Mesonic screening correlators in an external imaginary electric field at finite temperature

TL;DR

This study explores how imaginary electric fields affect mesonic screening correlators in lattice QCD at finite temperature, revealing temperature-dependent modifications in screening masses and spatial oscillations.

Contribution

First investigation of mesonic screening correlators in lattice QCD under imaginary electric fields at finite temperature, highlighting nontrivial screening modifications.

Findings

Scalar screening masses increase with field strength at low temperature.

Pseudo-scalar masses remain largely unchanged under the electric field.

High temperature correlators show spatial oscillations with frequencies related to quark charges.

Abstract

External electromagnetic fields provide a useful probe of QCD matter, but real electric fields are hindered by the sign problem, motivating studies with imaginary electric fields. We investigate mesonic screening correlators in lattice QCD at finite temperature in the presence of such a background using staggered fermions. At low temperature, scalar screening masses increase with the field strength, while pseudo-scalar masses remain largely unchanged, and charge-asymmetric channels show additional structure. At high temperature, the correlators exhibit clear spatial oscillations with frequencies set by the quark electric charges. These results demonstrate nontrivial modifications of screening properties induced by external electric fields.