Topological susceptibility from $N_f=2+1+1$ lattice QCD at nonzero temperature

TL;DR

This study computes the topological susceptibility in lattice QCD with four dynamical quark flavors at nonzero temperature, revealing a slow decrease at high temperatures and comparing different smoothing techniques.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of smoothing methods and their scaling relations in calculating topological susceptibility in lattice QCD.

Findings

Smoothing techniques agree well with each other.

Scaling relations exist between flow time and cooling steps.

Topological susceptibility decreases slowly at high temperature.

Abstract

We present results for the topological susceptibility at nonzero temperature obtained from lattice QCD with four dynamical quark flavours. We apply different smoothing methods, including gradient Wilson flow and over--improved cooling, before calculating the susceptibility. It is shown that the considered smoothing techniques basically agree among each other, and that there are simple scaling relations between flow time and the number of cooling/smearing steps. The topological susceptibility exhibits a surprisingly slow decrease at high temperature.