Improving the Quark Number Susceptibilities for Staggered Fermions

Quark number susceptibilities approach their ideal gas limit at sufficiently high temperatures. As in the case of other thermodynamic quantities, this limit itself is altered substantially on lattices with small temporal extent, N_t = 4-8, making it thus difficult to check the validity of perturbation theory. Unlike other observables, improving susceptibilities or number densities is subject to constraints of current conservation and absence of chemical potential dependent divergences. We construct such an improved number density and susceptibility for staggered fermions and show that they approximate the continuum ideal gas limit better on small temporal lattices.Comment: Lattice2002(nonzerot), 3 pages, 3 figure

A smoother approach to scaling by suppressing monopoles and vortices

Suppressing monopoles and vortices by introducing large chemical potentials for them in the Wilson action for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, we study the nature of the deconfinement phase transition on N_sigma^3 X N_tau lattices for N_tau =4, 5, 6 and 8 and N_sigma = 8-16. Using finite size scaling theory, we obtain \omega = 1.93 +/- 0.03 for N_tau = 4, in excellent agreement with universality. The critical couplings for N_tau= 4, 5, 6 and 8 lattices exhibit large shifts towards the strong coupling region when compared with the usual Wilson action, and suggest a lot smoother approach to scaling.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Topology and Vaccum II); LaTeX 4 pages, 2 figure

Results from Lattice QCD

I present our recent results on the critical end point in the \mu_B-T phase diagram of QCD with two flavours of light dynamical quarks and compare them with similar results from other groups. Implications for a possible energy scan at the RHIC are discussed. I also comment briefly on the new results of great relevance to heavy ion collisions from finite temperature lattice QCD simulations on speed of sound, specific heat and on the fate of J/\psi.Comment: Invited Plenary Talk given at 5th International Conference on Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma, Kolkata, India, February 8-12, 2005; LaTeX in Journal of Physics G style; 9 pages including figure

Suppressing monopoles and vortices : A possibly smoother approach to scaling ?

Suppressing monopoles and vortices by introducing large chemical potentials for them in the Wilson action for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, we study the nature of the deconfinement phase transition on N_\sigma^3 \times N_\tau lattices for N_\tau = 4, 5, 6 and 8 and N_\sigma = 8--16. Using finite size scaling theory, we obtain \omega = 1.93 \pm 0.03 for N_\tau = 4, in excellent agreement with universality. Corresponding determinations for the N_\tau = 5 and 6 lattices are also found to be in very good agreement with this estimate. The critical couplings for N_\tau= 4, 5, 6 and 8 lattices exhibit large shifts towards the strong coupling region when compared with the usual Wilson action, and suggest a lot smoother approach to scaling.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures included, Very minor correction

Phase Diagram of SO(3) Lattice Gauge Theory at Finite Temperature

The phase diagram of SO(3) lattice gauge theory at finite temperature is investigated by Monte Carlo techniques with a view i) to understand the relationship between the deconfinement phase transitions in the SU(2) and SO(3) lattice gauge theories and ii) to resolve the current ambiguity of the nature of the high temperature phases of the latter. Phases with positive and negative adjoint Polyakov loop are shown to have the same physics. A first order deconfining phase transition is found for N_t=4.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, latex2e, uses espcrc2.sty. Contribution to Lattice '97, Edinburgh, July 1997, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.) Latex command for figures correcte

QCD Critical Point: The Race is On

A critical point in the phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), if established either theoretically or experimentally, would be as profound a discovery as the good-old gas-liquid critical point. Unlike the latter, however, first-principles based approaches are being employed to locate it theoretically. Due to the short lived nature of the concerned phases, novel experimental techniques are needed to search for it. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in USA has an experimental program to do so. This short review is an attempt to provide a glimpse of the race between the theorists and the experimentalists as well as that of the synergy between them.Comment: 15 Pages, Invited Review for Praman

Present Status of Lattice QCD at nonzero T and \mu

I review a few selected topics in Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics, focusing more on the recent results. These include i) the equation of state and speed of sound, ii) J/\psi suppression, iii) flavour correlations and iv) the QCD phase diagram in the \mu-T plane.Comment: 13 Pages including figures, Plenary Talk at the 9th Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology, ``WHEPP9'', Bhubaneswar, India, January 3-14, 2006, To appear in Praman

Fermions obstruct dimensional reduction in hot QCD

We have studied, for the first time, screening masses obtained from glueball-like correlators in Quantum Chromodynamics with four light dynamical flavours of quarks in the temperature range 1.5T_c < T < 3T_c, where T_c is the temperature at which the chiral transition occurs. We have also studied pion-like and sigma-like screening masses, and found that they are degenerate in the entire range of T. These obstruct perturbative dimensional reduction since the lowest glueball screening mass is heavier than them. Extrapolation of our results suggests that this obstruction may affect the entire range of temperature expected to be reached even at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 2 eps figures included; minor corrections: version for publicatio

Pressure and non-linear susceptibilities in QCD at finite chemical potentials

When the free energy density of QCD is expanded in a series in the chemical potential, mu, the Taylor coefficients are the non-linear quark number susceptibilities. We show that these depend on the prescription for putting chemical potential on the lattice, making all extrapolations in chemical potential prescription dependent at finite lattice spacing. To put bounds on the prescription dependence, we investigate the magnitude of the non-linear susceptibilities over a range of temperature, T, in QCD with two degenerate flavours of light dynamical quarks at lattice spacing 1/4T. The prescription dependence is removed in quenched QCD through a continuum extrapolation, and the dependence of the pressure, P, on mu is obtained.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. Data on chi_uuuu added, discussion enhance