Related papers: Fluctuations, correlations and the sign problem in…
The chiral phase transition of QCD is analyzed in a model combining random matrix elements of the Dirac operator with specially chosen non-random ones. The special form of the latter is motivated by the assumption that the fermionic…
In this contribution the role of quantum fluctuations for the QCD phase diagram is discussed. This concerns in particular the importance of the matter back-reaction to the gluonic sector. The impact of these fluctuations on the location of…
We show that in the microscopic domain of QCD (also known as the $\epsilon$-domain) at nonzero chemical potential the average phase factor of the fermion determinant is nonzero for $\mu < m_\pi/2$ and is exponentially suppressed for larger…
The fermion-sign problem at finite density is a persisting challenge for Monte-Carlo simulations. Theories that do not have a sign problem can provide valuable guidance and insight for physically more relevant ones that do. Replacing the…
We discuss the relevance of higher order moments of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Using properties of O(4) scaling functions, we discuss the…
The relation between the baryon number in QCD at nonzero chemical potential and the spectral density of the baryon number Dirac operator, $\gamma_0(D+m)$, is examined. We show that extreme oscillations of the spectral density, caused by the…
Results will be presented from a study of the QCD transition region using 2+1 flavors of fermions and a dislocation suppressing gauge action on a lattice with temporal extent of 8 and spatial extent 16 (1.9 - 2.7 fm). A series of…
Lattice QCD simulations of multi-baryon correlation functions can predict the structure and reactions of nuclei without encountering the baryon chemical potential sign problem. However, they suffer from a signal-to-noise problem where Monte…
We have developed a method to derive the (approximate) quark contribution to the fermion free energy of QCD on a lattice, at finite temperature and chemical potential, with Kogut-Susskind fermions in the flavor basis. We show here the…
We study the scaling behavior of the (2+1)-flavor QCD crossover region towards the chiral limit with smaller-than-physical light quark mass gauge ensembles, generated using the HISQ fermion discretization. At zero chemical potential, we…
The order of the phase transition in finite-temperature QCD with two degenerate light quarks is still an open problem and corresponds to the last question mark in the zero-density phase diagram of QCD. We argue that establishing the nature…
We use the linear sigma model with two flavors of quarks to study the phase diagram at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential as a function of the vacuum pion mass. Our calculations include thermal fluctuations of both the bosonic…
The exploration of the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram is a central goal of relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. This review focuses on the role of fluctuations and correlations as sensitive probes of the phase…
We introduce a random matrix model with the symmetries of QCD with two colors at nonzero isospin and baryon chemical potentials and temperature. We analyze its phase diagram and find phases with condensation of pion and diquark states in…
We discuss the sign problem in QCD at nonzero chemical potential and its relation with chiral symmetry breaking and the spectrum of the Dirac operator using the framework of chiral random matrix theory. We show that the Banks-Casher formula…
We determine the curvature of the pseudo-critical line of strong interactions by means of numerical simulations at imaginary chemical potentials. We consider $N_f=2+1$ stout improved staggered fermions with physical quark masses and the…
In the $\epsilon$-domain of QCD we have obtained exact analytical expressions for the eigenvalue density of the Dirac operator at fixed $\theta \ne 0$ for both one and two flavors. These results made it possible to explain how the different…
Determining the QCD phase diagram is a pressing task in view of its relevance for nuclear and astro-particle physics programmes. We review the current status of lattice calculations of the phase diagram in the (T,\mu_B)-plane for baryon…
One of the most challenging issues in QCD is the investigation of spontaneous chiral-symmetry breaking, which is characterized by the non-vanishing chiral condensate when the bare fermion mass is zero. In standard methods, one has to…
We employ the linear sigma model to study the chiral dynamics of two flavors of quarks at finite temperature and density. Our calculations include thermal fluctuations of both the bosonic and fermionic fields. In particular, we determine…