title: QCD phase transition with chiral quarks and physical quark masses.
abstract: We report on the first lattice calculation of the QCD phase transition using chiral fermions with physical quark masses. This calculation uses 2+1 quark flavors, spatial volumes between (4 fm)(3) and (11 fm)(3) and temperatures between 139 and 196 MeV. Each temperature is calculated at a single lattice spacing corresponding to a temporal Euclidean extent of N(t) = 8. The disconnected chiral susceptibility, χ(disc) shows a pronounced peak whose position and height depend sensitively on the quark mass. We find no metastability near the peak and a peak height which does not change when a 5 fm spatial extent is increased to 10 fm. Each result is strong evidence that the QCD "phase transition" is not first order but a continuous crossover for m(π) = 135 MeV. The peak location determines a pseudocritical temperature T(c) = 155(1)(8) MeV, in agreement with earlier staggered fermion results. However, the peak height is 50% greater than that suggested by previous staggered results. Chiral SU(2)(L) × SU(2)(R) symmetry is fully restored above 164 MeV, but anomalous U(1)(A) symmetry breaking is nonzero above T(c) and vanishes as T is increased to 196 MeV.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: Tanmoy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA and Institute for Nuclear Theory, P.O. Box 351550, Seattle, Washington 98195-1550, USA.
authors.forename: Michael I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Buchoff
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Norman H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Christ
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Quark and Lepton Physics (MOE) and Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
authors.forename: H-T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: Rajan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Chulwoo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA and Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Karsch
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Zhongjie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Mawhinney
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McGlynn
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Swagato
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Petreczky
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Dwight
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Renfrew
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Soltz
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Vranas
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Hantao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin