Why the chiral phase transition for three light flavors is so interesting

by Rob Pisarski (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Monday 12 Feb 2024, 11:15 → 12:15 Europe/Berlin

In QCD, the eta prime meson is heavy because the breaking of the anomalous U_A(1) symmetry is large. A simple argument suggests that it should then be easy to see a first order chiral transition for light quarks.  Nevertheless, numerical simulations on the lattice see no evidence for such a first order chiral transition. I suggest that this occurs because the usual power counting for anomalous operators is more subtle than expected.  This leads to numerous predictions for different numbers of quark flavors. The case of a single flavor is especially interesting.  It also suggests novel experimental signals.

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