Finite-volume analysis and universal scaling signatures near the chiral phase transition in (2+1)-flavor QCD

TL;DR

This paper investigates the universal scaling signatures of the chiral phase transition in (2+1)-flavor QCD using lattice simulations, focusing on finite-volume effects and quark mass dependence to understand continuum and chiral limits.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of finite-volume and quark mass effects on the chiral phase transition in lattice QCD, emphasizing the universal scaling behavior near the transition.

Findings

Quantified deviations from universal finite-size scaling behavior.

Analyzed volume and quark mass dependence of an improved order parameter.

Compared results to expected universal behavior in the chiral limit.

Abstract

For quantifying the universal properties of the chiral phase transition in QCD through numerical calculations on a discrete space-time lattice, one needs to perform controlled extrapolations to the continuum and infinite-volume limits followed by an extrapolation to the limit of massless light quarks. We discuss here, the results on the latter two limits at still finite lattice spacings. We use here for chiral symmetry breaking, an improved order parameter free of additive and multiplicative divergences and we analyse its volume and quark mass dependence. Comparing to the expected universal behavior in the chiral limit, we quantify deviations from the universal finite-size scaling behavior as function of the light to strange quark mass ratio.