Eigenvalue spectra of QCD and the fate of UA(1) breaking towards the chiral limit

Feb 11, 2021
10 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 104 (2021) 9, 094518
  • Published: Nov 1, 2021
e-Print:
DOI:

Citations per year

202020212022202320240246810
Abstract: (APS)
The finite temperature phase diagram of QCD with two massless quark flavors is not yet understood because of the subtle effects of anomalous UA(1) symmetry. In this work we address this issue by studying the fate of the anomalous UA(1) symmetry in 2+1 flavor QCD just above the chiral crossover transition temperature Tc, lowering the light quark mass toward the chiral limit along the line of constant physical strange quark mass. We use the gauge configurations generated using the highly improved staggered quark discretization on lattice volumes 323×8 and 563×8 to study the renormalized eigenvalue spectrum of QCD with a valence overlap Dirac operator. We implement new numerical techniques that allow us to measure about 100–200 eigenvalues of the gauge ensembles with light quark masses 0.6MeV. From a detailed analysis of the dependence of the renormalized eigenvalue spectrum and UA(1) breaking observables on the light quark mass, our study suggests UA(1) is broken at TTc even when the chiral limit is approached.
  • quark: mass
  • quark: flavor
  • quark: staggered
  • quark: massless
  • quantum chromodynamics: critical phenomena
  • critical phenomena: finite temperature
  • temperature: transition
  • operator: Dirac
  • chiral
  • U(1)