Deconfinement, chiral transition and localisation in a QCD-like model

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between deconfinement, chiral symmetry restoration, and localization of low Dirac eigenmodes in a QCD-like lattice model, finding they occur simultaneously at a first-order phase transition.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in a lattice QCD-like model, the localization of low Dirac eigenmodes coincides with the deconfinement and chiral transition points, highlighting their interconnected nature.

Findings

Localization of low Dirac modes occurs at the same critical coupling as the phase transition.

Deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration happen simultaneously in the model.

The results support a close link between these phenomena in QCD-like theories.

Abstract

We study the problems of deconfinement, chiral symmetry restoration and localisation of the low Dirac eigenmodes in a toy model of QCD, namely unimproved staggered fermions on lattices of temporal extension $N_T=4$. This model displays a genuine deconfining and chirally-restoring first-order phase transition at some critical value of the gauge coupling. Our results indicate that the onset of localisation of the lowest Dirac eigenmodes takes place at the same critical coupling where the system undergoes the first-order phase transition. This provides further evidence of the close relation between deconfinement, chiral symmetry restoration and localisation of the low modes of the Dirac operator on the lattice.