QCD thermodynamics with three flavors of improved staggered quarks

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.034504· OSTI ID:20705947

Bernard, C; Burch, T; DeTar, C; Osborn, J; Gottlieb, Steven; Gregory, E B; Toussaint, D; Heller, U M; Sugar, R ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 (United States)

We report on a study of QCD thermodynamics with three flavors of quarks, using a Symanzik improved gauge action and the Asqtad O(a{sup 2}) improved staggered quark action. Simulations were carried out with lattice spacings 1/4T, 1/6T, and 1/8T both for three degenerate quarks with masses less than or equal to the strange quark mass m{sub s} and for degenerate up and down quarks with masses in the range 0.1m{sub s}{<=}m{sub u,d}{<=}0.6m{sub s} and the strange quark mass fixed near its physical value. We present results for standard thermodynamics quantities, such as the Polyakov loop, the chiral order parameter and its susceptibility. For the quark masses studied to date we find a rapid crossover rather than a bona fide phase transition. We have carried out the first calculations of quark number susceptibilities with three flavors of sea quarks. These quantities are of physical interest because they are related to event-by-event fluctuations in heavy ion collision experiments. Comparison of susceptibilities at different lattice spacings show that our results are close to the continuum values.

• OSTI ID: 20705947
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 71; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CHIRALITY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
D QUARKS
FLUCTUATIONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
ORDER PARAMETERS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
REST MASS
S QUARKS
THERMODYNAMICS