Twisted mass QCD at finite temperature

TL;DR

This paper explores the phase structure of twisted mass Wilson fermions in lattice QCD at finite temperature, focusing on the Aoki phase and thermal transition properties to improve simulation accuracy.

Contribution

It investigates the phase diagram of twisted mass Wilson fermions in lattice QCD, aiming to facilitate automatic O(a) improvement in finite-temperature studies.

Findings

Potential existence of an Aoki phase at strong coupling and zero mu.

Identification of a thermal phase transition at moderate couplings and non-zero mu.

Results obtained on a 16^3x8 lattice for N_f=2 degenerate quarks.

Abstract

We discuss the use of Wilson fermions with twisted mass for simulations of QCD thermodynamics. As a prerequisite for a future analysis of the finite-temperature transition making use of automatic O(a) improvement, we investigate the phase structure in the space spanned by the hopping parameter kappa, the coupling beta, and the twisted mass parameter mu. We present results for N_f=2 degenerate quarks on a 16^3x8 lattice, for which we investigate the possibility of an Aoki phase existing at strong coupling and vanishing mu, as well as of a thermal phase transition at moderate gauge couplings and non-vanishing mu.