Second to tenth order susceptibilities of conserved charges within a modified Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

We discuss the sign and energy dependence of second to tenth order susceptibilities of the baryon number,charge number, and strangeness for the analysis of critical conditions in heavy ion collisions in the LHC and RHIC by applying a modified Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. This model is fitted to the quark condensate of the lattice QCD result at finite temperature and zero baryon chemical potential. The presence of a critical point made these susceptibilities deviate considerably from a Hadron-Resonance-Gas model that shows no criticality. The sign, magnitude, and energy dependence of these higher order fluctuations hint towards the existence and location of a critical point that could be discovered in future heavy ion collision experiments.     

量子色动力学在有限温度密度区间的相结构

本文综述量子色动力学在有限温度密度区间的相结构,包括高密条件下的色超导态和在高温条件下相对论重离子碰撞实验中产生的强耦合夸克-胶子等离子体。我们简要地介绍在相对论重离子碰撞实验中发现强耦合夸克-胶子等离子体的历史,并且讨论用体粘滞系数与熵的比值确定QCD临界点的可能性。对于在高密区域的相结构,我们着重讨论错位配对情况下的非标准色超导态,解释无能隙色超导态的色磁不稳定性、Sarma不稳定性和Higgs不稳定性.     

量子色动力学在有限温度密度区间的相结构(英文)

本文综述量子色动力学在有限温度密度区间的相结构,包括高密条件下的色超导态和在高温条件下相对论重离子碰撞实验中产生的强耦合夸克-胶子等离子体。我们简要地介绍在相对论重离子碰撞实验中发现强耦合夸克-胶子等离子体的历史,并且讨论用体粘滞系数与熵的比值确定QCD临界点的可能性。对于在高密区域的相结构,我们着重讨论错位配对情况下的非标准色超导态,解释无能隙色超导态的色磁不稳定性、Sarma不稳定性和Higgs不稳定性.     

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.     

Possibility of QCD critical point sweep during black hole formation

We discuss the possibility to probe the QCD critical point during the dynamical black hole formation from a gravitational collapse of a massive star, where the temperature and the baryon chemical potential become as high as T∼90 MeV and μB∼1300 MeV. Comparison with the phase boundary in chiral effective models suggests that quark matter is likely to be formed before the horizon is formed. Furthermore, the QCD critical point may be probed during the black hole formation. The critical point is found to move in the lower temperature direction in asymmetric nuclear matter, and in some of the chiral models it is found to be in the reachable region during the black hole formation processes.     

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.     

Orientation dependence of center baryon density in central 0.52 GeV/n U-U collisions

With a relativistic transport model, We performed simulation for deformed UU collision with vast different orientation at CSR energy area corresponding to the high net-baryon density region in QCD phase diagram. By investigating the centrality and initial collision orientation dependence of the baryon density form, we found that those tip-tip like UU collisions with extended high density phase, which is very important for studying the nuclear EoS of high baryon density matter and the possible end-point of the phase boundary, are those events with small orientations (< 20°) in reaction plane and small impact parameter (< 2.4 fm). We have developed a measurable quantity that allows us to select those most interesting events (i.e. tip-tip like) in the experiment.     

Lattice results on QCD at high temperature and non-zero baryon number density

Studies of QCD thermodynamics on the lattice now can be performed with an almost realistic quark mass spectrum and on quite large lattices. This will soon allow a controlled extrapolation to the continuum limit. We present recent results on the QCD equation of state, discuss deconfining and chiral symmetry restoring aspects of the QCD transition at vanishing chemical potential and show results on baryon number, electric charge and strangeness fluctuations. We briefly discuss the generic structure of Taylor expansion coefficients in the vicinity of the chiral phase transition and comment on the determination of the anticipated chiral critical point within the framework of Taylor expansions of the QCD partition function.     

Calculation of Partition Function of QCD at Finite Chemical Potential

In equilibrium statistical field theory, the partition function has fundamental importance. In this paper we propose a direct and general method for calculating the partition function and equation of state of QCD at finite chemical potential. It is found that the partition function is totally determined by the dressed quark propagator at finite chemical potential up to a multiplicative constant. From this a criterion for the phase transition between the Nambu and the Wigner phases is obtained. This general method is applied to two specific cases： the free quark theory and QCD with a model dressed quark propagator having confinement features. In the first case, the standard Fermi distribution at T = 0 is reproduced. In the second case, we apply the conclusion in previous works to obtain the dressed quark propagator at finite chemical potential and find the unphysical result that the baryon number density vanishes for all values of chemical potential. The reason for this result is discussed.     

Probing the QCD chiral cross-over transition in heavy ion collisions

We argue that by measuring higher moments of the net proton number fluctuations in heavy ion collisions (HIC) one can probe the QCD chiral cross-over transition experimentally. We discuss the properties of fluctuations of the net baryon number in the vicinity of the chiral cross-over transition within the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model at finite temperature and baryon density. The calculation includes non-perturbative dynamics implemented within the functional renormalization group approach. We find a clear signal for the chiral cross-over transition in the fluctuations of the net baryon number. We address our theoretical findings to experimental data of the STAR Collaboration on energy and centrality dependence of the net proton number fluctuations and their probability distributions in HIC.     

Nuclear stopping and collective flow in CSR/LanZhou energy region

Nuclear stopping and collective flow for two pairs of symmetric colliding nuclei: ²³⁸U+²³⁸U and ¹²⁹Xe+¹²⁹Xe, which are proposed to be accelerated on Cooling Storage Ring (CSR), External Target Facility (ETF), LanZhou, China, are studied by a hadronic transport model ART1.0. The incident beam energy of Uranium and Xenon can be delivered up to 520 MeV/nucleon and 900MeV/nucleon, respectively. At this CSR energy region, the hot, dense nuclear matter are thought to be obtained in the lab, which is an idea circumstance to study the nuclear equation of state (EoS). As deformation of the Uranium nuclei, it is predicted that significant large baryon density in the tip-tip U+U collision patterns and the large elliptic flow in body-body collision pattern are both avail to study the nuclear EoS.     

Hadron-quark phase coexistence in a hybrid MIT-Bag model

The phase transition of hadronic to quark matter and the boundaries of the hadron-quark coexistence phase are studied within the two Equation of State (EoS) models. The relativistic effective mean-field approach with constant and density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings is used to describe hadronic matter, and the MIT-Bag model is adopted to describe quark matter. The boundaries of the mixed phase for different Bag constants are obtained solving the Gibbs equations. We notice that the dependence on the Bag parameter of the critical temperatures (at zero chemical potential) can be well reproduced by a fermion ultrarelativistic quark gas model, without contribution from the hadron part. At variance, the critical chemical potentials (at zero temperature) are very sensitive to the EoS of the hadron sector. Hence, the contribution of the hadronic interaction is much more relevant for the determination of the transition to the quark-gluon plasma at finite baryon density and low T . Moreover, in the low-temperature and finite chemical potential region no solutions of the Gibbs conditions are existing for small Bag-constant values, B < (135 MeV)⁴ . Isospin effects in asymmetric matter appear important in the high chemical-potential regions at lower temperatures, of interest for the inner-core properties of neutron stars and for heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies.     

QCD phase diagram at finite isospin and baryon chemical potentials with the self-consistent mean field approximation

The self-consistent mean field approximation of the two-flavor NJL model,with a free parameter a to reflect the competition between the "direct" channel and the "exchange" channel,is employed to study the QCD phase structure at finite iso spin chemical potential μ_I,finite bary on chemical potential μ_B and finite temperature T,and especially to study the location of the QCD critical point.Our results show that in order to match the corresponding lattice results of iso spin density and energy density,the contributions of the "exchange" channel need to be considered in the framework of the NJL model,and a weighting factor α=0.5 should be taken.It is also found that for fixed isospin chemical potentials,the lower temperature of the phase transition is obtained with increasing a in the T-μ_I plane,and the largest difference of the phase transition temperature with different a's appears at μ_I~1.5 mπ.At μ_I=0 the temperature of the QCD critical end point(CEP) decreases with increasing a,while the critical baryon chemical potential increases.At high isospin chemical potential(μ_I=500 MeV),the temperature of the QCD tricritical point(TCP) increases with increasing a,and in the low temperature regions the system will transition from the pion superfluidity phase to the normal phase as μ_B increases.At low density,the critical temperature of the QCD phase transition with different a's rapidly increases with μ_I at the beginning,and then increases smoothly around μ_I 300 MeV.In the high baryon density region,the increase of the iso spin chemical potential will raise the critical baryon chemical potential of the phase transition.     

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.     

Chiral criticality and glue dynamics

The chiral order-parameter σ field and its higher-order cumulants of fluctuations are calculated within the functional renormalization group approach by adopting the local potential approximation in this study. The influence of glue dynamics on fluctuations of the σ field is investigated, and we find that they are weakly affected. This is in sharp contrast to the baryon number fluctuations, which are sensitive to the glue dynamics and involve information on the color confinement. The implications of our calculated results are discussed from the viewpoint of the theoretical and experimental efforts in the search for the QCD critical end point.     

Fluctuations as probe of the QCD phase transition and freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC

We discuss the relevance of higher order cumulants of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Using properties of O(4) scaling functions, we discuss the generic structure of these higher cumulants at vanishing baryon chemical potential and apply chiral model calculations to explore their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. We show that the ratios of the sixth to second and eighth to second order cumulants of the net baryon number fluctuations change rapidly in the transition region of the QCD phase diagram. Already at vanishing baryon chemical potential they deviate considerably from the predictions of the hadron resonance gas model which reproduce the second and fourth order cumulants of the net proton number fluctuations at RHIC. We point out that the sixth order cumulants of baryon number and electric charge fluctuations remain negative at the chiral transition temperature. Thus, they offer the possibility to probe the proximity of the chemical freeze-out to the crossover line.     

Chiral Magnetic Effect and Chiral Phase Transition

We study the influence of the chiral phase transition on the chiral magnetic effect. The azimuthal charge-particle correlations as functions of the temperature are calculated. It is found that there is a pronounced cusp in the correlations as the temperature reaches its critical value for the QCD phase transition. It is predicted that there will be a drastic suppression of the charge-particle correlations as the collision energy in RHIC decreases to below a critical value. We show then the azimuthal charge-particle correlations can be the signal to identify the occurrence of the QCD phase transitions in RHIC energy scan experiments.     

Vector Meson Mass in Finite Density and Temperature Lattice QCD

Vector meson mass values are studied at finite chemical potential and temperature in lattice QCD with lattice size of 24 × 122× 6 using two flavors of staggered quarks. The investigation focuses on the change of the vector meson mass in the critical region close to T c with two different types of chemical potentials switched on: the isoscalar chemical potential μS and its isovector counterpart μV. It is found that the vector meson mass increases in the QGP phase with both chemical potentials and decreases with μS in the confinement phase.     

Asymptotic deconfinement in high-density QCD

We discuss QCD with two light flavors at large baryon chemical potential micro. Color superconductivity leads to partial breaking of the color SU(3) group. We show that the infrared physics is governed by the gluodynamics of the remaining SU(2) group with an exponentially soft confinement scale Lambda(')(QCD) approximately Deltaexp[-a(mu)/(gDelta)], where Delta< mu is the superconducting gap, g is the strong coupling, and a = 2sqrt[2] pi/11. We estimate that, at moderate baryon densities, Lambda(')(QCD) is O(10 MeV) or smaller. The confinement radius increases exponentially with density, leading to "asymptotic deconfinement." The velocity of the SU(2) gluons is small due to the large dielectric constant of the medium.