Singlet Free Energies and Renormalized Polyakov Loop in full QCD

TL;DR

This paper computes the free energy of static quark pairs and the renormalized Polyakov loop in full QCD with multiple flavors, using lattice simulations to improve understanding of quark confinement and deconfinement.

Contribution

It provides new lattice QCD calculations of free energies and Polyakov loops with improved actions across different flavor configurations and lattice sizes.

Findings

Calculated free energies for static quark pairs in 2+1 and 3 flavor QCD.

Renormalized Polyakov loop results are compared with previous studies.

Demonstrated consistency of results across different lattice parameters.

Abstract

We calculate the free energy of a static quark anti-quark pair and the renormalized Polyakov loop in 2+1- and 3- flavor QCD using $16^3 \times 4$ and $16^3 \times 6$ lattices and improved staggered p4 action. We also compare the renormalized Polyakov loop with the results of our earlier studies.