Related papers: Roberge-Weiss periodicity, canonical sector and mo…

We address a possible relation between the expectation value of the Polyakov loop in pure gluodynamics and full QCD based on Polyakov Chiral Quark Models where constituent quarks and the Polyakov loop are coupled in a minimal way. To this…

I review recent progress in numerical simulations of finite temperature quantum chromodynamics and discuss the status of some outstanding problems. Included is (1) a discussion of recent results determining the temperature of the ``phase…

We propose a new method for simulating QCD at finite density, where interesting phases such as the color superconductivity phase is conjectured to appear. The method is based on a general factorization property of distribution functions of…

At low temperatures we expect that all QCD observables are defined in terms of hadrons. This includes the partition function as well as the Polyakov loop in all representations. We analyze the physics underlying a microscopic derivation of…

We study the effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations as well as the mass dependence of the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature and density within a dynamical Polyakov-loop--extended quark-meson model. The glue dynamics is…

The canonical partition function approach was designed to avoid the overlap problem that affects the lattice simulations of nuclear matter at high density. The method employs the projections of the quark determinant on a fix quark number…

Two distinct phase transitions occur at different temperatures in QCD with adjoint fermions (aQCD): deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration. In this model, quarks do no explicitely break the center Z(3) symmetry and therefore the…

This is a review of strong coupling approaches to grasp the nature of the phase transition in finite temperature and density QCD. We commence with classics of the center symmetry and the Polyakov loop in pure gauge theories. The effective…

We study Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with 2+1 flavors with almost physical quark masses using the highly improved staggered quark action (HISQ). We calculate the Polyakov loop in a wide temperature range, obtain the free energy and the…

Heavy quark potential in the continuum theory at finite temperature is calculated in different phases by using the Polyakov loop as the order parameter. We find the linearly rising potential in the confinement phase, the Debye screened…

We analyze canonical fermion determinants, i.e., fermion determinants projected to a fixed quark number q. The canonical determinants are computed using a dimensional reduction formula and are studied for pure SU(3) gauge configurations in…

If the fermion mass is large enough, the phase of the fermion determinant of QCD at finite density is strongly correlated with the imaginary part of the Polyakov loop. This fact can be exploited to reduce the fluctuations of the phase…

In order to understand the puzzle of the free energy of an individual quark in QCD, we explicitly construct ensembles with quark numbers $N_V\neq 0\!\mod 3$, corresponding to non-zero triality in a finite subvolume $V$ on the lattice. We…

QCD thermodynamics is studied using a model which combines Polyakov loop dynamics with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and its restoration (the PNJL model). The input is fixed entirely by pure-gauge lattice QCD results and by pion…

We present an estimate for the imaginary part of the recently introduced finite temperature real-time static potential. It can be extracted from the time evolution of the Wilson loop in classical lattice gauge theory. The real-time static…

A three-dimensional effective lattice theory of Polyakov loops is derived from QCD by expansions in the fundamental character of the gauge action, u, and the hopping parameter, \kappa, whose action is correct to \kappa^n u^m with n+m=4. At…

We investigate the nuclear and the quark matter at finite real chemical potential ($\mu_\mathrm{R}$) and low temperature from the viewpoint of the canonical sectors constructed via the imaginary chemical potential region. Based on the large…

We extend the density-of-states approach to gauge systems (LLR method) to QCD at finite temperature and density with heavy quarks. The approach features an exponential error suppression and yields the Polyakov loop probability distribution…

We explore the thermodynamics and phase structure of the Polyakov loop-extended two flavor chiral quark--meson (PQM) model beyond the mean-field approximation at imaginary chemical potential. Our approach is based on the functional…

Using the Polyakov extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with imaginary chemical potential, the relation between the Roberge-Weiss (RW) phase transition and the extended Z3 symmetry is studied. At low temperature, there is approximate…