Alexander Rothkopf

Bayesian Approach to Spectral Function Reconstruction for Euclidean Quantum Field Theories

We present a novel approach to the inference of spectral functions from Euclidean time correlator data that makes close contact with modern Bayesian concepts. Our method differs significantly from the maximum entropy method (MEM). A new set of axioms is postulated for the prior probability, leading to an improved expression, which is devoid of the asymptotically flat directions present in the Shanon-Jaynes entropy. Hyperparameters are integrated out explicitly, liberating us from the Gaussian approximations underlying the evidence approach of the MEM. We present a realistic test of our method in the context of the non-perturbative extraction of the heavy quark potential. Based on hard-thermal-loop correlator mock data, we establish firm requirements in the number of data points and their accuracy for a successful extraction of the potential from lattice QCD. An improved potential estimation from previously investigated quenched lattice QCD correlators is provided.

Static quark-antiquark potential in the quark-gluon plasma from lattice QCD.

We present a state-of-the-art determination of the complex valued static quark-antiquark potential at phenomenologically relevant temperatures around the deconfinement phase transition. Its values are obtained from nonperturbative lattice QCD simulations using spectral functions extracted via a novel Bayesian inference prescription. We find that the real part, both in a gluonic medium, as well as in realistic QCD with light u, d, and s quarks, lies close to the color singlet free energies in Coulomb gauge and shows Debye screening above the (pseudo)critical temperature T_{c}. The imaginary part is estimated in the gluonic medium, where we find that it is of the same order of magnitude as in hard-thermal loop resummed perturbation theory in the deconfined phase.

Disentangling the timescales behind the non-perturbative heavy quark potential

The static part of the heavy quark potential has been shown to be closely related to the spectrum of the rectangular Wilson loop. In particular the lowest lying positive frequency peak encodes the late time evolution of the two-body system, characterized by a complex potential. While initial studies assumed a perfect separation of early and late time physics, where a simple Lorentian (Breit-Wigner) shape suffices to describe the spectral peak, we argue that scale decoupling in general is not complete. Thus early time, i.e. non-potential effects, significantly modify the shape of the lowest peak. We derive on general grounds an improved peak distribution that reflects this fact. Application of the improved fit to non-perturbative lattice QCD spectra now yields a potential that is compatible with a transition to a deconfined screening plasma.

Lattice NRQCD study of S- and P-wave bottomonium states in a thermal medium with N f = 2 + 1 light flavors

We investigate the properties of S-and P-wave bottomonium states in the vicinity of the deconfinement transition temperature. The light degrees of freedom are represented by dynamical lattice QCD configurations of the HotQCD collaboration with

Quarkonium at finite temperature: Towards realistic phenomenology from first principles

N_f = 2 + 1

A gauge invariant Debye mass and the complex heavy-quark potential

flavors. Bottomonium correlators are obtained from bottom quark propagators, computed in nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics (NRQCD) under the background of these gauge field configurations. The spectral functions for the

Heavy-flavor production and medium properties in high-energy nuclear collisions --What next?

^3S_1

In-medium P-wave quarkonium from the complex lattice QCD potential

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Towards understanding thermal jet quenching via lattice simulations

\Upsilon

Instability-induced fermion production in quantum field theory

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