Universal microscopic spectrum of the unquenched QCD Dirac operator at finite temperature

In the ε-regime of chiral perturbation theory the spectral correlations of the Euclidean QCD Dirac operator close to the origin can be computed using random matrix theory. To incorporate the effect of temperature, a random matrix ensemble has been proposed, where a constant, deterministic matrix is added to the Dirac operator. Its eigenvalue correlation functions can be written as the determinant of a kernel that depends on temperature. Due to recent progress in this specific class of random matrix ensembles, featuring a deterministic, additive shift, we can determine the limiting kernel and correlation functions in this class, which is the class of polynomial ensembles. We prove the equivalence between this new determinantal representation of the microscopic eigenvalue correlation functions and existing results in terms of determinants of different sizes, for an arbitrary number of quark flavours, with and without temperature, and extend them to non-zero topology. These results all agree and are thus universal when measured in units of the temperature dependent chiral condensate, as long as we stay below the chiral phase transition.

Local Correlation among the Chiral Condensate, Monopoles, and Color Magnetic Fields in Abelian Projected QCD

Using the lattice gauge field theory, we study the relation among the local chiral condensate, monopoles, and color magnetic fields in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). First, we investigate idealized Abelian gauge systems of (1) a static monopole–antimonopole pair and (2) a magnetic flux without monopoles, on a four-dimensional Euclidean lattice. In these systems, we calculate the local chiral condensate on quasi-massless fermions coupled to the Abelian gauge field, and find that the chiral condensate is localized in the vicinity of the magnetic field. Second, using SU(3) lattice QCD Monte Carlo calculations, we investigate Abelian projected QCD in the maximally Abelian gauge, and find clear correlation of distribution similarity among the local chiral condensate, monopoles, and color magnetic fields in the Abelianized gauge configuration. As a statistical indicator, we measure the correlation coefficient r, and find a strong positive correlation of r≃0.8 between the local chiral condensate and an Euclidean color-magnetic quantity F in Abelian projected QCD. The correlation is also investigated for the deconfined phase in thermal QCD. As an interesting conjecture, like magnetic catalysis, the chiral condensate is locally enhanced by the strong color-magnetic field around the monopoles in QCD.

Holographic QCD and magnetic fields

We review the holographic approach to electromagnetic phenomena in large N QCD. After a brief discussion of earlier holographic models, we concentrate on the improved holographic QCD model extended to involve magnetically induced phenomena. We explore the influence of magnetic fields on the QCD ground state, focusing on (inverse) magnetic catalysis of chiral condensate, investigate the phase diagram of the theory as a function of magnetic field, temperature and quark chemical potential, and, finally discuss effects of magnetic fields on the quark–anti-quark potential, shear viscosity, speed of sound and magnetization.

Perturbative RG Analysis of the Condensate Dependence of the Axial Anomaly in the Three-Flavor Linear Sigma Model

Coupling of ‘t Hooft’s determinant term is investigated in the framework of the three-flavor linear sigma model as a function of the chiral condensate. Using perturbation theory around the minimum point of the effective action, we calculate the renormalization group flow of the first field-dependent correction to the coupling of the conventional UA(1) breaking determinant term. It is found that, at low temperatures, mesonic fluctuations make the anomaly increase when the chiral condensate decreases. As an application, we analyze the effect at the zero temperature nuclear liquid–gas transition.

On the interplay between magnetic field and anisotropy in holographic QCD

We investigate the combined effects of anisotropy and a magnetic field in strongly interacting gauge theories by the gauge/gravity correspondence. Our main motivation is the quark-gluon plasma produced in off-central heavy-ion collisions which exhibits large anisotropy in pressure gradients as well as large external magnetic fields. We explore two different configurations, with the anisotropy either parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field, focusing on the competition and interplay between the two. A detailed study of the RG flow in the ground state reveals a rich structure where depending on which of the two, anisotropy or magnetic field, is stronger, intermediate geometries with approximate AdS4 × ℝ and AdS3 × ℝ2 factors arise. This competition is also manifest in the phase structure at finite temperature, specifically in the dependence of the chiral transition temperature on anisotropy and magnetic field, from which we infer the presence of inverse magnetic and anisotropic catalyses of the chiral condensate. Finally, we consider other salient observables in the theory, including the quark-antiquark potential, shear viscosity, entanglement entropy and the butterfly velocity. We demonstrate that they serve as good probes of the theory, in particular, distinguishing between the effects of the magnetic field and anisotropy in the ground and plasma states. We also find that the butterfly velocity, which codifies how fast information propagates in the plasma, exhibits a rich structure as a function of temperature, anisotropy and magnetic field, exceeding the conformal value in certain regimes.

Inhomogeneous chiral condensates in low-energy color-superconductivity models of QCD

This thesis explores the phase diagrams of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and quark-meson (QM) model in the mean-field approximation and beyond. The focus lies in the investigation of the interplay between inhomogeneous chiral condensates and two-flavor color superconductivity. In the first part of this thesis, we study the NJL model with 2SC diquarks in the mean-field approximation and determine the dispersion relations for quasiparticle excitations for generic spatial modulations of the chiral condensate in the presence of a homogeneous 2SC-diquark condensate, provided that the dispersion relations in the absence of color superconductivity are known. We then compare two different Ansätze for the chiral order parameter, the chiral density wave (CDW) and the real-kink crystal (RKC). For both Ansätze we find for specific diquark couplings a so-called coexistence phase where both the inhomogeneous chiral condensate and the diquark condensate coexist. Increasing the diquark coupling disfavors the coexistence phase in favor of a pure diquark phase. On the other hand, decreasing the diquark coupling favors the inhomogeneous phase over the coexistence phase. In the second part of this thesis the functional renormalization group is employed to study the phase diagram of the quark-meson-diquark model. We observe that the region of the phase diagram found in previous studies, where the entropy density takes on unphysical negative values, vanishes when including diquark degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we perform a stability analysis of the homogeneous phase and compare the results with those of previous studies. We find that an increasing diquark coupling leads to a smaller region of instability as the 2SC phase extends to a smaller chemical potential. We also find a region where simultaneously an instability occurs and a non-vanishing diquark condensate forms, which is an indication of the existence of a coexistence phase in accordance with the results of the first part of this work.

Restoration of chiral symmetry in cold and dense Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with tensor renormalization group

We analyze the chiral phase transition of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the cold and dense region on the lattice, developing the Grassmann version of the anisotropic tensor renormalization group algorithm. The model is formulated with the Kogut-Susskind fermion action. We use the chiral condensate as an order parameter to investigate the restoration of the chiral symmetry. The first-order chiral phase transition is clearly observed in the dense region at vanishing temperature with μ/T ∼ O(103) on a large volume of V = 10244. We also present the results for the equation of state.

Quark and pion condensates at finite isospin density in chiral perturbation theory

In this paper, we consider two-flavor QCD at zero temperature and finite isospin chemical potential $$\mu _I$$ μ I using a model-independent analysis within chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order. We calculate the effective potential, the chiral condensate and the pion condensate in the pion-condensed phase at both zero and nonzero pionic source. We compare our finite pionic source results for the chiral condensate and the pion condensate with recent (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD results. Agreement with lattice results generally improves as one goes from leading order to next-to-leading order.

Chirality production with mass effects — Schwinger pair production and the axial Ward identity

The anomalous generation of chirality with mass effects via the axial Ward identity and its dependence on the Schwinger mechanism is reviewed, utilizing parity violating homogeneous electromagnetic background fields. The role vacuum asymptotic states play on the interpretation of expectation values is examined. It is discussed that observables calculated with an in–out scattering matrix element predict a scenario under Euclidean equilibrium. A notable ramification of which is a vanishing of the chiral anomaly. In contrast, it is discussed observables calculated under an in–in, or real-time, formalism predict a scenario out-of equilibrium, and capture effects of mean produced particle–antiparticle pairs due to the Schwinger mechanism. The out-of equilibrium chiral anomaly is supplemented with exponential quadratic mass suppression as anticipated for the Schwinger mechanism. Similar behavior in and out-of equilibrium is reviewed for applications including the chiral magnetic effect and chiral condensate.