LATTICE QCD AT FINITE TEMPERATURE

Abstract

We review lattice QCD investigations at high temperature. After a short introduction to thermal QCD on the lattice, we report on the present understanding of the phase diagram and the equation of state, particularly in the presence of dynamical quarks. We discuss various screening lengths in the plasma phase, including results from dimensionally reduced QCD. We then summarize lattice data on quark-number susceptibilities and spectral densities, both of which are immediately relevant to the interpretation of heavy-ion experiments. A major section is devoted to simulations of QCD at small, yet phenomenologically important, values for the baryon density.

Pion, Kaon, and Proton Production in Central Pb-Pb Collisions atsNN=2.76 TeV

“…This deviation from thermal model expectations is still to be understood. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.252301 PACS numbers: 25.75.Dw, 24.10.Nz, 25.75.Ag High-energy heavy-ion collisions offer the unique possibility to study nuclear matter under extreme conditions, in particular the deconfined phase (quark-gluon plasma, QGP [1][2][3]), which has been predicted by lattice QCD [4]. The transverse momentum (p T ) distributions and yields of identified particles are instrumental to the study of the collective and thermal properties of this matter.…”

QCD Effective action at high temperature and small chemical potential

“…The whole series of gauge fields is gauge invariant in every order in the µ expansion, i.e. n S (n,s) is gauge invariant for all s. In the case of the minimal effective action, the contributions S (2,2) and S (3,1) are independently gauge invariant, and HTL preserves this feature.…”

Langevin dynamics of the deconfinement transition for pure gauge theory

“…Recent results from lattice QCD [1], corroborated by experimental data from BNL-RHIC [2], indicate that strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure undergoes a phase transition to a deconfined plasma. Such extreme conditions are believed to have happened in the early universe, and might also be found in the core of neutron stars [3].…”