The Phase Diagram of QCD

Indian Lattice Gauge Theory Initiative,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai, 400005, India

Meetings

Lattice 2017 will be held in Granada, Spain on 19--24 June, 2017. A complete list of meetings held in TIFR is available.

Gauge configurations

Some gauge configurations are available for use on request (see a list). Please request gauge configurations from ilgti at theory fullstop tifr dot res period in.

A critical point of QCD

We performed measurements of quark number susceptibilties on the lattice. These measurements were made with a lattice spacing of a=1/(8T) where T is the temperature. Two flavours of staggered quarks were used, with the quark mass tuned so that mπ/mρ=0.33. At high temperature the results are close to what weak coupling theories predict. These results were reported in Lattice 2013. A table of our measurements is here.

Talks

  1. Towards the Continuum Limit for the QCD Critical Point, R. V. Gavai, Lattice 2013
  2. Controlling errors in simulations for QCD at finite chemical potential, Sourendu Gupta, Lattice 2013
  3. Susceptibilities in Nf=2 QCD, Saumen Dutta, Lattice 2013

A critical point of QCD

We have found the critical end point in 2 flavour QCD (circle in purple) through the analysis of a Taylor expansion of the quark number susceptibility in the baryon chemical potential μB.

 

Publications

  1. Phys. Rev. D 78, 114503, 2008
  2. Phys. Rev. D 73, 014004, 2006
  3. Phys. Rev. D 72, 054006, 2005
  4. Phys. Rev. D 71, 114014, 2005
  5. Phys. Rev. D 68, 034506, 2003

Talks

  1. Critical Point and the Onset of Deconfinement, BNL, 2009
  2. The QCD Critical Point, INT Seattle, 2008
  3. Extreme QCD, NCSU, 2008
  4. Quark Matter, 2008
  5. Strong and Electro-Weak Matter, 2006
  6. Strangeness in Quark Matter, 2006
  7. Lattice 2005
  8. QCD and Dense Matter: From Lattices to Stars, INT Seattle, 2004: Part 1 and Part 2
  9. Workshop on Finite Density QCD, Nara, 2003
  10. Lattice 2003

Projects available

Masters' projects

Reworking lattice QCD methods to work on parallel computers is necessary in order to enhance computational abilities in future. This work can be done by masters' students in physics as well as applied mathematics. If you would like to do such a project for your masters' thesis, then you should have good understanding of either quantum field theory or an object oriented programming language such as C++ or Fortran 90. It would be an advantage to know both. If you are interested write to ilgti at theory fullstop tifr dot res period in.

Bachelors' projects

The phase diagram of QCD is a seven-dimensional object. It would be interesting to write a program to take sections and projections of this object in any specified plane and draw the corresponding graph. Knowledge of either phase transitions or graphics programming is a pre-requisite for this project.

Quark number susceptibilities

The fourth order quark number susceptibility χ40 peaks close to Tc. This is closely related to the "Kurtosis" signal for the critical end point. The fourth (and higher) order susceptibilities were first introduced by us in 2003.

Publications

  1. Phys. Rev. D 78, 114503, 2008
  2. Phys. Rev. D 73, 014004, 2006
  3. Phys. Rev. D 72, 054006, 2005
  4. Phys. Rev. D 68, 034506, 2003
  5. Phys. Rev. D 67, 034501, 2003
  6. Phys. Rev. D 65, 094515, 2002
  7. Phys. Rev. D 65, 054506, 2002
  8. Phys. Rev. D 64, 074506, 2001

Projects available

Masters' projects

The study of quark number susceptibilties is the most direct signal of the critical end point of QCD. There are straightforward algorithms to generate the quantum field operators which go into determining some of the as yet uncomputed ones. This work can be done as a summer project.

The study of quark number susceptibilties is the most direct signal of the critical end point of QCD. In order to make contact with experiments, one needs to study the diffusion equation and compute the evolution of the susceptibilties through diffusion. This is a possible Maste's thesis. Parts of this problem can also be done as summer projects.