We present a tensor-network method for strong-coupling QCD with staggered quarks at nonzero chemical potential. After integrating out the gauge fields at infinite coupling, the partition function can be written as a full contraction of a tensor network consisting of coupled local numeric and Grassmann tensors. To evaluate the partition function and to compute observables, we develop a Grassmann higher-order tensor renormalization group method, specifically tailored for this model. We apply the method to the two-dimensional case and validate it by comparing results for the partition function, the chiral condensate and the baryon density with exact analytical expressions on small lattices up to volumes of
4×4. For larger two-dimensional volumes, we present tensor results for the chiral condensate as a function of the mass and volume, and observe that the chiral symmetry is not broken dynamically in two dimensions. Furthermore, our results for the number density as a function of the chemical potential hint at a first-order phase transition. Finally, we present some preliminary tensor results for three-dimensional strong-coupling QCD.
We present a tensor-network approach for the strong-coupling expansion of two-dimensional QCD with staggered quarks at non-zero chemical potential. After expanding the Boltzmann factor in the gauge and fermion actions, all gauge fields can be integrated out exactly and the partition function can be evaluated using the Grassmann higher-order tensor renormalization group approach. The method is modified to compute the
μ dependence of the quark number density and the chiral condensate up to order
β3 with complete absence of higher-order terms infiltrating the result. Although the expansion itself is only a good approximation to the full theory at small
β<0.1, the range can be extended, by using judiciously chosen fits. Moreover, these fits also yield a valuable expansion in
β for the critical chemical potential.
We present a tensor-network formulation for the strong-coupling expansion of QCD with staggered quarks at nonzero chemical potential, for arbitrary number of dimensions, colors, and flavors. We integrate out the gauge and quark degrees of freedom and rewrite the partition function as the complete trace of a tensor network. This network consists of local tensors that contain a numerical and a Grassmann part. We truncate the initial tensor at a fixed order in the inverse coupling β and compute analytical results for the partition function, the free energy, and the chiral condensate on a 2 × 2 lattice up to order β 4 . In a follow-up paper we will introduce an enhanced tensor-network method, order-separated GHOTRG, to explicitly compute the expansion coefficients of the partition function for larger lattices. To demonstrate its potential, first results obtained with this new method are already presented here.
We introduce the order-separated Grassmann higher-order tensor renormalization group (OS-GHOTRG) method for QCD with staggered quarks in the strong-coupling expansion. The method allows us to determine the expansion coefficients of the partition function, from which we can obtain the strong-coupling expansions of thermodynamical observables. We use the method in two dimensions to compute the free energy, the particle-number density, and the chiral condensate as a function of the chemical potential up to third order in the inverse coupling
β. Although near the phase transition the expansion is only a good approximation to the full theory at small
β, we show that the range of applicability can be greatly extended by fits to judiciously chosen transition functions.
The phase diagram of QCD is a central research topic in modern particle physics. Its calculation, however, is notoriously difficult especially when not only nonzero temperatures
T but also non-vanishing baryon densities are considered – as is relevant for heavy‑ion collisions or inside large neutron stars. At the theoretical level, nonzero baryon densities are achieved by introducing a nonzero chemical potential
μ, which creates a particle-antiparticle asymmetry. It turns out that for nonzero chemical potential, the fermion determinant is no longer real but complex, and therefore standard approaches based on importance sampling break down. In the literature, this is commonly referred to as the sign problem. In order to circumvent this sign problem, a variety of methods has been proposed. Examples include a Taylor expansion in
μ, reweighting, complex Langevin, thimbles or path optimization. Nevertheless, none of the proposed remedies can successfully reach regimes in which
μ/T>1, and therefore even today the full QCD phase diagram in the
μ−T plane cannot be calculated. There is a promising further approach, called tensor-network approach, that differs crucially from all of the aforementioned approaches. In this approach, the partition function is written as a contraction of a large number of local tensors. Of special relevance is the higher order tensor renormalization group (HOTRG) approach, which can be applied for arbitrary number of dimensions, and in particular its generalization, the Grassmann HOTRG (GHOTRG) approach, which is applicable to theories including fermions. Recently, GHOTRG was tailored to strong-coupling QCD using one flavor of staggered quarks in two dimensions. It was observed that, for a non‑zero chemical potential, no numerical instabilities arise. In this thesis, we go beyond both the strong-coupling limit and the single-flavor case. We express the partition function of lattice QCD with staggered fermions in the strong-coupling expansion in terms of a tensor network. This is done for an arbitrary number of dimensions, flavors, and orders of the strong-coupling expansion. Further, the GHOTRG approach is extended such that every coefficient
Zn of the partition function
Z=∑nZnβn can be calculated separately. Finally, numerical results in two dimensions are studied.
A bstract We construct a Grassmann tensor network representing the partition function of (1+1)-dimensional two-color QCD with staggered fermions. The Grassmann path integral is rewritten as the trace of a Grassmann tensor network by introducing two-component auxiliary Grassmann fields on every edge of the lattice. We introduce an efficient initial tensor compression scheme to reduce the size of initial tensors. The Grassmann bond-weighted tensor renormalization group approach is adopted to evaluate the quark number density, fermion condensate, and diquark condensate at different gauge couplings as a function of the chemical potential. Different transition behavior is observed as the quark mass is varied. We discuss the efficiency of our initial tensor compression scheme and the future application toward the corresponding higher-dimensional models.