Spatial and Temporal Hadron Correlators below and above the Chiral Phase Transition

TL;DR

This study analyzes hadronic correlation functions in QCD with four flavors across the chiral transition, revealing the persistence of quark-like behavior at high temperatures and measuring residual interactions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of spatial and temporal correlators in finite-temperature QCD, including effects of boundary conditions and residual quark interactions, above and below the chiral transition.

Findings

Consistent evidence for individual quarks at high temperatures

Impact of boundary conditions on spatial correlators analyzed

Residual quark interactions measured

Abstract

Hadronic correlation functions at finite temperature in QCD, with four flavours of dynamical quarks, have been analyzed both above and below the chiral symmetry restoration temperature. We have used both point and extended sources for spatial as well as temporal correlators. The effect of periodic temporal boundary conditions for the valence quarks on the spatial meson correlators has also been investigated. All our results are consistent with the existence of individual quarks at high temperatures. A measurement of the residual interaction between the quarks is presented.