Visualisations of coherent centre domains in local Polyakov loops

Abstract

Quantum Chromodynamics exhibits a hadronic confined phase at low to moderate temperatures and, at a critical temperature $T_C$, undergoes a transition to a deconfined phase known as the quark-gluon plasma. The nature of this deconfinement phase transition is probed through visualizations of the Polyakov loop, a gauge independent order parameter. We produce visualizations that provide novel insights into the structure and evolution of center clusters. Using the HMC algorithm the percolation during the deconfinement transition is observed. Using 3D rendering of the phase and magnitude of the Polyakov loop, the fractal structure and correlations are examined. The evolution of the center clusters as the gauge fields thermalize from below the critical temperature to above it are also exposed. We observe deconfinement proceeding through a competition for the dominance of a particular center phase. We use stout-link smearing to remove small-scale noise in order to observe the large-scale evolution of the center clusters. A correlation between the magnitude of the Polyakov loop and the proximity of its phase to one of the center phases of SU(3) is evident in the visualizations.

28 pages, 21 figures

References in corpus (5)

• The QCD transition temperature: results with physical masses in the continuum limit
• The QCD transition temperature: results with physical masses in the continuum limit II.
• Results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
• Fractality and other properties of center domains at finite temperature Part 1: SU(3) lattice gauge theory
• Center clusters and their percolation properties in lattice QCD

Cited by in corpus (8)

• 50 Years of Quantum Chromodynamics
• Chiral Symmetry Breaking on the Lattice
• Gluon Dynamics, Center Symmetry and the deconfinement phase transition in SU(3) pure Yang-Mills theory
• Nucleon resonance structure in the finite volume of lattice QCD
• From center-vortex ensembles to the confining flux tube
• Center clusters in full QCD at finite temperature and background magnetic field
• Numerical evidence for fractional topological objects in SU(3) gauge theory
• Study of the Emergence of a Gluon Mass Scale from Center Vortices Using a Wave-Functional Formalism