Semiclassical limits for the QCD Dirac operator

We identify three semiclassical parameters in the QCD Dirac operator. Mutual coupling of the different types of degrees of freedom (translational, colour and spin) depends on how the semiclassical limit is taken. We discuss various semiclassical limits and their potential to describe spectrum and spectral statistics of the QCD Dirac operator close to zero virtuality.     

A lattice Dirac operator for QCD with light dynamical quarks

In QCD chiral symmetry is explicitly broken by quark masses, the effect of which can be described reliably by chiral perturbation theory. Effects of explicit chiral symmetry breaking by the lattice regularisation of the Dirac operator, typically parametrised by the residual mass, should be negligible for almost all observables if the residual mass of the Dirac operator is much smaller than the quark mass. However, maintaining a small residual mass becomes increasingly expensive as the quark mass decreases towards the physical value and the continuum limit is approached. We investigate the feasibility of using a new approximately chiral Dirac operator with a small residual mass as an alternative to overlap and domain wall fermions for lattice simulations. Our Dirac operator is constructed from a Zolotarev rational approximation for the matrix sign function that is optimal for bulk modes of the hermitian kernel Dirac operator but not for the low-lying parts of its spectrum. We test our operator on various ³²³×64${32}^3\times 64$ lattices, comparing the residual mass and the performance of the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm at a similar lattice spacing and pion mass with a hyperbolic tangent operator as used by domain wall fermions. We find that our approximations have a significantly smaller residual mass than domain wall fermions at a similar computational cost, and still admit topological charge change.     

Microscopic spectrum of the Wilson Dirac operator

We calculate the leading contribution to the spectral density of the Wilson Dirac operator using chiral perturbation theory where volume and lattice spacing corrections are given by universal scaling functions. We find analytical expressions for the spectral density on the scale of the average level spacing, and introduce a chiral random matrix theory that reproduces these results. Our work opens up a novel approach to the infinite-volume limit of lattice gauge theory at finite lattice spacing and new ways to extract coefficients of Wilson chiral perturbation theory.     

Low-energy theorems and the Dirac operator spectral density in QCD

We discuss the spectral density of the massless Dirac operator at small eigenvalues and quark masses compatible with the restrictions imposed by the low-energy theorems in QCD. The sum rule for its derivative with respect to the quark mass is found.     

Overlap Dirac operator at nonzero chemical potential and random matrix theory

We show how to introduce a quark chemical potential in the overlap Dirac operator. The resulting operator satisfies a Ginsparg-Wilson relation and has exact zero modes. It is no longer gamma5 Hermitian, but its nonreal eigenvalues still occur in pairs. We compute the spectral density of the operator on the lattice and show that, for small eigenvalues, the data agree with analytical predictions of non-Hermitian chiral random matrix theory for both trivial and nontrivial topology. We also explain an observed change in the number of zero modes as a function of chemical potential.     

Statistical properties at the spectrum edge of the QCD Dirac operator

The statistical properties of the spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator in an SU(2) lattice gauge theory are analyzed both in the bulk of the spectrum and at the spectrum edge. Two commonly used statistics, the number variance and the spectral rigidity, are investigated. While the spectral fluctuations at the edge are suppressed to the same extent as in the bulk, the spectra are more rigid at the edge. To study this effect, we introduce a microscopic unfolding procedure to separate the variation of the microscopic spectral density from the fluctuations. For the unfolded data, the number variance shows oscillations of the same kind as before unfolding, and the average spectral rigidity becomes larger than the one in the bulk. In addition, the short-range statistics at the origin is studied. The lattice data are compared to predictions of chiral random-matrix theory, and agreement with the chiral Gaussian Symplectic Ensemble is found. Received: 6 November 1997 / Revised version: 19 January 1998     

Tau functions for the Dirac operator on the Poincaré disk

In this paper we define tau functions for holonomic fields associated with the Dirac operator on the Poincaré disk. The deformation analysis of the tau functions is worked out and in the case of the two point function, the tau function is expressed in terms of a Painlevé function of type VI.     

QCD dirac operator at nonzero chemical potential: lattice data and matrix model

Recently, a non-Hermitian chiral random matrix model was proposed to describe the eigenvalues of the QCD Dirac operator at nonzero chemical potential. This matrix model can be constructed from QCD by mapping it to an equivalent matrix model which has the same symmetries as QCD with chemical potential. Its microscopic spectral correlations are conjectured to be identical to those of the QCD Dirac operator. We investigate this conjecture by comparing large ensembles of Dirac eigenvalues in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD at a nonzero chemical potential to the analytical predictions of the matrix model. Excellent agreement is found in the two regimes of weak and strong non-Hermiticity, for several different lattice volumes.     

On path-dependence of the QCD correlation functions

Gauge-invariant hadronic and vacuum correlation functions in QCD contain the systems of Wilson lines and loops having complicated geometrical structure. Path-dependence propagates, therefore, into such important properties of the quantum correlators as the renormalization-group behaviour, light-cone peculiarities, evolution, etc. In the present paper, I briefly overview several instructive examples of the manifestations of the structure of paths in the hadronic and vacuum correlation functions with explicit transverse momentum/distance dependence. In particular, the transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) parton densities and the skewed jet quenching parameter in Euclidean and Minkowski space-time are addressed.     

Fluctuations in the quark-meson model for QCD with isospin chemical potential

We study the two-flavor quark-meson (QM) model with the functional renormalization group (FRG) to describe the effects of collective mesonic fluctuations on the phase diagram of QCD at finite baryon and   isospin chemical potentials, _μB${\mu }_B$ and _μI${\mu }_I$. With only isospin chemical potential there is a precise equivalence between the competing dynamics of chiral versus pion condensation and that of collective mesonic and baryonic fluctuations in the quark-meson-diquark model for two-color QCD at finite baryon chemical potential. Here, finite _μB=3μ${\mu }_B=3\mu$ introduces an additional dimension to the phase diagram as compared to two-color QCD, however. At zero temperature, the (_μI,μ${\mu }_I,\mu$) plane of this phase diagram is strongly constrained by the “Silver Blaze problem.” In particular, the onset of pion condensation must occur at _μI=_mπ/2${\mu }_I=m_{\pi }/2$, independent of μ   as long as μ+_μI$\mu +{\mu }_I$ stays below the constituent quark mass of the QM model or the liquid-gas transition line of nuclear matter in QCD. In order to maintain this relation beyond mean field it is crucial to compute the pion mass from its timelike correlator with the FRG in a consistent way.     

A study of the sign problem for lattice QCD with chemical potential

We study the expectation value of the phase of the fermion determinant for Wilson lattice fermions with chemical potential. We use quenched SU(3)$\mathrm{SU}(3)$ ensembles and implement a recently proposed exact dimensional reduction of the fermion determinant. Ensembles at several temperatures below and above the phase transition are studied and we analyze the role of the quark mass, the temperature, the volume and the topological sectors. We compare our numerical results to predictions from chiral perturbation theory.     

The spectral density of the QCD Dirac operator and patterns of chiral symmetry breaking

We study the spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator for two colors with fermions in the fundamental representation and for two or more colors with adjoint fermions. For N_f flavors, the chiral flavor symmetry of these theories is spontaneously broken according to SU (2N_f → Sp (2N_f) and SU (N_f → O (N_f), respectively, rather than the symmetry breaking pattern SU (N_f) × SU (N_f) → SU (N_f) for QCD with three or more colors and fundamental fermions. In this paper we study the Dirac spectrum for the first two symmetry breaking patterns. Following previous work for the third case we find the Dirac spectrum in the domain λ Λ_QCD by means of partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. In particular, this result allows us to calculate the slope of the Dirac spectrum at λ = 0. We also show that for λ 1/L₂ Λ_QCD (wing L the linear size fo the system) the Dirac spectrum is given by a chiral Random Matrix Theory with the symmetries of the Dirac operator.     

Instantons and meson correlation functions in QCD

Various QCD correlators are calculated in the instanton liquid model in zeromode approximation and 1/N _c expansion. Previous works are extended by including dynamical quark loops. In contrast to the original “perturbative” 1/N _c approximation, not all quark loops are suppressed. Renormalization of the instanton density allows the identification of the density with the gluon condensate even in presence of dynamical quark loops. In the flavor singlet meson correlators a chain of quark bubbles survives the N _c → ∞ limit causing a massive η′ in the pseudoscalar correlator while keeping massless pions in the triplet correlator. The correlators are plotted and meson masses and couplings are obtained from a spectral fit. They are compared to the values obtained from numerical studies of the instanton liquid and to experimental results.     

Meson correlation functions in a QCD plasma

The temporal pseudoscalar meson correlation function in a QCD plasma is investigated in a range of temperatures exceeding T_c and yet of experimental interest. Only the flavour-singlet channel is considered and the imaginary time formalism is employed for the finite temperature calculations. The behaviour of the meson spectral function and of the temporal correlator is first studied in the HTL approximation, where one replaces the free thermal quark propagators with the HTL resummed ones. This procedure satisfactory describes the soft fermionic modes, but its application to the propagation of hard quarks is not reliable. An improved version of the so-called NLA scheme, which allows a better treatment of the hard fermionic modes, is then proposed. The impact of the improved NLA on the pseudoscalar temporal correlator is investigated.     

Lattice QCD with chemical potential: Evading the fermion-sign problem

Since the turn of the millennium there has been tremendous progress in understanding QCD at finite chemical potential, μ. Apart from qualitative results obtained using models, and exact results at very large μ obtained in weak coupling theory, there has been tremendous progress in getting exact and quantitative results from lattice simulations. I summarize the status of lattice QCD at finite chemical potential —locating the critical end-point in the QCD phase diagram, predicting event-to-event fluctuation rates of conserved quantities, and finding the rate of strangeness production.