U(1) Problem at Finite Temperature

Abstract

We model the effects of a large number of zero and near-zero modes in the QCD partition function by using sparse chiral matrix models with an emphasis on the quenched topological susceptibility in the choice of the measure. At finite temperature, the zero modes are not affected by temperature but are allowed to pair into topologically neutral near-zero modes which are gapped at high temperature. In equilibrium, chiral and U(1) symmetry are simultaneously restored for total pairing, evading mean-field arguments. We analyze a number of susceptibilities versus the light quark masses. At the transition point the topological susceptibility vanishes, and the dependence on the vacuum angle $\theta$ drops out. Our results are briefly contrasted with recent lattice simulations.