Debye Screening in the QCD plasma

Various definitions for the QCD Debye mass and its evaluation are reviewed in a non-perturabtive framework for the study of screening of general static sources. While it is possible to perturbatively integrate over scales $\sim T$ and thus construct a 3d effective theory, the softer scales $\sim gT$ and $\sim g^2T$ are strongly coupled for temperatures \lsim 10^7 GeV and require lattice simulations. Within the effective theory, a lattice treatment of screening at finite quark densities \mu \lsim 4/T is also possible.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Invited talk at Strong and Electroweak Matter, Marseille, France, June 13-17, 200

Constraining the QCD phase diagram by tricritical lines at imaginary chemical potential

We present unambiguous evidence from lattice simulations of QCD with three degenerate quark species for two tricritical points in the (T,m) phase diagram at fixed imaginary \mu/T=i\pi/3 mod 2\pi/3, one in the light and one in the heavy mass regime. These represent the boundaries of the chiral and deconfinement critical lines continued to imaginary chemical potential, respectively. It is demonstrated that the shape of the deconfinement critical line for real chemical potentials is dictated by tricritical scaling and implies the weakening of the deconfinement transition with real chemical potential. The generalization to non-degenerate and light quark masses is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Adjoint string breaking in 4d SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

We compute the static potential of adjoint sources in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions by numerical Monte Carlo simulations. Following a recent calculation in 2+1 dimensions, we employ a variational approach involving string and gluelump operators and obtain clear evidence for string breaking and the saturation of the potential at large distances. For the string breaking scale we find $r_b \approx 1.25{\rm fm}, 2.3 r_0$, or in units of the lightest glueball, $r_b m_{0++} \approx 9.7$. We furthermore resolve the first excitation of the flux-tube and observe its breaking as well. The result for $r_b$ is in remarkable quantitative agreement with the three-dimensional one.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; increased statistics; gauge-fixing clarified; typos correcte

The phase diagram of N_f=3 QCD for small baryon densities

We demonstrate how to locate the critical endpoint of the QCD phase transition by means of simulations at imaginary \mu. For the three flavor theory, we present numerical results for the pseudo-critical line as a function of chemical potential and bare quark mass, as well as the bare quark mass dependence of the endpoint.Comment: 3 pages, 5 eps-figs, Lattice2003(nonzero

The QCD Phase Diagram for Three Degenerate Flavors and Small Baryon Density

We present results for the phase diagram of three flavor QCD for \mu_B ~ 500 MeV. Our simulations are performed with imaginary chemical potential \mu_I for which the fermion determinant is positive. Physical observables are then fitted by truncated Taylor series and continued to real chemical potential. We map out the location of the critical line T_c(\mu_B) with an accuracy up to terms of order (\mu_B/T)^6. We also give first results on a determination of the critical endpoint of the transition and its quark mass dependence. Our results for the endpoint differ significantly from those obtained by other methods, and we discuss possible reasons for this.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures. Eqn (20) corrected, increased statistics, more accurate results. Version to appear in Nucl.Phys.