Heavy-quark free energy at finite temperature with 2+1 flavors of improved Wilson quarks in fixed scale approach

The free energy between a static quark and an antiquark is studied by using the color-singlet Polyakov-line correlation at finite temperature. We perform simulations on $32^3 \times 12$, 10, 8, 6, 4 lattices in the high temperature phase with the RG-improved gluon action and 2+1 flavors of the clover-improved Wilson quark action. Since the simulations are based on the fixed scale approach that the temperature can be varied without changing the spatial volume and renormalization factor, it is possible to investigate temperature dependence of the heavy-quark free energy without any adjustment of the overall constant. We find that, the heavy-quark free energies at short distance converge to the heavy-quark potential evaluated from the Wilson-loop operator at zero temperature, in accordance with the expected insensitivity of short distance physics to the temperature. At long distance, the heavy-quark free energies approach to twice the single-quark free energies, implying that the interaction between heavy quarks is screened. The Debye screening mass obtained from the long range behavior of the heavy-quark free energy is compared with results of the thermal perturbation theory and those of $N_f=2$ and $N_f=0$ lattice simulations.Comment: To appear in the proceedigns of 27th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2009), Beijing, China, 25-31 July 200

Thermodynamics of SU(3) gauge theory at fixed lattice spacing

We study thermodynamics of SU(3) gauge theory at fixed scales on the lattice, where we vary temperature by changing the temporal lattice size N_t=(Ta_t)^{-1}. In the fixed scale approach, finite temperature simulations are performed on common lattice spacings and spatial volumes. Consequently, we can isolate thermal effects in observables from other uncertainties, such as lattice artifact, renormalization factor, and spatial volume effect. Furthermore, in the EOS calculations, the fixed scale approach is able to reduce computational costs for zero temperature subtraction and parameter search to find lines of constant physics, which are demanding in full QCD simulations. As a test of the approach, we study the thermodynamics of the SU(3) gauge theory on isotropic and anisotropic lattices. In addition to the equation of state, we calculate the critical temperature and the static quark free energy at a fixed scale.Comment: 7pages, 3figures, proceedings of Lattice 2008, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, July 14-19, 200

An application of the variational analysis to calculate the meson spectral functions

We present a new method to calculate meson spectral functions (SPFs) on the lattice based on a variational method. Because, on a finite volume lattice, the meson SPFs have discrete spectra only, a suitable way to extract such discrete signals is needed. Using a variational method, we can calculate several discrete quantities such as the position and the area of spectral peaks for low-lying states. Moreover data accuracy can be improved by increasing the number of basis functions. In this report, we first confirm our method in the free quark case and show that our method works well. Then, we apply the method to a quenched lattice QCD simulation and calculate the charmonium SPFs for S and P-waves at zero temperature. Our results for the ground state are well consistent with the position and the area of the lowest peaks of charmonium SPFs calculated by the conventional maximum entropy method. For first excited states, the signals may be reliablly extracted with our method because the charmonium mass converges to a value close to the experimental one when the number of basis functions is increased. We also investigate the SPFs for S-wave charmonia at below and above $T_c$. Our results suggest that $J/\psi$ and $\eta_c$ may survive up to 1.4$T_c$.Comment: 7 Pages, 6 figures, talk presented at the XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 14-19 2010, Villasimius, Ital

Heavy-Quark Free Energy, Debye Mass, and Spatial String Tension at Finite Temperature in Two Flavor Lattice QCD with Wilson Quark Action

We study Polyakov loop correlations and spatial Wilson loop at finite Temperature in two-flavor QCD simulations with the RG-improved gluon action and the clover-improved Wilson quark action on a $16^3 \times 4$ lattice. From the line of constant physics at $m_{\rm PS}/m_{\rm V}=0.65$ and 0.80, we extract the heavy-quark free energies, the effective running coupling $g_{\rm eff}(T)$ and the Debye screening mass $m_D(T)$ for various color channels of heavy quark--quark and quark--anti-quark pairs above the critical temperature. The free energies are well approximated by the screened Coulomb form with the appropriate Casimir factors at high temperature. The magnitude and the temperature dependence of the Debye mass are compared to those of the next-to-leading order thermal perturbation theory and to a phenomenological formula in terms of $g_{\rm eff}(T)$. We make a comparison between our results with the Wilson quark action and the previous results with the staggered quark action. The spatial string tension is also studied in the high temperature phase and is compared to the next-to-next-leading order prediction in an effective theory with dimensional reduction.Comment: 25 pages, 37 EPS figure

Equation of state in (2+1)-flavor QCD at physical point with improved Wilson fermion action using gradient flow

We study the energy-momentum tensor and the equation of state as well as the chiral condensate in (2+1)-flavor QCD at the physical point applying the method of Makino and Suzuki based on the gradient flow. We adopt a nonperturbatively O(a)-improved Wilson quark action and the renormalization group-improved Iwasaki gauge action. At Lattice 2016, we have presented our preliminary results of our study in (2+1)-flavor QCD at a heavy u, d quark mass point. We now extend the study to the physical point and perform finite-temperature simulations in the range T \simeq 155--544 MeV (Nt = 4--14 including odd Nt's) at a \simeq 0.09 fm. We show our final results of the heavy QCD study and present some preliminary results obtained at the physical point so far.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figures, talk presented at the 35th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE 2017), 18-24 June 2017, Granada, Spai

EOS in 2+1 flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks by the fixed-scale approach

We present the status of our study on the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD with non-perturbatively improved Wilson quarks coupled with the RG improved glue. We apply the T-integration method to non-perturbatively calculate the equation of state by the fixed-scale approach.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, talk presented at the XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 14-19 2010, Villasimius, Ital

The order of the deconfinement phase transition in a heavy quark mass region

We study the quark mass dependence of the QCD phase transition by an effective potential defined through the distribution function of observables. As a test of the method, we study the first order deconfinement phase transition in the heavy quark mass limit and its fate at lighter quark masses. We confirm that the distribution function for the plaquette has two peaks indicating that the phase transition is of first order in the heavy quark limit. We then study the quark mass dependence of the distribution function by a reweighting method combined with the hopping parameter expansion. We find that the first order transition turns into a crossover as the quark mass decreases. We determine the critical point for the cases of $N_f$=1, 2, 3 and 2+1. We find that the probability distribution function provides us with a powerful tool to study the order of transitions.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure, Talk presented at the XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Lattice2010, Villasimius, Italy, June 201

Equation of state at finite density in two-flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks

We study the equation of state in two-flavor QCD at finite temperature and density. Simulations are made with the RG-improved gluon action and the clover-improved Wilson quark action. Along the lines of constant physics for $m_{\rm PS}/m_{\rm V} = 0.65$ and 0.80, we compute the derivatives of the quark determinant with respect to the quark chemical potential $\mu_q$ up to the fourth order at $\mu_q=0$. We adopt several improvement techniques in the evaluation. We study thermodynamic quantities and quark number susceptibilities at finite $\mu_q$ using these derivatives. We find enhancement of the quark number susceptibility at finite $\mu_q$, in accordance with previous observations using staggered-type quarks. This suggests the existence of a nearby critical point.Comment: 7 pages, 16 figures, presented at the XXVI International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE 2008), July 14-19, 2008, Williamsburg, Virginia, US

Scaling behavior of chiral phase transition in two-flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks at finite density

We study scaling behavior of a chiral order parameter performing a simulation of two-flavor QCD with improved Wilson quarks. It has been shown that the scaling behavior of the chiral order parameter defined by a Ward-Takahashi identity agrees with the scaling function of the three-dimensional O(4) spin model at zero chemical potential. We extend the scaling study to finite density QCD. Calculating derivatives of the chiral order parameter with respect to the chemical potential in two-flavor QCD, the scaling property of chiral phase transition is discussed in the low density region. We moreover calculate the curvature of the phase boundary of the chirl phase transition in the temperature and chemical potential plane assuming the O(4) scaling relation.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, poster presented at the XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 14-19 2010, Villasimius, Ital