On the axial $U(1)$ symmetry at finite temperature

Abstract

We study the $U(1)_A$ anomaly in two-flavor lattice QCD at finite temperature with the M\"obius domain-wall Dirac operator. We generate gauge configurations in the temperature range $(0.9, 1.2) T_c$ on different physical volumes, $L=$ 2--4 fm, and lattice spacings. We measure the difference of the susceptibilities of the flavor non-singlet scalar ($\chi_\delta$) and pseudoscalar ($\chi_\pi$) mesons. They are related by an axial $U(1)$ transformation and the difference vanishes if the axial $U(1)$ symmetry is respected. We identify the source of axial $U(1)$ symmetry breaking at finite temperature in the lowest eigenmodes, for the observable $\chi_\pi - \chi_\delta$. We then reweight the M\"obius domain-wall fermion partition function to that of the overlap-Dirac operator to fully recover chiral symmetry. Our data show a significant discrepancy in the results coming from the M\"obius domain-wall valence quarks, the overlap valence quarks on our DWF configurations and the reweighted ones that have full chiral symmetry. After recovering full chiral symmetry we conclude that the difference $\chi_\pi - \chi_\delta$ shows a suppression in the chiral limit that is compatible with an effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ at $T \gtrsim T_c$ in the scalar meson channels.