Gergely Endrodi

The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction, explaining (for example) the binding of three almost massless quarks into a much heavier proton or neutron—and thus most of the mass of the visible Universe. The standard model of particle physics predicts a QCD-related transition that is relevant for the evolution of the early Universe. At low temperatures, the dominant degrees of freedom are colourless bound states of hadrons (such as protons and pions). However, QCD is asymptotically free, meaning that at high energies or temperatures the interaction gets weaker and weaker, causing hadrons to break up. This behaviour underlies the predicted cosmological transition between the low-temperature hadronic phase and a high-temperature quark–gluon plasma phase (for simplicity, we use the word ‘phase’ to characterize regions with different dominant degrees of freedom). Despite enormous theoretical effort, the nature of this finite-temperature QCD transition (that is, first-order, second-order or analytic crossover) remains ambiguous. Here we determine the nature of the QCD transition using computationally demanding lattice calculations for physical quark masses. Susceptibilities are extrapolated to vanishing lattice spacing for three physical volumes, the smallest and largest of which differ by a factor of five. This ensures that a true transition should result in a dramatic increase of the susceptibilities. No such behaviour is observed: our finite-size scaling analysis shows that the finite-temperature QCD transition in the hot early Universe was not a real phase transition, but an analytic crossover (involving a rapid change, as opposed to a jump, as the temperature varied). As such, it will be difficult to find experimental evidence of this transition from astronomical observations.

QCD quark condensate in external magnetic fields

We present a comprehensive analysis of the light condensates in QCD with

Magnetic susceptibility of QCD at zero and at finite temperature from the lattice

1+1+1

The nature of the finite temperature QCD transition as a function of the quark masses

sea quark flavors (with mass-degenerate light quarks of different electric charges) at zero and nonzero temperatures of up to 190 MeV and external magnetic fields

The QCD equation of state and the effects of the charm

Bl1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}/e

Transition temperature and the equation of state from lattice QCD, Wuppertal–Budapest results

. We employ stout smeared staggered fermions with physical quark masses and extrapolate the results to the continuum limit. At low temperatures we confirm the magnetic catalysis scenario predicted by many model calculations while around the crossover the condensate develops a complex dependence on the external magnetic field, resulting in a decrease of the transition temperature.

QCD spectroscopy and quark mass renormalisation in external magnetic fields with Wilson fermions

The response of the QCD vacuum to a constant external (electro)magnetic field is studied through the tensor polarization of the chiral condensate and the magnetic susceptibility at zero and at finite temperature. We determine these quantities using lattice configurations generated with the tree-level Symanzik improved gauge action and N_f=1+1+1 flavors of stout smeared staggered quarks with physical masses. We carry out the renormalization of the observables under study and perform the continuum limit both at T>0 and at T=0, using different lattice spacings. Finite size effects are studied by using various spatial lattice volumes. The magnetic susceptibilities \chi_f reveal a diamagnetic behavior; we obtain at zero temperature \chi_u=-(2.08 +/- 0.08) 1/GeV^2, \chi_d=-(2.02 +/- 0.09) 1/GeV^2 and \chi_s=-(3.4 +/- 1.4) 1/GeV^2 for the up, down and strange quarks, respectively, in the MSBar scheme at a renormalization scale of 2 GeV. We also find the polarization to change smoothly with the temperature in the confinement phase and then to drastically reduce around the transition region.

QCD in magnetic fields: from Hofstadter's butterfly to the phase diagram

The finite temperature QCD transition for physical quark masses is a crossover. For smaller quark masses a first-order phase transition is expected. Using Symanzik improved gauge and stout improved fermion action for 2+1 flavour staggered QCD we give estimates/bounds for the phase line separating the first-order region from the crossover one. The calculations are carried out on two different lattice spacings. Our conclusion for the critical mass is

Magnetization and pressures at nonzero magnetic fields in QCD

m_0 \lesssim 0.07 \cdot m_{phys}

The curvature of the QCD phase transition line

for