Hamiltonian lattice quantum chromodynamics at finite density with Wilson fermions

TL;DR

This paper extends Hamiltonian lattice QCD methods to include Wilson fermions at finite density, analyzing chiral phase transitions and calculating key physical quantities relevant for dense quark matter.

Contribution

It introduces a Hamiltonian approach with Wilson fermions at finite chemical potential, enabling study of chiral transitions without the complex action problem.

Findings

First order chiral phase transition at zero temperature

Calculated vacuum energy, chiral condensate, and quark number density

Analyzed light hadron masses in the dense regime

Abstract

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at sufficiently high density is expected to undergo a chiral phase transition. Understanding such a transition is of particular importance for neutron star or quark star physics. In Lagrangian SU(3) lattice gauge theory, the standard approach breaks down at large chemical potential $\mu$, due to the complex action problem. The Hamiltonian formulation of lattice QCD doesn't encounter such a problem. In a previous work, we developed a Hamiltonian approach at finite chemical potential $\mu$ and obtained reasonable results in the strong coupling regime. In this paper, we extend the previous work to Wilson fermions. We study the chiral behavior and calculate the vacuum energy, chiral condensate and quark number density, as well as the masses of light hadrons. There is a first order chiral phase transition at zero temperature.