Lattice Gauge Theory Simulations at Nonzero Chemical Potential in the Chiral Limit

Abstract

We present a method of simulating lattice QCD at nonzero chemical potential in the chiral limit. By adding a weak four-fermi interaction to the standard staggered fermion SU(3) QCD action, we produce an algorithm in which the limit of massless fermions is well-behaved and physical. Using configurations at zero chemical potential, and an exact fugacity expansion of the fermion determinant, we can simulate QCD at nonzero chemical potential and evade the notorious problem of the complex action. Small lattice simulations give physical results: At strong gauge coupling the critical chemical potential μ_c agrees with theoretical expectations and at weak gauge coupling μ_c is nonzero in the low temperature confined phase of QCD and jumps to zero in the high temperature quark-gluon plasma phase. In all these simulations the quarks are exactly massless and there is a Goldstone pion.