Speaker
Ms
Francesca Cuteri
(Goethe University - Frankfurt)
Description
The attempt at clarifying the order of the thermal transition in the chiral limit of QCD at zero chemical potential, with two dynamical flavours of quarks, by progressively decreasing the simulated pion mass has proven to be inconclusive because of the increasing costs of the simulations as the pion mass is lowered.
An alternative way to approach this question is to consider the path integral as a function of continuous Nf . If the transition is first order for Nf ≳ 3 , a second order transition for Nf = 2 requires a tricritical point in between.
The simulation of non-integer numbers of fermion flavours is easily achievable within the staggered fermion discretization. First simulations at μ = 0 and Nf = 2.8, 2.6, 2.4, 2.2 , on coarse Nτ = 4 lattices, show a continuous variation of the critical mass mapping out a critical line in the m − Nf plane.
Author
Ms
Francesca Cuteri
(Goethe University - Frankfurt)
Co-authors
Mr
Alessandro Sciarra
(Goethe Universität)
Prof.
Owe Philipsen
(Goethe University - Frankfurt)
