Overview of the QCD phase diagram -- Recent progress from the lattice

In recent years there has been much progress on the investigation of the QCD phase diagram with lattice QCD simulations. In this review I focus on the developments in the last two years. Especially the addition of external influences or new parameter ranges yield an increasing number of interesting results. I discuss the progress for small, finite densities from both analytical continuation and Complex Langevin simulations, for heavy quark bound states (quarkonium), the dependence on the quark masses (Columbia plot) and the influence of a magnetic field. Many of these conditions are relevant for the understanding of both the QCD transition in the early universe and heavy ion collision experiments which are conducted for example at the LHC and RHIC.Comment: 59 pages, 31 figure

Pseudoscalar transition form factors and the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon g−2g-2

We report on our progress toward the computation of the $\pi^0$, $\eta$ and $\eta^{\prime}$ transition form factors using staggered quarks on $N_f=2+1+1$ gauge ensembles generated by the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal collaboration. These form factors are essential ingredients to evaluate the pseudoscalar-pole contributions to the hadronic light-by-light scattering in the muon $g-2$. Preliminary results for the pseudoscalar-pole contributions are presented, at finite lattice spacing, for all three light mesons.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, contribution to the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theor

Equation of state of a hot-and-dense quark gluon plasma: lattice simulations at real μB\mu_B vs. extrapolations

The equation of state of the quark gluon plasma is a key ingredient of heavy ion phenomenology. In addition to the traditional Taylor method, several novel approximation schemes have been proposed with the aim of calculating it at finite baryon density. In order to gain a pragmatic understanding of the limits of these schemes, we compare them to direct results at $\mu_B>0$, using reweighting techniques free from an overlap problem. We use 2stout improved staggered fermions with 8 time-slices and cover the entire RHIC BES range in the baryochemical potential, up to $\mu_B/T=3$.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Resummed lattice QCD equation of state at finite baryon density: Strangeness neutrality and beyond

We calculate a resummed equation of state with lattice QCD simulations at imaginary chemical potentials. This work presents a generalization of the scheme introduced in 2102.06660 to the case of non-zero $\mu_S$, focusing on the line of strangeness neutrality. We present results up to $\mu_B/T \leq 3.5$ on the strangeness neutral line $\left\langle S \right\rangle = 0$ in the temperature range $130 \rm{MeV} \leq T \leq 280 \rm{MeV}$. We also extrapolate the finite baryon density equation of state to small non-zero values of the strangeness-to-baryon ratio $R=\left\langle S \right\rangle / \left\langle B \right\rangle$. We perform a continuum extrapolation using lattice simulations of the 4stout-improved staggered action with 8, 10, 12 and 16 timeslices.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures; v2: contains ancillary files with tabulated dat

Promising results of a clinical feasibility study: CIRBP as a potential biomarker in pediatric cardiac surgery

ObjectiveCold-inducible RNA binding Protein (CIRBP) has been shown to be a potent inflammatory mediator and could serve as a novel biomarker for inflammation. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and capillary leak syndrome (CLS) are frequent complications after pediatric cardiac surgery increasing morbidity, therefore early diagnosis and therapy is crucial. As CIRBP serum levels have not been analyzed in a pediatric population, we conducted a clinical feasibility establishing a customized magnetic bead panel analyzing CIRBP in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery.MethodsA prospective hypothesis generating observational clinical study was conducted at the German Heart Center Berlin during a period of 9 months starting in May 2020 (DRKS00020885, https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00020885). Serum samples were obtained before the cardiac operation, upon arrival at the pediatric intensive care unit, 6 and 24 h after the operation in patients up to 18 years of age with congenital heart disease (CHD). Customized multiplex magnetic bead-based immunoassay panels were developed to analyze CIRBP, Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Interleukin-10 (IL-10), Monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), Syndecan-1 (SDC-1), Thrombomodulin (TM), Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A), Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), and Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) in 25 µl serum using the Luminex MagPix® system.Results19 patients representing a broad range of CHD (10 male patients, median age 2 years, 9 female patients, median age 3 years) were included in the feasibility study. CIRBP was detectable in the whole patient cohort. Relative to individual baseline values, CIRBP concentrations increased 6 h after operation and returned to baseline levels over time. IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and MCP-1 concentrations were significantly increased after operation and except for MCP-1 concentrations stayed upregulated over time. SDC-1, TM, Ang-2, as well as FGF-23 concentrations were also significantly increased, whereas VEGF-A concentration was significantly decreased after surgery.DiscussionUsing customized magnetic bead panels, we were able to detect CIRBP in a minimal serum volume (25 µl) in all enrolled patients. To our knowledge this is the first clinical study to assess CIRBP serum concentrations in a pediatric population

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30