressure and energy density of two flavor QCD in a wide range of quark masses and temperatures. The pressure is obtained from an integral over the average plaquette or psi-bar-psi. We measure the QCD beta function, including the anomalous dimension of the quark mass, in new Monte Carlo simulations and from results in the literature. We use it to find the interaction measure, E-3p, yielding non-perturbative values for both the energy density E and the pressure p. uuencoded compressed PostScript file Revised version should work on more PostScript printers.Comment: 24 page

Multiple steady states for characteristic initial value problems

The time dependent, isentropic, quasi-one-dimensional equations of gas dynamics and other model equations are considered under the constraint of characteristic boundary conditions. Analysis of the time evolution shows how different initial data may lead to different steady states and how seemingly anamolous behavior of the solution may be resolved. Numerical experimentation using time consistent explicit algorithms verifies the conclusions of the analysis. The use of implicit schemes with very large time steps leads to erroneous results

Scaling of Pseudo-Critical Couplings in Two-Flavour QCD

We study the scaling behaviour of the pseudo-critical couplings for the chiral phase transition in two-flavour QCD. We show that all existing results from lattice simulations on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau = 4$, 6 and 8 can be mapped onto a universal scaling curve. The relevant combination of critical exponents, $\beta\delta$, is consistent with the scaling behaviour expected for a second order phase transition with $O(4)$ exponents. At present, scaling according to the $O(2)$ symmetry group can, however, not be ruled out.Comment: 8 pages, NSF-ITP 93-12

Two-Flavor Staggered Fermion Thermodynamics at N_t = 12

We present results of an ongoing study of the nature of the high temperature crossover in QCD with two light fermion flavors. These results are obtained with the conventional staggered fermion action at the smallest lattice spacing to date---approximately 0.1 fm. Of particular interest are a study of the temperature of the crossover a determination of the induced baryon charge and baryon susceptibility, the scalar susceptibility, and the chiral order parameter, used to test models of critical behavior associated with chiral symmetry restoration. From our new data and published results for N_t = 4, 6, and 8, we determine the QCD magnetic equation of state from the chiral order parameter using O(4) and mean field critical exponents and compare it with the corresponding equation of state obtained from an O(4) spin model and mean field theory. We also present a scaling analysis of the Polyakov loop, suggesting a temperature dependent ``constituent quark free energy.''Comment: LaTeX 25 pages, 15 Postscript figure

Rotational Spectroscopy of PAHs: Acenaphthene, Acenaphthylene and Fluorene

Pure rotational spectra of three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - acenaphthene, acenaphthylene and fluorene - have been obtained by Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy of a molecular beam and subsequently by millimeter wave absorption spectroscopy for acenaphthene and fluorene. The data presented here will be useful for deep radio astronomical searches for PAHs employing large radio telecopes.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure (uses iaus.sty), to appear in IAU Symposium No. 231, Astrochemistry - Recent Successes and Current Challenges, eds. D. C. Lis, G. A. Blake & E. Herbst (Cambridge Univ. Press

Computational problems in autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models

The choice of the sampling interval and the selection of the order of the model in time series analysis are considered. Band limited (up to 15 Hz) random torque perturbations are applied to the human ankle joint. The applied torque input, the angular rotation output, and the electromyographic activity using surface electrodes from the extensor and flexor muscles of the ankle joint are recorded. Autoregressive moving average models are developed. A parameter constraining technique is applied to develop more reliable models. The asymptotic behavior of the system must be taken into account during parameter optimization to develop predictive models

The phase transition in QCD with broken SU(2) flavour symmetry

We report the first investigation of the QCD transition temperature, T_c, for two flavours of staggered quarks with unequal masses at lattice spacings of 1/4T. On changing the u/d quark mass ratio in such a way that m(pi_0)^2/m(pi_+)^2 changes from 1 to 0.78, thus bracketing the physical value of this ratio, we find that T_c remains unchanged in units of both m_rho and Lambda_MSbar.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Responses of hadrons to chemical potential at finite temperature

We present a framework to compute the responses of hadron masses to the chemical potential in lattice QCD simulations. As a first trial, the screening mass of the pseudoscalar meson and its first and second responses are evaluated. We present results on a $16\times 8^2\times 4$ lattice with two flavors of staggered quarks below and above $T_c$. The responses to both the isoscalar and isovector chemical potentials are obtained. They show different behavior in the low and the high temperature phases, which may be explained as a consequence of chiral symmetry breaking and restoration, respectively.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure