Strangeness at finite temperature from Lattice QCD

TL;DR

This paper uses lattice QCD to explore whether the hadronic spectrum at finite temperature includes missing strange states predicted by the Quark Model, by comparing thermodynamic observables with the Hadron Resonance Gas model.

Contribution

It introduces specific charge fluctuation observables to detect potential missing strange hadronic states in lattice QCD data.

Findings

Identification of observables sensitive to strange states

Comparison of lattice results with the Hadron Resonance Gas model

Insights into the completeness of the hadronic spectrum at finite temperature

Abstract

The precision reached by recent lattice QCD results allows for the first time to investigate whether the measured hadronic spectrum is missing some additional strange states, which are predicted by the Quark Model but have not yet been detected. This can be done by comparing some sensitive thermodynamic observables from lattice QCD to the predictions of the Hadron Resonance Gas model (with the inclusion of decays [3]). We propose a set of specific observables, defined as linear combinations of conserved charge fluctuations, which allow to investigate this issue for baryons containing one or more strange quarks separately. Applications of these observables to isolate the multiplicity fluctuations of kaons from lattice QCD, and their comparison with the experimental results, are also discussed.