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At the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP), University of Frankfurt, a s.c. 325 MHz CH-Cavity is under development for future beam tests at GSI UNILAC, Darmstadt. The cavity with 7 accelerating cells has a geometrical beta of 0.15 corresponding to 11.4 AMeV. The design gradient is 5 MV/m. The geometry of this resonator was optimized with respect to a compact design, low peak fields, surface processing, power coupling and tuning. Furthermore a new tuning system based on bellow tuners inside the resonator will control the frequency during operation. After rf tests in Frankfurt the cavity will be tested with a 10 mA, 11.4 AMeV beam delivered by the GSI UNILAC. In this paper rf simulations, multipacting analysis as well as thermal calculations will be presented.
The SIS300 synchrotron, planned for the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI-Darmstadt, will become the first superconducting synchrotron worldwide using cos(θ) magnets for resonant slow extraction. A multi-objective optimization algorithm has been developed for the design of the non-linear magnet scheme. The optimization algorithm makes use of the analytical model for the slow extraction from Kobayashi, the analytical description of the resonance excitation and amplitude-dependent tune-shift from Bengtsson, and corrects the chromaticity in order to fulfill the Hardt condition. As a result, the placement of the chromatic and harmonic sextupole magnets in SIS300, the number of sextupole families and the gradients of these families have been optimized for a high efficiency slow extraction. The algorithm accounts also for the sextupole errors on the dipole magnets, compensating its effects. Furthermore, optimized time-dependent settings for the sextupole magnets are generated to compensate the persistent current decay occurring at slow extraction. Tolerances for the magnets are set for the limits where the compensation is no longer valid.
Chopper systems are used to pulse charged particle beams. In most cases, electric deflection systems are used to generate beam pulses of defined lengths and appropriate repetition rates. At high beam intensities, the field distribution of the chopper system needs to be adapted precisely to the beam dynamics in order to avoid aberrations. An additional challenge is a robust design which guarantees reliable operation. For the Frankfurt Neutron Source FRANZ, an E×B chopper system is being developed which combines static magnetic deflection with a pulsed electric field in a Wien filter configuration. It will generate proton pulses with a flat top of 50 ns at a repetition rate of 250 kHz for 120 keV, 200 mA beams. For the electric deflection, pre-experiments with static and pulsed fields were performed using a helium ion beam. In pulsed mode operation, ion beams of different energies were deflected with voltages of up to ±6 kV and the resulting response was measured using a beam current transformer. A comparison between experiments and theoretical calculations as well as numerical simulations are presented.
A modern linear accelerator of ions is a long chain of different accelerating-focusing structures. The design of new linacs, as well as an upgrade and optimization of operating facilities, requires precise and reliable beam matching with the subsequent sections. Proper matching of the beam to the channel allows to improve the performance of the whole linac and to reduce the specific costs. Additionally it helps to avoide particle loss in high energy high intensity linacs. Generally a matching algorithm combines precisely measured or calculated accelerating-focusing external fields and experimentally obtained details of the beam parameters with an advanced code for beam dynamics simulations including space charge effects. Experimental results are introduced into a code as input data. The described algorithm has already been successfully implemented for several GSI projects: an upgrade of the GSI heavy ion linac UNILAC, an ion linac for the cancer therapy, the proton linac for the FAIR facility, a facility for laser acceleration of ions and others. Measured data and results of beam dynamics simulations leading to an achieved improvement of the linac performance are presented.
At GSI a new, superconducting (sc) continuous wave (cw) LINAC is under design in cooperation with the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP) of Frankfurt University and the Helmholtz Institut Mainz (HIM). This proposed LINAC is highly requested by a broad community of future users to fulfill the requirements of nuclear chemistry, nuclear physics, and especially in the research field of Super Heavy Elements (SHE). In this context the preliminary layout of the LINAC has been carried out by IAP. The main acceleration of up to 7.3 AMeV will be provided by nine sc Crossbar-H-mode (CH) cavities operated at 217 MHz. Currently, a prototype of the cw LINAC as a demonstrator is under development. The demonstrator comprises a sc CH-cavity embedded between two sc solenoids mounted in a horizontal cryomodule. A full performance test of the demonstrator in 2013/14 by injecting and accelerating a beam from the GSI High Charge Injector (HLI) is one important milestone of the project. The status of the demonstrator is presented.
The superconducting CH-structure (Crossbar-H-mode) is a multi-cell drift tube cavity for the low and medium energy range operated in the H21-mode, which has been developed at the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP) of Frankfurt University. With respect to different high power applications two types of superconducting CH-structures (f = 325 MHz, β = 0.16, seven cells and f = 217 MHz, β = 0.059, 15 cells) are presently under construction and accordingly under development. The structural mechanical simulation is a very important aspect of the cavity design. Furthermore, several simulations with ANSYS Workbench have been performed to predict the deformation of the cavity walls due to the cavity cool-down, pressure effects and mechanical vibrations. To readjust the fast frequency changes in consequence of the cavity shape deformation, a new concept for the dynamic frequency tuning has been investigated, including a novel type of bellow-tuner.
The Frankfurt Neutron Source at the Stern-Gerlach-Zentrum is driven by a 2 MeV proton linac consisting of a 4-rod-radio-frequency-quadrupol (RFQ) and an 8 gap IH-DTL structure. RFQ and IH cavity will be powered by only one radio frequency (RF) amplifier to reduce costs. The RF-amplifier of the RFQ-IH combination is coupled into the RFQ. Internal inductive coupling along the axis connects the RFQ with the IH cavity ensuring the required power transition as well as a fixed phase relation between the two structures. The main acceleration of 120 keV up to 2.03 MeV will be reached by the RFQ-IH combination with 175 MHz and at a total length of 2.3 m. The losses in the RFQ-IH combination are about 200 kW.
We report on the event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations of identified particles in central Pb+Pb collisions measured by the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS. Employing a novel approach we unfolded the moments of the unknown multiplicity distributions of protons (p), kaons (K), pions (π) and electrons. Using these moments we reconstructed an excitation function of the fluctuation measure νdyn[A;B], with A and B denoting different particle types. Specifically, we reconstructed νdyn for the [p, π], [p, K] and [K, π] pairs. The energy dependence of νdyn is in agreement with previously published NA49 results on the related measure σdyn. Moreover, for [K; p] and [K;p] pairs, we discovered a dependence of the fluctuation measure νdyn on the phase space coverage (acceptance). Interestingly for the [p,π] case no significant acceptance dependence was observed. These observations provide a likely explanation of the reported differences between measurements of NA49 and those of STAR in central Au+Au collisions.
The study of energy and system size dependence of fluctuations of identified hadrons is one of the key goals of NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS. Results may allow to discover the critical point (CP) of strongly interacting matter as well as to uncover properties of the onset of deconfinement (OD). Measured fluctuations are affected by numerous other effects like volume fluctuations and conservation laws. NA49 seems to observe fluctuations possibly related to the CP in collisions of medium size nuclei at the top SPS energy. However, this result will remain inconclusive until systematic data on energy and system size dependence will be available. Moreover, fluctuations in p+p as well as in Pb+Pb interactions should be better understood. In this contribution new results on multiplicity fluctuations of identified hadrons in p+p interactions at the CERN SPS energies will be presented. The NA61 data will be compared with the corresponding results on central Pb+Pb collisions of NA49 in the common acceptance region of both experiments. Furthermore, predictions of models (EPOS, UrQMD and HSD) for p+p interactions will be tested.
While the existence of a strongly interacting state of matter, known as “quark-gluon plasma” (QGP), has been established in heavy ion collision experiments in the past decade, the task remains to map out the transition from the hadronic matter to the QGP. This is done by measuring the dependence of key observables (such as particle suppression and elliptic flow) on the collision energy of the heavy ions. This procedure, known as "beam energy scan", has been most recently performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
Utilizing a Boltzmann+hydrodynamics hybrid model, we study the collision energy dependence of initial state eccentricities and the final state elliptic and triangular flow. This approach is well suited to investigate the relative importance of hydrodynamics and hadron transport at different collision energies.
We derive the Polyakov-loop thermodynamic potential in the perturbative approach to pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory. The potential expressed in terms of the Polyakov loop in the fundamental representation corresponds to that of the strong-coupling expansion, of which the relevant coefficients of the gluon energy distribution are specified by characters of the SU(3) group. At high temperature, the potential exhibits the correct asymptotic behavior, whereas at low temperature, it disfavors gluons as appropriate dynamical degrees of freedom. To quantify the Yang-Mills thermodynamics in confined phase, we introduce a hybrid approach which matches the effective gluon potential to that of glueballs, constrained by the QCD trace anomaly in terms of dilaton fields.
We study the impact of nonequilibrium effects on the relevant signals within a chiral fluid dynamics model including explicit propagation of the Polyakov loop. An expanding heat bath of quarks is coupled to the Langevin dynamics of the order parameter fields. The model is able to describe relaxational processes, including critical slowing down and the enhancement of soft modes near the critical point. At the first-order phase transition we observe domain formation and phase coexistence in the sigma and Polyakov loop field leading to a significant amount of clumping in the energy density. This effect gets even more pronounced if we go to systems at finite baryon density. Here the formation of high-density clusters could provide an important observable signal for upcoming experiments at FAIR and NICA.We conclude that improving our understanding of dynamical symmetry breaking is important to give realistic estimates for experimental observables connected to the QCD phase transition.
The QGP that might be created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is expected to radiate thermal dilepton radiation. However, this thermal dilepton radiation interferes with dileptons originating from hadron decays. In the invariant mass region between the f and J=y peak (1GeV <= M l+l <=. 3GeV) the most substantial background of hadron decays originates from correlated DD¯ -meson decays. We evaluate this background using a Langevin simulation for charm quarks. As background medium we utilize the well-tested UrQMD-hybrid model. The required drag and diffusion coefficients are taken from a resonance approach. The decoupling of the charm quarks from the hot medium is performed at a temperature of 130MeV and as hadronization mechanism a coalescence approach is chosen. This model for charm quark interactions with the medium has already been successfully applied to the study of the medium modification and the elliptic flow at FAIR, RHIC and LHC energies. In this proceeding we present our results for the dilepton radiation from correlated D¯D decays at RHIC energy in comparison to PHENIX measurements in the invariant mass range between 1 and 3 GeV using different interaction scenarios. These results can be utilized to estimate the thermal QGP radiation.
As microscopic transport models usually have difficulties to deal with in-medium effects in heavy-ion collisions, we present an alternative approach that uses coarse-grained output from transport calculations with the UrQMD model to determine thermal dilepton emission rates. A four-dimensional space-time grid is set up to extract local baryon and energy densities, respectively temperature and baryon chemical potential. The lepton pair emission is then calculated for each cell of the grid using thermal equilibrium rates. In the current investigation we inlcude the medium-modified r spectral function by Eletsky et al., as well as contributions from the QGP and four-pion interactions for high collision energies. First dielectron invariant mass spectra for Au+Au collisions at 1.25 AGeV and for dimuons from In+In at 158 AGeV are shown. At 1.25 AGeV a clear enhancement of the total dilepton yield as compared to a pure transport result is observed. In the latter case, we compare our outcome with the NA60 dimuon excess data. Here a good agreement is achieved, but the yield in the low-mass tail is underestimated. In general the results show that the coarse-graining approach gives reasonable results and can cover a broad collision-energy range.
This work presents an effective model for strongly interacting matter and the QCD equation of state (EoS). The model includes both hadron and quark degrees of freedom and takes into account the transition of chiral symmetry restoration as well as the deconfinement phase transition. At low temperatures T and baryonic densities ρB a hadron resonance gas is described using a SU(3)-flavor sigma-omega model and a quark phase is introduced in analogy to PNJL models for higher T and ρB. In this way, the correct asymptotic degrees of freedom are used in a wide range of T and ρB. Here, results of this model concerning the chiral and deconfinement phase transitions and thermodynamic model properties are presented. Large hadron resonance multiplicities in the transition region emphasize the importance of heavy-mass resonance states in this region and their impact on the chiral transition behavior. The resulting phase diagram of QCD matter at small chemical potentials is in line with latest lattice QCD and thermal model results.
Spinodal crumbling
(2013)
Extending a previously developed two-phase equation of state, we simulate head-on relativistic lead-lead collisions with fluid dynamics, augmented with a finite-range term, and study the effects of the phase structure on the evolution of the baryon density. For collision energies that bring the bulk of the system into the mechanically unstable spinodal region of the phase diagram, the density irregularities are being amplified significantly. We also present results for the associated clump size distribution.
We analyze hadrochemical freeze-out in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS and LHC energies. Employing the UrQMD hybrid transport model we study the effects of the final hadron/resonance expansion phase on the hadron multiplicities established at hadronization. The bulk meson yields freeze out directly at hadronization whereas the baryon-antibaryon sector is subject to significant alterations, due to annihilation and regeneration processes. We quantify the latter changes by survival factors for each species which are applied to modify the statistical model predictions for the data. The modified SM analysis recovers the hadronization points, which coincide with the recent lattice QCD predictions of the parton-hadron transition line at finite baryochemical potential.
Recent results on baryon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions show that a revision of the chemical freeze-out conditions is necessary. Particularly, there is evidence that chemical freezeout does not occur at full chemical equilibrium. We present a method to reconstruct original hadronization conditions and show that the newly found points in the T − µB plane are in very good agreement with extrapolations of the lattice QCD critical line.
This novel kind of neutron beam facility will provide 1 ns short neutron pulses with an approximately thermal energy distribution around 30 keV. The pulse repetition rate will be up to 250 kHz, the total proton number per pulse will be up to 6×1010 in the final stage, starting with a p – source current of 200 mA. A second target station will allow n – activation experiments by cw beam operation. An intense 2 MeV proton beam will drive a neutron source by the 7 Li (p,n) 7 Be reaction. The facility is under construction at the physics experimental hall of the J.W. Goethe – University. The 1m thick concrete tunnel was installed in 2009. In 2011 all rf amplifiers will be delivered and installed. Successful 200 mA proton source experiments in 2010 at a test stand will be followed by experiments on the 120 kV FRANZ terminal in 2011. The 250 kHz, 100 ns chopper in front of the rf linac is under construction, while the 2 MeV bunch compressor design was finished and the technical design of all components has started. The main accelerator cavity is under construction. First 2 MeV beam tests are expected for end of 2012.
poster presentation at the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory LATTICE 2013:
We explore and compare three mixed action setups with Wilson twisted mass sea quarks and different valence quark actions: (1) Wilson twisted mass, (2) Wilson twisted mass + clover and (3) Wilson + clover. Our main goal is to reduce lattice discretization errors in mesonic spectral quantities, in particular to reduce twisted mass parity and isospin breaking.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is currently ranked sixth in the worldwide causes of death [1]. One treatment approach is to inhibit reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme essential for reverse transcription of viral RNA into DNA before integration into the host genome [2]. By using non-nucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTIs) [3], which target an allosteric binding site, major side effects can be evaded. Unfortunately, high genetic variability of HIV in combination with selection pressure introduced by drug treatment enables the virus to develop resistance against this drug class by developing point mutations. This situation necessitates treatment with alternative NNRTIs that target the particular RT mutants encountered in a patient.
Previously, proteochemometric approaches have demonstrated some success in predicting binding of particular NNRTIs to individual mutants; however a structurebased approach may help to further improve the predictive success of such models. Hence, our aim is to rationalize the experimental activity of known NNRTIs against a variety of RT mutants by combining molecular modeling, long-timescale atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulation sampling and ensemble docking. Initial control experiments on known inhibitor-RT mutant complexes using this protocol were successful, and the predictivity for further complexes is currently being evaluated. In addition to predictive power, MD simulations of multiple RT mutants are providing fundamental insight into the dynamics of the allosteric NNRTI binding site which is useful for the design of future inhibitors. Overall, work of this type is hoped to contribute to the development of predictive efficacy models for individual patients, and hence towards personalized HIV treatment options.
In recent years, Hagedorn states have been used to explain the equilibrium and transport properties of a hadron gas close to the QCD critical temperature. These massive resonances are shown to lower h/s to near the AdS/CFT limit close to the phase transition. A comparison of the Hagedorn model to recent lattice results is made and it is found that the hadrons can reach chemical equilibrium almost immediately, well before the chemical freeze-out temperatures found in thermal fits for a hadron gas without Hagedorn states.
Direct photon emission in heavy-ion collisions is calculated within a relativistic micro+macro
hybrid model and compared to the microscopic transport model UrQMD. In the hybrid approach,
the high-density part of the collision is calculated by an ideal 3+1-dimensional hydrodynamic
calculation, while the early (pre-equilibrium-) and late (rescattering-) phase are calculated with
the transport model. Different scenarios of the transition from the macroscopic description to
the transport model description and their effects are studied. The calculations are compared to
measurements by the WA98-collaboration and predictions for the future CBM-experiment are
made.
We explore the shape and orientation of the freezeout region of non-central heavy ion collisions.
For this we fit the freezeout distribution with a tilted ellipsoid. The resulting tilt angle is compared
to the same tilt angle extracted via an azimuthally sensitive HBT analysis. This allows to access
the tilt angle experimentally, which is not possible directly from the freezeout distribution. We
also show a systematic study on the system decoupling time dependence on dNch/dh, using HBT
results from the UrQMD transport model. In this study we found that the decoupling time scales
with (dNch/dh)1/3 within each energy, but the scaling is broken across energies.
Euclidean strong coupling expansion of the partition function is applied to lattice Yang-Mills theory
at finite temperature, i.e. for lattices with a compactified temporal direction. The expansions
have a finite radius of convergence and thus are valid only for b <bc, where bc denotes the nearest
singularity of the free energy on the real axis. The accessible temperature range is thus the
confined regime up to the deconfinement transition. We have calculated the first few orders of
these expansions of the free energy density as well as the screening masses for the gauge groups
SU(2) and SU(3). The resulting free energy series can be summed up and corresponds to a glueball
gas of the lowest mass glueballs up to the calculated order. Our result can be used to fix
the lower integration constant for Monte Carlo calculations of the thermodynamic pressure via
the integral method, and shows from first principles that in the confined phase this constant is
indeed exponentially small. Similarly, our results also explain the weak temperature dependence
of glueball screening masses below Tc, as observed in Monte Carlo simulations. Possibilities and
difficulties in extracting bc from the series are discussed.
We report on the first steps of an ongoing project to add gauge observables and gauge corrections
to the well-studied strong coupling limit of staggered lattice QCD, which has been shown earlier
to be amenable to numerical simulations by the worm algorithm in the chiral limit and at finite
density. Here we show how to evaluate the expectation value of the Polyakov loop in the framework
of the strong coupling limit at finite temperature, allowing to study confinement properties
along with those of chiral symmetry breaking. We find the Polyakov loop to rise smoothly, thus
signalling deconfinement. The non-analytic nature of the chiral phase transition is reflected in the
derivative of the Polyakov loop. We also discuss how to construct an effective theory for non-zero
lattice coupling, which is valid to O(b).
Perturbation theory for non-abelian gauge theories at finite temperature is plagued by infrared
divergences which are caused by magnetic soft modes ~ g2T, corresponding to gluon fields of
a 3d Yang-Mills theory. While the divergences can be regulated by a dynamically generated
magnetic mass on that scale, the gauge coupling drops out of the effective expansion parameter
requiring summation of all loop orders for the calculation of observables. Some gauge invariant
possibilities to implement such infrared-safe resummations are reviewed. We use a scheme based
on the non-linear sigma model to estimate some of the contributions ~ g6 of the soft magnetic
modes to the QCD pressure through two loops. The NLO contribution amounts to ~ 10% of the
LO, suggestive of a reasonable convergence of the series.
The so-called sign problem of lattice QCD prohibits Monte Carlo simulations at finite baryon
density by means of importance sampling. Over the last few years, methods have been developed
which are able to circumvent this problem as long as the quark chemical potential is m=T <~1.
After a brief review of these methods, their application to a first principles determination of the
QCD phase diagram for small baryon densities is summarised. The location and curvature of the
pseudo-critical line of the quark hardon transition is under control and extrapolations to physical
quark masses and the continuum are feasible in the near future. No definite conclusions can as
yet be drawn regarding the existence of a critical end point, which turns out to be extremely quark
mass and cut-off sensitive. Investigations with different methods on coarse lattices show the lightmass
chiral phase transition to weaken when a chemical potential is switched on. If persisting on
finer lattices, this would imply that there is no chiral critical point or phase transition for physical
QCD. Any critical structure would then be related to physics other than chiral symmetry breaking.
The chiral critical surface is a surface of second order phase transitions bounding the region of
first order chiral phase transitions for small quark masses in the fmu;d;ms;mg parameter space.
The potential critical endpoint of the QCD (T;m)-phase diagram is widely expected to be part of
this surface. Since for m = 0 with physical quark masses QCD is known to exhibit an analytic
crossover, this expectation requires the region of chiral transitions to expand with m for a chiral
critical endpoint to exist. Instead, on coarse Nt = 4 lattices, we find the area of chiral transitions
to shrink with m, which excludes a chiral critical point for QCD at moderate chemical potentials
mB < 500 MeV. First results on finer Nt = 6 lattices indicate a curvature of the critical surface
consistent with zero and unchanged conclusions. We also comment on the interplay of phase
diagrams between the Nf = 2 and Nf = 2+1 theories and its consequences for physical QCD.
We report progress in our exploration of the finite-temperature phase structure of two-flavour lattice
QCD with twisted-mass Wilson fermions and a tree-level Symanzik-improved gauge action
for a temporal lattice size Nt = 8. Extending our investigations to a wider region of parameter
space we gain a global view of the rich phase structure. We identify the finite temperature transition/
crossover for a non-vanishing twisted-mass parameter in the neighbourhood of the zerotemperature
critical line at sufficiently high b . Our findings are consistent with Creutz’s conjecture
of a conical shape of the finite temperature transition surface. Comparing with NLO lattice
cPT we achieve an improved understanding of this shape.
Lattice simulations employing reweighting and Taylor expansion techniques have predicted a (m;T)-phase diagram according to general expectations, with an analytic quark-hadron crossover at m =0 turning into a first order transition at some critical chemical potential mE. By contrast, recent simulations using imgainary m followed by analytic continuation obtained a critical structure in the fmu;d;ms;T;mg parameter space favouring the absence of a critical point and first order line. I review the evidence for the latter scenario, arguing that the various raw data are not inconsistent with each other. Rather, the discrepancy appears when attempting to extract continuum results from the coarse (Nt =4) lattices simulated so far, and can be explained by cut-off effects. New (as yet unpublished) data are presented, which for Nf = 3 and on Nt = 4 confirm the scenario without a critical point. Moreover, simulations on finer Nt = 6 lattices show that even if there is a critical point, continuum extrapolation moves it to significantly larger values of mE than anticipated on coarse lattices.
We discuss the use of Wilson fermions with twisted mass for simulations of QCD thermodynamics.
As a prerequisite for a future analysis of the finite-temperature transition making use
of automatic O(a) improvement, we investigate the phase structure in the space spanned by the
hopping parameter k , the coupling b , and the twisted mass parameter m. We present results for
Nf = 2 degenerate quarks on a 163×8 lattice, for which we investigate the possibility of an Aoki
phase existing at strong coupling and vanishing m, as well as of a thermal phase transition at
moderate gauge couplings and non-vanishing m.
The QCD equation of state is not often discussed in cosmology. However, the relic density of
weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) depends on the entropy and the expansion rate of
the Universe when they freeze out, at a temperature in the range 400 MeV – 40GeV, where QCD
corrections are still important. We use recent analytic and lattice calculations of the QCD pressure
to produce a new equation of state suitable for use in relic density calculations. As an example,
we show that relic densities calculated by the dark matter package DarkSUSY receive corrections
of several per cent, within the observational accuracy of the Planck CMB mission, due for launch
in 2007.
I review recent developments in determining the QCD phase diagram by means of lattice simulations.
Since the invention of methods to side-step the sign problem a few years ago, a number
of additional variants have been proposed, and progress has been made towards understanding
some of the systematics involved. All available techniques agree on the transition temperature
as a function of density in the regime mq/T <~1. There are by now four calculations with signals
for a critical point, two of them at similar parameter values and with consistent results. However,
it also emerges that the location of the critical point is exceedingly quark mass sensitive. At the
same time sizeable finite volume, cut-off and step size effects have been uncovered, demanding
additional investigations with exact algorithms on larger and finer lattices before quantitative conclusions
can be drawn. Depending on the sign of these corrections, there is ample room for the
eventual phase diagram to look as expected or also quite different, with no critical point at all.
We review our knowledge of the phase diagram of QCD as a function of temperature, chemical potential and quark masses. The presence of tricritical lines at imaginary chemical potential m = i p 3 T, with known scaling behaviour in their vicinity, puts constraints on this phase diagram, especially in the case of two light flavors. We show first results in our project to determine the finite-temperature behaviour in the Nf = 2 chiral limit.
A lot of effort in lattice simulations over the last years has been devoted to studies of the QCD deconfinement transition. Most state-of-the-art simulations use rooted staggered fermions, while Wilson fermions are affected by large systematic uncertainties, such as coarse lattices or heavy sea quarks. Here we report on an ongoing study of the transition, using two degenerate flavours of nonperturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions. We start with Nt = 12 and 16 lattices and pion masses of 600 to 450 MeV, aiming at chiral and continuum limits with light quarks.
LatticeQCD using OpenCL
(2011)
We perform a detailed study of the adjoint static potential in the pseudoparticle approach, which is a model for SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. We find agreement with the Casimir scaling hypothesis and there is clear evidence for string breaking. At the same time the potential in the fundamental representation is linear for large separations. Our results are in qualitative agreement with results from lattice computations.
We present the status of runs performed in the twisted mass formalism with Nf =2+1+1 flavours of dynamical fermions: a degenerate light doublet and a mass split heavy doublet. The procedure for tuning to maximal twist will be described as well as the current status of the runs using both thin and stout links. Preliminary results for a few observables obtained on ensembles at maximal twist will be given. Finally, a reweighting procedure to tune to maximal twist will be described.
The pseudoparticle approach is a numericalmethod to compute path integrals without discretizing spacetime. The basic idea is to consider only those field configurations, which can be represented as a linear superposition of a small number of localized building blocks (pseudoparticles), and to replace the functional integration by an integration over the pseudoparticle degrees of freedom. In previous papers we have successfully applied the pseudoparticle approach to SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. In this work we discuss the inclusion of fermionic fields in the pseudoparticle approach. To test our method, we compute the phase diagram of the 1+1-dimensional Gross-Neveu model in the large-N limit as well as the chiral condensate in the crystal phase.
We present a numerical technique for calculating path integrals in non-compact U(1) and SU(2) gauge theories. The gauge fields are represented by a superposition of pseudoparticles of various types with their amplitudes and color orientations as degrees of freedom. Applied to Maxwell theory this technique results in a potential which is in excellent agreement with the Coulomb potential. For SU(2) Yang-Mills theory the same technique yields clear evidence of confinement. Varying the coupling constant exhibits the same scaling behavior for the string tension, the topological susceptibility and the critical temperature while their dimensionless ratios are similar to those obtained in lattice calculations.
We compute the static-light baryon spectrum with Nf = 2 flavors of sea quarks using Wilson twisted mass lattice QCD. As light valence quarks we consider quarks, which have the same mass as the sea quarks with corresponding pion masses in the range 340MeV<∼ mPS<∼ 525MeV, as well as partially quenched quarks, which have the mass of the physical s quark. We extract masses of states with isospin I = 0,1/2,1, with strangeness S = 0,−1,−2, with angular momentum of the light degrees of freedom j = 0,1 and with parity P = +,−. We present a preliminary extrapolation in the light u/d and an interpolation in the heavy b quark mass to the physical point and compare with available experimental results.
We present unambiguous evidence from lattice simulations of Nf = 3 QCD for two tricritical points in the (T;m) phase diagram at fixed imaginary m=T = ip=3 mod. 2p=3, one in the light and one in the heavy quark regime. Together with similar results in the literature for Nf = 2 this implies the existence of a chiral and of a deconfinement tricritical line at those values of imaginary chemical potentials. These tricritical lines represent the boundaries of the analytically continued chiral and deconfinement critical surfaces, respectively, which delimit the parameter space with first order phase transitions. It is demonstrated that the shape of the deconfinement critical surface is dictated by tricritical scaling and implies the weakening of the deconfinement transition with real chemical potential. A qualitatively similar effect holds for the chiral critical surface.
We perform a two-flavor dynamical lattice computation of the Isgur-Wise functions t1/2 and t3/2
at zero recoil in the static limit. We find t1/2(1) = 0.297(26) and t3/2(1) = 0.528(23) fulfilling
Uraltsev’s sum rule by around 80%. We also comment on a persistent conflict between theory and
experiment regarding semileptonic decays of B mesons into orbitally excited P wave D mesons,
the so-called “1/2 versus 3/2 puzzle”, and we discuss the relevance of lattice results in this
context.
We discuss the implementation and results of a recently developed microscopic method for calculating ion-ion interaction potentials and fusion cross-sections. The method uses the TDHF evolution to obtain the instantaneous many-body collective state using a density constraint. The ion-ion potential as well as the coordinate dependent mass are calculated from these states. The method fully accounts for the dynamical processes present in the TDHF time-evolution and provides a parameter-free way of calculating fusion cross-sections.
We study the implications on compact star properties of a soft nuclear equation of state determined from kaon production at subthreshold energies in heavy-ion collisions. On one hand, we apply these results to study radii and moments of inertia of light neutron stars. Heavy-ion data provides constraints on nuclear matter at densities relevant for those stars and, in particular, to the density dependence of the symmetry energy of nuclear matter. On the other hand, we derive a limit for the highest allowed neutron star mass of three solar masses. For that purpouse, we use the information on the nucleon potential obtained from the analysis of the heavy-ion data combined with causality on the nuclear equation of state.
We present and compare new types of algorithms for lattice QCD with staggered fermions in the limit of infinite gauge coupling. These algorithms are formulated on a discrete spatial lattice but with continuous Euclidean time. They make use of the exact Hamiltonian, with the inverse temperature beta as the only input parameter. This formulation turns out to be analogous to that of a quantum spin system. The sign problem is completely absent, at zero and non-zero baryon density. We compare the performance of a continuous-time worm algorithm and of a Stochastic Series Expansion algorithm (SSE), which operates on equivalence classes of time-ordered interactions. Finally, we apply the SSE algorithm to a first exploratory study of two-flavor strong coupling lattice QCD, which is manageable in the Hamiltonian formulation because the sign problem can be controlled.
It is widely believed that chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken at zero temperature in the strong coupling limit of staggered fermions, for any number of colors and flavors. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that this conventional wisdom, based on a mean-field analysis, is wrong. For sufficiently many fundamental flavors, chiral symmetry is restored via a bulk, first-order transition. This chirally symmetric phase appears to be analytically connected with the expected conformal window of manyflavor continuum QCD. We perform simulations in the chirally symmetric phase at zero quark mass for various system sizes L, and measure the torelon mass and the Dirac spectrum. We find that all observables scale with L, which is hence the only infrared length scale. Thus, the strong-coupling chirally restored phase appears as a convenient laboratory to study IR-conformality. Finally, we present a conjecture for the phase diagram of lattice QCD as a function of the bare coupling and the number of quark flavors.