Scalar correlators near the 3-flavor thermal critical point

Abstract

We investigate screening masses at both sides of the first order finite temperature transition with 3 quark flavors using the nonperturbatively improved clover fermion action and the Iwasaki gauge action. We have developed the method of hierarchical truncations with stochastic probing to accelerate the noise estimator for evaluating quark loops at every spatial lattice slices. At parameter values we study, the flavor singlet scalar meson has a screening mass about half of the pion screening mass. It becomes lighter as the system approaches the critical endpoint.