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

Thermodynamics of the QCD plasma and the large-N limit

The equilibrium thermodynamic properties of the SU(N) plasma at finite temperature are studied non-perturbatively in the large-N limit, via lattice simulations. We present high-precision numerical results for the pressure, trace of the energy-momentum tensor, energy density and entropy density of SU(N) Yang-Mills theories with N=3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 colors, in a temperature range from 0.8T_c to 3.4T_c (where T_c denotes the critical deconfinement temperature). The results, normalized according to the number of gluons, show a very mild dependence on N, supporting the idea that the dynamics of the strongly-interacting QCD plasma could admit a description based on large-N models. We compare our numerical data with general expectations about the thermal behavior of the deconfined gluon plasma and with various theoretical descriptions, including, in particular, the improved holographic QCD model recently proposed by Kiritsis and collaborators. We also comment on the relevance of an AdS/CFT description for the QCD plasma in a phenomenologically interesting temperature range where the system, while still strongly-coupled, approaches a `quasi-conformal' regime characterized by approximate scale invariance. Finally, we perform an extrapolation of our results to the N to $\infty$ limit.Comment: 1+38 pages, 13 eps figures; v2: added reference

Leptonic decay constants fDs and fD in three flavor lattice QCD

ManuscriptWe determine the leptonic decay constants fDs and fD in three flavor unquenched lattice QCD. We use O(a2)-improved staggered light quarks and O(a)-improved charm quarks in the Fermilab heavy quark formalism. Our preliminary results, based upon an analysis at a single lattice spacing, are fDs = 263+5 −9 ± 24 MeV and fD = 225+11 −13 ± 21 MeV. In each case, the first reported error is statistical while the second is the combined systematic uncertainty

Low lying charmonium states at the physical point

We present results for the mass splittings of low-lying charmonium states from a calculation with Wilson clover valence quarks with the Fermilab interpretation on an asqtad sea. We use five lattice spacings and two values of the light sea quark mass to extrapolate our results to the physical point. Sources of systematic uncertainty in our calculation are discussed and we compare our results for the 1S hyperfine splitting, the 1P-1S splitting and the P-wave spin orbit and tensor splittings to experiment.Comment: For the Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations; 7 pages, 6 figures; Contribution to the 32nd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 23-28 June, 2014, Columbia University New York, N

Charmonium mass splittings at the physical point

We present results from an ongoing study of mass splittings of the lowest lying states in the charmonium system. We use clover valence charm quarks in the Fermilab interpretation, an improved staggered (asqtad) action for sea quarks, and the one-loop, tadpole-improved gauge action for gluons. This study includes five lattice spacings, 0.15, 0.12, 0.09, 0.06, and 0.045 fm, with two sets of degenerate up- and down-quark masses for most spacings. We use an enlarged set of interpolation operators and a variational analysis that permits study of various low-lying excited states. The masses of the sea quarks and charm valence quark are adjusted to their physical values. This large set of gauge configurations allows us to extrapolate results to the continuum physical point and test the methodology.Comment: 7 pp, 6 figs, Lattice 201

Possible Pseudogap Phase in QCD

Thermal pion fluctuations, in principle, can completely disorder the phase of the quark condensate and thus restore chiral symmetry. If this happens before the quark condensate melts, strongly-interacting matter will be in the pseudogap state just above the chiral phase transition. The quark condensate does not vanish locally and quarks acquire constituent masses in the pseudogap phase, despite chiral symmetry is restored.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; v2: references added; v3: argumerts modified; v4: minor changes; v5: a misprint correcte

The non-zero baryon number formulation of QCD

We discuss the non-zero baryon number formulation of QCD in the quenched limit at finite temperature. This describes the thermodynamics of gluons in the background of static quark sources. Although a sign problem remains in this theory, our simulation results show that it can be handled quite well numerically. The transition region gets shifted to smaller temperatures and the transition region broadens with increasing baryon number. Although the action is in our formulation explicitly Z(3) symmetric the Polyakov loop expectation value becomes non-zero already in the low temperature phase and the heavy quark potential gets screened at non-vanishing number density already this phase.Comment: LATTICE99(Finite Temperature and Density), Latex2e using espcrc2.sty, 3 pages, 7 figure

Precise Determination of |V{us}| from Lattice Calculations of Pseudoscalar Decay Constants

Combining the ratio of experimental kaon and pion decay widths, Gamma(K to mu antineutrino{mu} (gamma)) / Gamma(pi to mu \antineutrino (gamma)), with a recent lattice gauge theory calculation of f{K}/f{pi} provides a precise value for the CKM quark mixing matrix element |V{us}|=0.2236(30) or if 3 generation unitarity is assumed |V{us}|=0.2238(30). Comparison with other determinations of that fundamental parameter, implications, and an outlook for future improvements are given