We investigate a model of interacting Dirac fermions in 2 + 1 dimensions with M flavors and N colors having the U(M)×SU(N ) symmetry. In the large-N limit, we find that the U(M) symmetry is spontaneously broken in a variety of ways. In the vacuum, when the parity-breaking flavor-singlet mass is varied, the ground state undergoes a sequence of M first-order phase transitions, experiencing M + 1 phases characterized by symmetry breaking U(M)→U(M − k)×U(k) with k ∈ {0, 1, 2, · · · , M}, bearing a close resemblance to the vacuum structure of three-dimensional QCD. At finite temperature and chemical potential, a rich phase diagram with first and second-order phase transitions and tricritical points is observed. Also exotic phases with spontaneous symmetry breaking of the form as U(3)→U(1)3, U(4)→U(2)×U(1)2, and U(5)→U(2)2 ×U(1) exist. For a large flavor-singlet mass, the increase of the chemical potential μ brings about M consecutive first-order transitions that separate the low-μ phase diagram with vanishing fermion density from the high-μ region with a high fermion density.

Japan

Takuya Kanazawa

Australia

Mario Kieburg

United States

Jacobus Verbaarschot

Cascade of phase transitions in a planar Dirac material

We propose a random matrix theory for QCD in three dimensions with a Chern-Simons term at level k which spontaneously breaks the flavor symmetry according to U(2N f) → U(N f + k)×U(N f − k). This random matrix model is obtained by adding a complex part to the action for the k = 0 random matrix model. We derive the pattern of spontaneous symmetry breaking from the analytical solution of the model. Additionally, we obtain explicit analytical results for the spectral density and the spectral correlation func- tions for the Dirac operator at finite matrix dimension, that become complex. In the micro- scopic domain where the matrix size tends to infinity, they are expected to be universal, and give an exact analytical prediction to the spectral properties of the Dirac operator in the presence of a Chern-Simons term. Here, we calculate the microscopic spectral density. It shows exponentially large (complex) oscillations which cancel the phase of the k = 0 theory.

Random matrix approach to three-dimensional QCD with a Chern-Simons term

We consider a random matrix model in the hard edge limit (local spectral statistics at the origin in the limit of large matrix size) which interpolates between the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) and the chiral Gaussian unitary ensemble (chGUE). We show that this model is equivalent to the low-energy limit of certain QCD-like theories in the epsilon-regime. Moreover, we present a detailed derivation of the microscopic level density as well as the partially quenched and unquenched partition functions. Some of these results have been announced in a former letter by us. Our derivation relies on the supersymmetry method and is performed here step by step. Additionally, we compute the chiral condensate and the pion condensate for the quenched as well as unquenched settings. We also investigate the limits to GUE and chGUE and confirm our conjecture that the non-uniformity of the GUE limit would carry over to the hard edge limit.

Germany

Symmetry crossover protecting chirality in Dirac spectra

We consider a random matrix model which interpolates between the chiral Gaussian unitary ensemble and the Gaussian unitary ensemble while preserving chiral symmetry. This ensemble describes flavor symmetry breaking for staggered fermions in 3D QCD as well as in 4D QCD at high temperature or in 3D QCD at a finite isospin chemical potential. Our model is an Osborn-type two-matrix model which is equivalent to the elliptic ensemble but we consider the singular value statistics rather than the complex eigenvalue statistics. We report on exact results for the partition function and the microscopic level density of the Dirac operator in the <math><mi>ϵ</mi></math> regime of QCD. We compare these analytical results with Monte Carlo simulations of the matrix model.

Symmetry Transition Preserving Chirality in QCD: A Versatile Random Matrix Model

We present a new color decomposition for QCD amplitudes at one-loop level as a generalization of the Del Duca-Dixon-Maltoni and Johansson-Ochirov decomposition at tree level. Starting from a minimal basis of planar primitive amplitudes we write down a color decomposition that is free of linear dependencies among appearing primitive amplitudes or color factors. The conjectured decomposition applies to any number of quark flavors and is independent of the choice of gauge group and matter representation. The results also hold for higher-dimensional or supersymmetric extensions of QCD. We provide expressions for any number of external quark-antiquark pairs and gluons.