Excited-state contribution to the axial-vector and pseudo-scalar correlators with two extra pions

We study multi-particle state contributions to the QCD two-point functions of the axial-vector and pseudo-scalar quark bilinears in a finite spatial volume. For sufficiently small quark masses one expects three-meson states with two additional pions at rest to have the lowest total energy after the ground state. We calculate this three-meson state contribution using chiral perturbation theory. We find it to be strongly suppressed and too small to be seen in present-day lattice simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Static quark free energies at finite temperature with two flavors of improved Wilson quarks

Polyakov loop correlations at finite temperature in two-flavor QCD are studied in lattice simulations with the RG-improved gluon action and the clover-improved Wilson quark action. From the simulations on a $16^3 \times 4$ lattice, we extract the 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. 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 given in terms of $g_{\rm eff}(T)$. Also we made a comparison between our results with the Wilson quark and those with the staggered quark previously reported.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, talk given at Lattice 2006 (high temperature and density

Finite temperature phase transition of two-flavor QCD with an improved Wilson quark action

We study the phase structure of QCD at finite temperatures with two flavors of dynamical quarks on a lattice with the size $N_s^3 \times N_t=16^3 \times 4$, using a renormalization group improved gauge action and a clover improved Wilson quark action. The simulations are made along the lines of constant physics determined in terms of $m_{\rm PS}/m_{\rm V}$ at zero-temperature. We show preliminary results for the spatial string tension in the high temperature phase.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, talk presented at Lattice 2006 (high temperature and density

Thermodynamics and heavy-quark free energies at finite temperature and density with two flavors of improved Wilson quarks

Thermodynamics of two-flavor QCD at finite temperature and density is studied on a $16^3 \times 4$ lattice, using a renormalization group improved gauge action and the clover improved Wilson quark action. In the simulations along lines of constant $m_{\rm PS}/m_{\rm V}$, we calculate the Taylor expansion coefficients of the heavy-quark free energy with respect to the quark chemical potential ($\mu_q$) up to the second order. By comparing the expansion coefficients of the free energies between quark($Q$)and antiquark($\bar{Q}$), and between $Q$ and $Q$, we find a characteristic difference at finite $\mu_q$ due to the first order coefficient of the Taylor expansion. We also calculate the quark number and isospin susceptibilities, and find that the second order coefficient of the quark number susceptibility shows enhancement around the pseudo-critical temperature.Comment: Talk given at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2007), July 30 - August 4, 2007, Regensburg, German

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