Topology with Dynamical Overlap Fermions

We perform dynamical QCD simulations with $n_f=2$ overlap fermions by hybrid Monte-Carlo method on $6^4$ to $8^3\times 16$ lattices. We study the problem of topological sector changing. A new method is proposed which works without topological sector changes. We use this new method to determine the topological susceptibility at various quark masses.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

The equation of state in lattice QCD: with physical quark masses towards the continuum limit

The equation of state of QCD at vanishing chemical potential as a function of temperature is determined for two sets of lattice spacings. Coarser lattices with temporal extension of N_t=4 and finer lattices of N_t=6 are used. Symanzik improved gauge and stout-link improved staggered fermionic actions are applied. The results are given for physical quark masses both for the light quarks and for the strange quark. Pressure, energy density, entropy density, quark number susceptibilities and the speed of sound are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Version published in JHEP: discussions added in Sects. 1, 2. Fig. 1 changed and a new figure for the interaction measure added. Information on statistics added in Table 1. Raw values of the pressure added in Table 3. A few references adde

Quasiparticle Description of the QCD Plasma, Comparison with Lattice Results at Finite T and Mu

We compare our 2+1 flavor, staggered QCD lattice results with a quasiparticle picture. We determine the pressure, the energy density, the baryon density, the speed of sound and the thermal masses as a function of T and $\mu_B$. For the available thermodynamic quantities the difference is a few percent between the results of the two approaches. We also give the phase diagram on the $\mu_B$--T plane and estimate the critical chemical potential at vanishing temperature.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Searching the QCD critical endpoint with lattice simulations

We discuss the usefulness of various lattice observables especially fluctuations to locate the QCD critical endpoint. We apply different models to interpret our results for the baryon fluctuations up to µ8 from simulations at imaginary chemical potentials

Searching the QCD critical endpoint with lattice simulations

We discuss the usefulness of various lattice observables especially fluctuations to locate the QCD critical endpoint. We apply different models to interpret our results for the baryon fluctuations up to µ8 from simulations at imaginary chemical potentials

The crossover line in the (T, μ)-phase diagram of QCD

An efficient way to study the QCD phase diagram at small finite density is to extrapolate thermodynamical observables from imaginary chemical potential. The phase diagram features a crossover line starting from the transition temperature already determined at zero chemical potential. In this work we focus on the Taylor expansion of this line up to μ4 contributions. We present the continuum extrapolation of the crossover temperature based on different observables at several lattice spacings

Finite chemical potential equation of state for QCD from an alternative expansion scheme

International audienceThe Taylor expansion approach to the equation of state of QCD at finite chemical potential struggles to reach large chemical potential μB. This is primarily due to the intrinsic diffculty in precisely determining higher order Taylor coefficients, as well as the structure of the temperature dependence of such observables. In these proceedings, we illustrate a novel scheme [1] that allows us to extrapolate the equation of state of QCD without suffering from the poor convergence typical of the Taylor expansion approach. We continuum extrapolate the coefficients of our new expansion scheme and show the thermodynamic observables up to μB/T ≤ 3.5