On the phase structure of QCD in a finite volume

The chiral phase transition in QCD at finite chemical potential and temperature can be characterized for small chemical potential by its curvature and the transition temperature. The curvature is accessible to QCD lattice simulations, which are always performed at finite pion masses and in finite simulation volumes. We investigate the effect of a finite volume on the curvature of the chiral phase transition line. We use functional renormalization group methods with a two flavor quark-meson model to obtain the effective action in a finite volume, including both quark and meson fluctuation effects. Depending on the chosen boundary conditions and the pion mass, we find pronounced finite-volume effects. For periodic quark boundary conditions in spatial directions, we observe a decrease in the curvature in intermediate volume sizes, which we interpret in terms of finite-volume quark effects. Our results have implications for the phase structure of QCD in a finite volume, where the location of a possible critical endpoint might be shifted compared to the infinite-volume case.     

Phase transitions in quark matter and behaviour of physical observables in the vicinity of the critical end point

We study the chiral phase transition at finite T and μ _B within the framework of the SU(3) Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. The QCD critical end point (CEP) and the critical line at finite temperature and baryonic chemical potential are investigated: the study of physical quantities, such as the baryon number susceptibility near the CEP, will provide complementary information concerning the order of the phase transition. We also analyze the information provided by the study of the critical exponents around the CEP.     

Resonance states in an effective chiral hadronic model

With an effective chiral flavour SU(3) model we show the effect of hadronic resonances on the QCD phase diagram. We state that varying the resonance couplings to the scalar and vector fields affects the order and location of the phase transition, the possible existence of a critical end point (CEP), and the thermodynamic properties. We present (strange) quark number susceptibilities at zero baryochemical potential and at three different points at the phase transition. Comparing results to lattice QCD, we state that reasonable large vector couplings limit the phase transition to a smooth crossover ruling out a CEP.     

改进的PNJL模型下QCD的相图

Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio（PNJL）模型是研究强相互作用物质性质的使用最为广泛的有效模型之一。在PNJL模型的基础上考虑了手征凝聚和Polyakov圈之间的纠缠作用，并且引入了化学势修正的Polyakov有效势，由此得到了化学势依赖的entangled PNJL（μEPNJL）模型。在平均场框架下的计算结果表明:相较于原始的PNJL模型，由μEPNJL模型计算得到的临界点（CEP）朝着温度更高、化学势更小处移动，并且手征对称性恢复相变和退禁闭相变在较大的化学势范围内都重合得很好。通过与STAR合作组在相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）上进行的净质子数分布的测量结果相比，可以发现，通过适当的参数调节，由μEPNJL模型计算得到的CEP更加靠近实验预言的CEP可能存在的区域。Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model is one of the most popular effective quark models to investigate the properties of strongly interacting matter. Based on the PNJL model, we consider the entanglement interactions between the chiral condensate and Polyakov-loop, as well as the chemical potential modification of Polyakov-loop potential simultaneously, which is named μEPNJL model. Compared with the original PNJL model, the calculations in the mean field approximation show that the critical end point (CEP) given in the μEPNJL model moves towards higher temperature and smaller chemical potential in the T-μ phase diagram. Besides, the chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement phase transition coincide well in a wide range of chemical potential. Comparing our calculations with the measurement of the moments of net-proton multiplicity distributions at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) by STAR Collaboration, we find that the CEP given by μEPNJL model can be closer to the range predicted by the experiment through appropriate parameter adjustment.     

No-go theorem for critical phenomena in large-N(c) QCD

We derive some rigorous results on the chiral phase transition in QCD and QCD-like theories with a large number of colors, N(c), based on the QCD inequalities and the large-N(c) orbifold equivalence. We show that critical phenomena and associated soft modes are forbidden in flavor-symmetric QCD at finite temperature T and finite but not so large quark chemical potential μ for any nonzero quark mass. In particular, the critical point in QCD at a finite baryon chemical potential μ(B)=N(c)μ is ruled out, if the coordinate (T, μ) is outside the pion condensed phase in the corresponding phase diagram of QCD at a finite isospin chemical potential μ(I)=2μ.     

Studying pion effects on the chiral phase transition

We investigate the chiral phase transition at finite temperatures and zero chemical potential with Dyson-Schwinger equations. Our truncation for the quark-gluon interaction includes mesonic degrees of freedom, which allows us to study the impact of the pions on the nature of the phase transition. Within the present scheme we find a 5% change of the critical temperature due to the pion backreaction whereas the mean field character of the transition is not changed.     

Probing the QCD phase structure with higher order baryon numbersusceptibilities within the NJL model

Conserved charge fluctuations can be used to probe the phase structure of strongly interacting nuclear matter in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. To obtain the characteristic signatures of the conserved charge fluctuations for the quantum chromodynamics(QCD) phase transition, we study the susceptibilities of dense quark matter up to eighth order in detail, using an effective QCD-based model. We studied two cases, one with the QCD critical end point(CEP) and one without owing to an additional vector interaction term. The higher order susceptibilities display rich structures near the CEP and show sign changes as well as large fluctuations. These can provide us information about the presence and location of the CEP. Furthermore, we find that the case without the CEP also shows a similar sign change pattern, but with a relatively smaller magnitude compared with the case with the CEP. Finally, we conclude that higher order susceptibilities of conserved charge can be used to probe the QCD phase structures in heavyion collisions.     

QCD at finite temperature and density within the fRG approach: an overview

In this paper, we present an overview on recent progress in studies of QCD at finite temperature and densities within the functional renormalization group (fRG) approach. The fRG is a nonperturbative continuum field approach, in which quantum, thermal and density fluctuations are integrated successively with the evolution of the renormalization group (RG) scale. The fRG results for the QCD phase structure and the location of the critical end point (CEP), the QCD equation of state (EoS), the magnetic EoS, baryon number fluctuations confronted with recent experimental measurements, various critical exponents, spectral functions in the critical region, the dynamical critical exponent, etc, are presented. Recent estimates of the location of the CEP from first-principle QCD calculations within fRG and Dyson–Schwinger equations, which pass through lattice benchmark tests at small baryon chemical potentials, converge in a rather small region at baryon chemical potentials of about 600 MeV. A region of inhomogeneous instability indicated by a negative wave function renormalization is found with μ_B ≳ 420 MeV. It is found that the non-monotonic dependence of the kurtosis of the net-proton number distributions on the beam collision energy observed in experiments could arise from the increasingly sharp crossover in the regime of low collision energy.     

Bose–Einstein condensation in the three-sphere and in the infinite slab: Analytical results

We study the finite size effects on Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of an ideal non-relativistic Bose gas in the three-sphere (spatial section of the Einstein universe) and in a partially finite box which is infinite in two of the spatial directions (infinite slab). Using the framework of grand-canonical statistics, we consider the number of particles, the condensate fraction and the specific heat. After obtaining asymptotic expansions for large system size, which are valid throughout the BEC regime, we describe analytically how the thermodynamic limit behaviour is approached. In particular, in the critical region of the BEC transition, we express the chemical potential and the specific heat as simple explicit functions of the temperature, highlighting the effects of finite size. These effects are seen to be different for the two different geometries. We also consider the Bose gas in a one-dimensional box, a system which does not possess BEC in the sense of a phase transition even in the infinite volume limit.