14794189
The density of states method at non-zero chemical potential
We study the QCD phase diagram by first principle lattice calculations at so far unreached high densities. For this purpose we employ the density of states method. Unimproved staggered fermions, which describe four quark flavors in the continuum are used in this analysis. Though the method is quite expensive, small lattices show an indication for a triple-point connecting three different phases on the phase diagram.
119188644
QCD bulk thermodynamics and conserved charge fluctuations with HISQ fermions
After briefly reviewing recent progress by the HotQCD collaboration in studying the 2+1 flavor QCD equation of state, we will focus on results on fluctuations of conserved charges by the BNL-Bielefeld and HotQCD collaborations. Higher order cumulants of the net-charge distributions are increasingly dominated by a universal scaling behavior, which arises due to a critical point of QCD in the chiral limit. Considering cumulants up to the 6^{th} order, we observe that they generically behave as expected from universal scaling laws, which is quite different from cumulants calculated within the hadron resonance gas model. Taking ratios of these cumulants, we obtain volume independent results that can be compared to the experimental measurements. We will argue that the freeze-out chemical potentials and the freeze-out temperature, usually obtained by a HRG model fit to the measured hadronic yields, can also be obtained in a model independent way from ab-initio lattice QCD calculations by utilizing observables related to conserved charge fluctuations. Further, we will show that the freeze-out strangeness and electric charge chemical potentials can be fixed by imposing strangeness neutrality and isospin asymmetry constraints in the lattice QCD calculations, in order to accommodate conditions met in heavy ion collisions. All results have been obtained with the highly improved staggered quark action (HISQ) and almost physical quark masses on lattices with temporal extent of N_\tau=6,8,10,12. 
After briefly reviewing recent progress by the HotQCD collaboration in studying the 2+1 flavor QCD equation of state, we will focus on results on fluctuations of conserved charges by the BNL-Bielefeld and HotQCD collaborations. Higher order cumulants of the net-charge distributions are increasingly dominated by a universal scaling behavior, which arises due to a critical point of QCD in the chiral limit. Considering cumulants up to the 6(th) order, we observe that they generically behave as expected from universal scaling laws, which is quite different from cumulants calculated within the hadron resonance gas model. Taking ratios of these cumulants, we obtain volume independent results that can be compared to the experimental measurements. We will argue that the freeze-out chemical potentials and the freeze-out temperature, usually obtained by a HRG model fit to the measured hadronic yields, can also be obtained in a model independent way from ab-initio lattice QCD calculations by utilizing observables related to conserved charge fluctuations. Further, we will show that the freeze-out strangeness and electric charge chemical potentials can be fixed by imposing strangeness neutrality and isospin asymmetry constraints in the lattice QCD calculations, in order to accommodate conditions met in heavy ion collisions. All results have been obtained with the highly improved staggered quark action (HISQ) and almost physical quark masses on lattices with temporal extent of N(τ) = 6, 8, 10, 12.
117478307
Chiral restoration and deconfinement in two-color QCD with two flavors of staggered quarks
In preparation of lattice studies of the two-color QCD phase diagram we studychiral restoration and deconfinement at finite temperature with two flavors ofstaggered quarks using an RHMC algorithm on GPUs. We first study unquenchingeffects in local Polyakov loop distributions, and the Polyakov loop potentialobtained via Legendre transformation, in a fixed-scale approach for heavierquarks. We also present the chiral condensate and the correspondingsusceptibility over the lattice coupling across the chiral transition forlighter quarks. Using Ferrenberg-Swendsen reweighting we extract the maxima ofthe chiral susceptibility in order to determine pseudo-critical couplings onvarious lattices suitable for chiral extrapolations. These are then used to fixthe relation between coupling and temperature in the chiral limit.
67814332
An efficient method to compute the residual phase on a Lefschetz thimble
We propose an efficient method to compute the so-called residual phase that appears when performing Monte Carlo calculations on a Lefschetz thimble. The method is stochastic and its cost scales linearly with the physical volume, linearly with the number of stochastic estimators and quadratically with the length of the extra dimension along the gradient flow. This is a drastic improvement over previous estimates of the cost of computing the residual phase. We also report on basic tests of correctness and scaling of the code.
17537588
Lattice simulations with chemical potential
After giving an overview of recently invented methods for simulating lattice QCD at small mu/T, we discuss some results for bulk thermodynamic quantities of QCD matter coming from those methods. We focus on the transition line and the critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram.
16115905
Flavor and quark mass dependence of QCD thermodynamics
We calculate the transition temperature in 2 and 3-flavor QCD using improved gauge and staggered fermion actions on lattices with temporal extent Nτ = 4. We find Tc = 173 (8) MeV and 154 (8) MeV for nf = 2 and 3, respectively. In the case of 3-flavor QCD we present evidence that the chiral critical point, i.e. the second order endpoint of the line of first order chiral phase transitions, belongs to the universality class of the 3d Ising model.
16845888
Review of BFKL
I describe the underlying physics behind the BFKL resummation and discuss some of the recent ideas and results in this field. On the theoretical side I consider the formalism in the next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) approximation and the interpretation of the large corrections. On the phenomenological side I discuss several experiments that attempt to observe the BFKL effects in the high energy limit.
25489712
The AGS Fast Kicker Magnet System
A new fast extraction system from the AGS will be implemented to improve the neutrino beam and to serve for ISABELLE injection. The fast kicker for the system is of an open C-type design with a field strength of 1.25 kG at 2650 amperes. The pulser system is a mismatched, discharge type PFN which is capable of delivering a pulse of 3000 amperes peak current at 30 kV d.c., with a 2.7 ¿sec pulse width, 170 nsec rise time, and flat top ripple within ± 1%. It also serves as a prototype for an ISA injection magnet, and is to be operated in UHV in the 10-11 Torr range. Special measures to achieve this goal are also discussed.
55371766
High current density negative ion source for beam line transport studies
The Fermilab Electron Cooling Program requires a 20 m solenoidal region to interact 8-GeV antiprotons with an escorting beam of 4.3-MeV electrons to improve the phase-space quality of the antiproton beam. The solenoidal section with additional transport lines to take and return a 0.5-A electron beam from an electrostatic accelerator, for energy recovery, must be precisely aligned and adjusted. For the initial setup and study, and later testing of this line, a 12.4-keV H/sup -/ beam can be used to simulate the 4.3 MeV electron beam. For this purpose a high-brightness H/sup -/ ion source has been developed and tested. The source, a semiplanatron type, with a hollow cathode discharge and spherical cathode focusing of the emitted ions to the emission aperture has given an emission current density up to 0.7 A/cm/sup 2/. Continuous operation of 4 weeks has been demonstrated. Such an optimized source could have many applications for tandem accelerators, ion beam lithography and ion implantation.
99806600
Operation of the fermilab H− magnetron source
Installation of a grooved cathode and addition of a resistive heater around the source body have greatly improved the performance of the magnetron source. Lifetimes of nine months with stable pulsed beams of 50 mA have been achieved. Improvements and operation of the magnetron source at Fermilab will be presented. Recent tests with Lanthanum hexaboride as the cathode will be discussed.
119331939
Chiral perturbation theory for lattice QCD with a twisted mass term
Quantum chromodynamics on a lattice with Wilson fermions and a chirally twisted mass term for two degenerate quark flavours is considered in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. The pion mass and decay constant are calculated in next-to-leading order including terms linear in the lattice spacing a.