Anomaly and a QCD-like phase diagram with massive bosonic baryons

Abstract

We study a strongly coupled $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory with two flavors of quarks, invariant under an exact $\mathrm{SU}(2)\times \mathrm{SU}(2) \times \mathrm{U}_A(1) \times \mathrm{U}_B(1)$ symmetry which is the same as QCD with two flavors of quarks without an anomaly. The model also contains a coupling that can be used to break the $\mathrm{U}_A(1)$ symmetry and thus mimic the QCD anomaly. At low temperatures $T$ and small baryon chemical potential $μ_B$ the model contains massless pions and massive bosonic baryons similar to QCD with an even number of colors. In this work we study the $T-μ_B$ phase diagram of the model and show that it contains three phases : (1) A chirally broken phase at low $T$ and $μ_B$, (2) a chirally symmetric baryon superfluid phase at low $T$ and high $μ_B$, and (3) a symmetric phase at high $T$. We find that the nature of the finite temperature chiral phase transition and in particular the location of the tricritical point that seperates the first order line from the second order line is affected significantly by the anomaly.

22 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables, references added