Contributor info: Prof. Jens Braun

Jens Braun, Andreas Geißel, Benedikt Schallmo

SciPost Phys. Core 7, 015 (2024) · published 5 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study the speed of sound in strong-interaction matter at zero temperature and in density regimes which are expected to be governed by the presence of a color-superconducting gap. At (very) high densities, our analysis indicates that the speed of sound approaches its asymptotic value associated with the non-interacting quark gas from below, in agreement with first-principles studies which do not take the presence of a color-superconducting gap into account. Towards lower densities, however, the presence of a gap induces an increase of the speed of sound above its asymptotic value. Importantly, even if gap-induced corrections to the pressure may appear small, we find that derivatives of the gap with respect to the chemical potential can still be sizeable and lead to a qualitative change of the density dependence of the speed of sound. Taking into account constraints on the density dependence of the speed of sound at low densities, our general considerations suggest the existence of a maximum in the speed of sound. Interestingly, we also observe that specific properties of the gap can be related to characteristic properties of the speed of sound which are indirectly constrained by observations.

Florian Ehmann, Joaquín E. Drut, Jens Braun

SciPost Phys. 16, 091 (2024) · published 3 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We develop a pairing-field formalism for ab initio studies of non-relativistic two-component fermions on a (d+1)-dimensional spacetime lattice. More specifically, we focus on theories where the interaction between the two components can be described by the exchange of a corresponding pairing field. The introduction of a pairing field may indeed be convenient for studies of, e.g., the finite-temperature phase structure and critical behavior of, e.g., ultracold atomic Fermi gases. Moreover, such a formalism allows to directly compute the momentum and frequency dependence of the pair propagator, from which the pair-correlation function can be extracted. For a first illustration of the application of our formalism, we compute the density equation of state and the superfluid order parameter for a gas of unpolarized fermions in (0+1) dimensions by employing the complex Langevin approach to surmount the sign problem.

Jens Braun, Yong-rui Chen, Wei-jie Fu, Andreas Geißel, Jan Horak, Chuang Huang, Friederike Ihssen, Jan M. Pawlowski, Manuel Reichert, Fabian Rennecke, Yang-yang Tan, Sebastian Töpfel, Jonas Wessely, Nicolas Wink

SciPost Phys. Core 6, 061 (2023) · published 4 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We derive renormalised finite functional flow equations for quantum field theories in real and imaginary time that incorporate scale transformations of the renormalisation conditions, hence implementing a flowing renormalisation. The flows are manifestly finite in general non-perturbative truncation schemes also for regularisation schemes that do not implement an infrared suppression of the loops in the flow. Specifically, this formulation includes finite functional flows for the effective action with a spectral Callan-Symanzik cutoff, and therefore gives access to Lorentz invariant spectral flows. The functional setup is fully non-perturbative and allows for the spectral treatment of general theories. In particular, this includes theories that do not admit a perturbative renormalisation such as asymptotically safe theories. Finally, the application of the Lorentz invariant spectral functional renormalisation group is briefly discussed for theories ranging from real scalar and Yukawa theories to gauge theories and quantum gravity.

Lukas Rammelmüller, Joaquín E. Drut, Jens Braun

SciPost Phys. 9, 014 (2020) · published 28 July 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study spin- and mass-imbalanced mixtures of spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ fermions interacting via an attractive contact potential in one spatial dimension. Specifically, we address the influence of unequal particle masses on the pair formation by means of the complex Langevin method. By computing the pair-correlation function and the associated pair-momentum distribution we find that inhomogeneous pairing is present for all studied spin polarizations and mass imbalances. To further characterize the pairing behavior, we analyze the density-density correlations in momentum space, the so-called shot noise, which is experimentally accessible through time-of-flight imaging. At finite spin polarization, the latter is known to show distinct maxima at momentum configurations associated with the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) instability. Besides those maxima, we find that additional features emerge in the noise correlations when mass imbalance is increased, revealing the stability of FFLO-type correlations against mass imbalance and furnishing an experimentally accessible signature to probe this type of pairing.

Jens Braun, Marc Leonhardt, Jan M. Pawlowski

SciPost Phys. 6, 056 (2019) · published 9 May 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Low-energy effective theories have been used very successfully to study the low-energy limit of QCD, providing us with results for a plethora of phenomena, ranging from bound-state formation to phase transitions in QCD. These theories are consistent quantum field theories by themselves and can be embedded in QCD, but typically have a physical ultraviolet cutoff that restricts their range of validity. Here, we provide a discussion of the concept of renormalization group consistency, aiming at an analysis of cutoff effects and regularization-scheme dependences in general studies of low-energy effective theories. For illustration, our findings are applied to low-energy effective models of QCD in different approximations including the mean-field approximation. More specifically, we consider hot and dense as well as finite systems and demonstrate that violations of renormalization group consistency affect significantly the predictive power of the corresponding model calculations.