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We present a novel solution procedure for initial boundary value problems. The procedure is based on an action principle, in which coordinate maps are included as dynamical degrees of freedom. This reparametrization invariant action is formulated in an abstract parameter space and an energy density scale associated with the space-time coordinates separates the dynamics of the coordinate maps and of the propagating fields. Treating coordinates as dependent, i.e. dynamical quantities, offers the opportunity to discretize the action while retaining all space-time symmetries and also provides the basis for automatic adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). The presence of unbroken space-time symmetries after discretization also ensures that the associated continuum Noether charges remain exactly conserved. The presence of coordinate maps in addition provides new freedom in the choice of boundary conditions. An explicit numerical example for wave propagation in $1+1$ dimensions is provided, using recently developed regularized summation-by-parts finite difference operators., Comment: 50 pages, 12 figures

We construct a discrete non-hermitean momentum operator, which implements faithfully the non self-adjoint nature of momentum for a particle in a box. Its eigenfunctions are strictly limited to the interior of the box in the continuum limit, with the quarter wave as first non-trivial eigenstate. We show how to construct the corresponding hermitean Hamiltonian for the infinite well as concrete example to realize unitary dynamics. The resulting Hilbert space can be decomposed into a physical and unphysical subspace, which are mutually orthogonal. The physical subspace in the continuum limit reproduces that of the continuum theory and we give numerical evidence that the correct probability distributions for momentum and energy are recovered., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

We re-investigate the interactions between static color sources in a finite temperature gluonic medium using both high resolution isotropic and anisotropic quenched lattice QCD ensembles. The underlying ill-posed inverse problem, related to the extraction of spectral functions, is attacked with a range of different methods, including Bayesian inference, Pad\'e interpolation and model fits. Among the latter we include a tail amended Gaussian ansatz and a HTL-inspired fit ansatz. We reconfirm the presence of a dominant low-lying spectral feature that supports the existence of a potential picture for the in-medium evolution of the static charges at late real times. Using the raw unmodified lattice data, all applicable methods show clear signs of screening of the real-part of the potential. After applying a subtraction procedure featured in a previous study we find however that screening disappears from the extracted potential. Paths towards the resolution of this puzzle are discussed., Comment: 54 pages, 40 figures

In a recently developed variational discretization scheme for second order initial value problems ( J. Comput. Phys. 498, 112652 (2024) ), it was shown that the Noether charge associated with time translation symmetry is exactly preserved in the interior of the simulated domain. The obtained solution also fulfils the naively discretized equations of motions inside the domain, except for the last two grid points. Here we provide an explanation for the deviations at the boundary as stemming from the Lagrange multipliers used to implement initial and connection conditions. We show explicitly that the Noether charge including the boundary corrections is exactly preserved at its continuum value over the whole simulation domain, including the boundary points., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2307.04490

We present a simulation strategy for the real-time dynamics of quantum fields, inspired by reinforcement learning. It builds on the complex Langevin approach, which it amends with system specific prior information, a necessary prerequisite to overcome this exceptionally severe sign problem. The optimization process underlying our machine learning approach is made possible by deploying inherently stable solvers of the complex Langevin stochastic process and a novel optimality criterion derived from insight into so-called boundary terms. This conceptual and technical progress allows us to both significantly extend the range of real-time simulations in 1+1d scalar field theory beyond the state-of-the-art and to avoid discretization artifacts that plagued previous real-time field theory simulations. Limitations of and promising future directions are discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We study the correlator of temporal Wilson lines at non-zero temperature in 2+1 flavor lattice QCD with the aim to define the heavy quark-antiquark potential at non-zero temperature. For temperatures $153~{\rm MeV} \leq T \leq 352~{\rm MeV}$ the spectral representation of this correlator is consistent with a broadened peak in the spectral function, position or width of which then defines the real or imaginary parts of the heavy quark-antiquark potential at non-zero temperature, respectively. We find that the potential's real part is not screened contrary to the widely-held expectations. We comment on how this fact may modify the picture of quarkonium melting in the quark-gluon plasma.

Taking insight from the theory of general relativity, where space and time are treated on the same footing, we develop a novel geometric variational discretization for second order initial value problems (IVPs). By discretizing the dynamics along a world-line parameter, instead of physical time directly, we retain manifest translation symmetry and conservation of the associated continuum Noether charge. A non-equidistant time discretization emerges dynamically, realizing a form of automatic adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), guided by the system symmetries. Using appropriately regularized summation by parts finite difference operators, the continuum Noether charge, defined via the Killing vector associated with translation symmetry, is shown to be exactly preserved in the interior of the simulated time interval. The convergence properties of the approach are demonstrated with two explicit examples., Comment: 35 pages, 12 figures

This study explores the utility of a kernel in complex Langevin simulations of quantum real-time dynamics on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour. We give several examples where we use a systematic scheme to find kernels that restore correct convergence of complex Langevin. The schemes combine prior information we know about the system and the correctness of convergence of complex Langevin to construct a kernel. This allows us to simulate up to $1.5\beta$ on the real-time Schwinger-Keldysh contour with the 0+1 dimensional anharmonic oscillator using $m=1$, $\lambda=24$, which was previously unattainable using the complex Langevin equation., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, talk given at the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 8th-13th August, 2022, Bonn, Germany

We present a novel strategy aimed at restoring correct convergence in complex Langevin simulations. The central idea is to incorporate system-specific prior knowledge into the simulations, in order to circumvent the NP-hard sign problem. In order to do so, we modify complex Langevin using kernels and propose the use of modern auto-differentiation methods to learn optimal kernel values. The optimization process is guided by functionals encoding relevant prior information, such as symmetries or Euclidean correlator data. Our approach recovers correct convergence in the non-interacting theory on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour for any real-time extent. For the strongly coupled quantum anharmonic oscillator we achieve correct convergence up to three-times the real-time extent of the previous benchmark study. An appendix sheds light on the fact that for correct convergence not only the absence of boundary terms, but in addition the correct Fokker-Plank spectrum is crucial.

We present results on the in-medium interactions of static quark anti-quark pairs using realistic 2+1 HISQ flavor lattice QCD. Focus is put on the extraction of spectral information from Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge using four complementary methods. Our results indicate that on HISQ lattices, the position of the dominant spectral peak associated with the real-part of the interquark potential remains unaffected by temperature. This is in contrast to prior work in quenched QCD and we present follow up comparisons to newly generated quenched ensembles., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the XVth Quark confinement and the Hadron spectrum conference, Aug. 1st - 6th, 2022, Stavanger, Norway. Date of presentation Aug. 5th 2022

The determination of real-time dynamics of strongly coupled quantum fields is a central goal of modern nuclear and particle physics, which requires insight into quantum field theory beyond the weak-coupling approximation. While lattice QCD has provided vital insights into the non-perturbative static properties of quarks and gluons it hides their real-time dynamics behind an ill-posed inverse problem. In this proceeding I will discuss developments in tackling the inverse problem on the lattice and touch upon progress in the direct simualtion of real-time dynamics., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, plenary talk given at the XVth Quark confinement and the Hadron spectrum conference, August 1st - 6th, 2022, Stavanger, Norway

The Szymanzik improvement program for gauge theories is most commonly implemented using forward finite difference corrections to the Wilson action. Central symmetric schemes naively applied, suffer from a doubling of degrees of freedom, identical to the well known fermion doubling phenomenon. And while adding a complex Wilson term remedies the problem for fermions, it does not easily transfer to real-valued gauge fields. In this talk I report on recent progress in formulating symmetric discretization schemes for classical actions of simple one-dimensional problems. They avoid doubling by exploiting the weak imposition of initial/boundary conditions. Inspired by recent work in the field of numerical analysis of partial differential equations, I construct a regularized summation-by-parts finite difference operator using boundary data based on affine coordinates. Application to a classical initial value problems with second order derivatives are presented., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, talk given at the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 8th-13th August, 2022, Bonn, Germany

Heavy quarkonium continues to play a central role in the study of nuclear matter under extremes of temperature and density in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this talk I report on recent developments in the theoretical description of quarkonium in-medium dynamics using the open-quantum systems approach. Not only does it provide a clear interpretation of the imaginary part of the complex heavy-quark potential but also reveals that a subtle interplay between screening and wavefunction decoherence is responsible for the melting of heavy quarkonium states., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, talk given at the 28th International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2022), Sep. 11-16, 2022, Cape Town, South Africa

We introduce a method for reducing anisotropic heavy-quark potentials to isotropic potentials by using an effective screening mass that depends on the quantum numbers $l$ and $m$ of a given state. We demonstrate that, using the resulting 1D effective potential model, one can solve a 1D Schr\"odinger equation and reproduce the full 3D results for the energies and binding energies of low-lying heavy-quarkonium bound states to relatively high accuracy. This includes the splitting of different p-wave polarizations. The resulting 1D effective model provides a way to include momentum anisotropy effects in open quantum system simulations of heavy-quarkonium dynamics in the quark-gluon plasma., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Contribution to the proceedings of the "15th Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference (ConfinementXV)"

The computation of dynamical properties of nuclear matter, ranging from parton distribution functions of nucleons and nuclei to transport properties in the quark-gluon plasma, constitutes a central goal of modern theoretical physics. This real-time physics often defies a perturbative treatment and the most successful strategy so far is to deploy lattice QCD simulations. These numerical computations are based on Monte-Carlo sampling and formulated in an artificial Euclidean time. Real-time physics is most conveniently formulated in terms of spectral functions, which are hidden in lattice QCD behind an ill-posed inverse problem. I will discuss the current methods state-of-the art in the extraction of spectral functions from lattice QCD simulations, based on Bayesian inference and emphasize the importance of prior domain knowledge, vital to regularizing the otherwise ill-posed extraction task. With Bayesian inference allowing us to make explicit the uncertainty in both observations and in our prior knowledge, a systematic estimation of the total uncertainties in the extracted spectral functions is nowadays possible. Two implementations of the Bayesian Reconstruction (BR) method for spectral function extraction, one for MAP point estimates and one based on an open access Monte-Carlo sampler are provided.I will briefly touch on the use of machine learning for spectral function reconstruction and discuss some new insight it has brought to the Bayesian community., Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures, invited review for the Frontiers in Physics collection "Uncertainty Quantification in Nuclear Physics"

Motivated by the fact that both the classical and quantum description of nature rest on causality and a variational principle, we develop a novel and highly versatile discretization prescription for classical initial value problems (IVPs). It is based on an optimization (action) functional with doubled degrees of freedom, which is discretized using a single regularized summation-by-parts (SBP) operator. Formulated as optimization task it allows us to obtain classical trajectories without the need to derive an equation of motion. The novel regularization we develop in this context is inspired by the weak imposition of initial data, often deployed in the modern treatment of IVPs and is implemented using affine coordinates. We demonstrate numerically the stability, accuracy and convergence properties of our approach in systems with classical equations of motion featuring both first and second order derivatives in time. onvergence properties of our approach in systems with classical equations of motion featuring both first and second order derivatives in time., Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, accepted in Journal of Computational Physics

We generalize a complex heavy-quark potential model from an isotropic QCD plasma to an anisotropic one by replacing the Debye mass $m_D$ with an anisotropic screening mass depending on the quark pair alignment with respect to the direction of anisotropy. Such an angle-dependent mass is determined by matching the perturbative contributions in the potential model to the exact result obtained in the Hard-Thermal-Loop resummed perturbation theory. An advantage of the resulting potential model is that its angular dependence can be effectively described by using a set of angle-averaged screening masses as proposed in our previous work. Consequently, one could solve a one-dimensional Schr\"odinger equation with a potential model built by changing the anisotropic screening masses into the corresponding angle-averaged ones, and reproduce the full three-dimensional results for the binding energies and decay widths of low-lying quarkonium bound states to very high accuracy. Finally, turning to dynamics, we demonstrate that the one-dimensional effective potential can accurately describe the time evolution of the vacuum overlaps obtained using the full three-dimensional anisotropic potential. This includes the splitting of different p-wave polarizations., Comment: final version published in JHEP

We have studied finite temperature complex static quark-antiquark potentials for 2+1 flavor QCD using highly improved staggered action with physical strange quark masses and light quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of 161 MeV. We calculated the potential using Wilson line correlators fixed in Coulomb gauge. For the extraction, we have used HTL motivated parametrization of the correlators. We found that the real part of the potential is screened above the crossover temperature and it's close to singlet free energies, whereas the imaginary part is increasing with both distance and temperature., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 26th-30th July 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We explore the interactions between a quark anti-quark pair in a thermal medium based on lattice QCD ensembles with $N_f = 2+1$ dynamical HISQ flavors. Our dataset spans the phenomenologically relevant temperature range between T=140MeV-2GeV based on lattice sizes $N_\tau=10,12$ and $16$, with an aspect ratio of $N_\sigma/N_\tau=4$. The peak position $\Omega$ and the width $\Gamma$ of the spectral function of Wilson-line correlators in Coulomb gauge is computed. We assess the information content in the correlation functions and deploy three complementary strategies to reconstruct spectral information: model fits, Pad\'e approximation and the Bayesian BR method. Limitations of each approach are carefully assessed., Comment: Contribution to The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021 26th-30th July, 2021 Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 pages, 7 figure, LaTeX, uses PoS class

We study the interactions of a static quark antiquark pair at non-zero temperature using realistic 2+1 flavor lattice QCD calculations. The study consists of two parts: the first investigates the properties of Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge and compares to predictions of hard-thermal loop perturbation theory. As a second step we extract the spectral functions underlying the correlators using four conceptually different methods: spectral function fits, a HTL inspired fit for the correlation function, Pad\'e rational approximation and the Bayesian BR spectral reconstruction. We find that our high statistics Euclidean lattice data are amenable to different hypotheses for the shapes of the spectral function and we compare the implications of each analysis method for the existence and properties of a well defined ground state spectral peak.

We present first results on finite system size corrections to the equation of state, trace anomaly, and speed of sound for two model systems: 1) free, massless scalar theory and 2) quenched QCD with periodic boundary conditions (PBC). We further present work-in-progress results for quenched QCD with Dirichlet boundary conditions., Comment: Proceedings for the 50th International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD2021). 4 pages, 2 figures. Minor revisions from first version

In this contribution I discuss a recent proposal of a novel action for lattice gauge theory for finite systems, which accommodates non-periodic spatial boundary conditions. Drawing on the summation-by-parts formulation of finite differences and finite volume strategies of computational electrodynamics, an action is constructed that implements the proper integral form of Gauss' law and exhibits an inherently symmetric energy momentum tensor, all while realizing automatic ${\cal O}(a)$ improvement. Its central ingredients are illustrated using Abelian gauge theory as example., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Talk given at the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 26-30 July, 2021, Zoom/Gather@MIT, virtual

This study explores the potential of modern implicit solvers for stochastic partial differential equations in the simulation of real-time complex Langevin dynamics. Not only do these methods offer asymptotic stability, rendering the issue of runaway solution moot, but they also allow us to simulate at comparatively largeLangevin time steps, leading to lower computational cost. We compare different ways of regularizing the underlying path integral and estimate the errors introduced due to the finite Langevin time. Based on that insight, we implement benchmark (non-)thermal simulations of the quantum anharmonic oscillator on the canonical Schwinger-Keldysh contour of short real-time extent.

We compute the proper real-time interaction potential between a static quark and antiquark in classical lattice gauge theory at finite temperature. Our central result is the determination of the screened real-part of this potential, and we reconfirm the presence of an imaginary part. The real part is intimately related to the back-reaction of the static sources onto the gauge fields, incorporated via Gauss's law. Differences in the treatment of static sources in quantum and classical lattice gauge theory are discussed., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, supplementary material: 2 Mathematica scripts, source code available on Zenodo

We develop a novel numerical scheme for the simulation of dissipative quantum dynamics following from two-body Lindblad master equations. All defining continuum properties of the Lindblad dynamics, hermiticity, positivity and in particular trace conservation of the evolved density matrix are preserved. The central ingredient is a new spatial difference operator, which not only fulfils the summation by parts (SBP) property but also implements a continuum reparametrization property. Using the time evolution of a heavy-quark anti-quark bound state in a hot thermal medium as an explicit example, we show how the reparametrization neutral summation-by-parts (RN-SBP) operator preserves the continuum properties of the theory., Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures, open-access code available via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3744460

We investigate the nonequilibrium evolution of the quark-meson model using two-particle irreducible effective action techniques. Our numerical simulations, which include the full dynamics of the order parameter of chiral symmetry, show how the model thermalizes into different regions of its phase diagram. In particular, by studying quark and meson spectral functions, we shed light on the real-time dynamics approaching the crossover transition, revealing e.g. the emergence of light effective fermionic degrees of freedom in the infrared. At late times in the evolution, the fluctuation-dissipation relation emerges naturally among both meson and quark degrees of freedom, confirming that the simulation successfully reaches thermal equilibrium.

We introduce a novel real-time formulation of lattice NRQCD designed for simulations in the background of an highly occupied gluon field. By evolving quarks in the background of a dynamically evolving gluon field we computed the time-evolution of heavy-quarkonium spectral functions as well as the static and for finitely heavy quarks generalised potential. We conclude that the back reaction of the quarks is necessary for any binding process. Here we discuss the methodology, our results and the origin of the absence of a binding process., Comment: 37th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory - Lattice2019. Pre-published: 2019 December 05. To be published in: POS, Vol. 363 (2020)

The Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) is a popular data analysis technique based on Bayesian inference, which has found various applications in the research literature. While the MEM itself is well-grounded in statistics, I argue that its state-of-the-art implementation, suggested originally by Bryan, artificially restricts its solution space. This restriction leads to a systematic error often unaccounted for in contemporary MEM studies. The goal of this paper is to carefully revisit Bryan's train of thought, point out its flaw in applying linear algebra arguments to an inherently nonlinear problem, and suggest possible ways to overcome it., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, peer reviewed and published version

Heavy quarkonium theory has seen significant progress over the past years. Not only has the community steadily improved the understanding of fully equilibrated quarkonium using first principles lattice QCD studies, but it has taken major steps towards developing a genuine dynamical understanding of quark-antiquark pairs immersed in a hot medium by embracing the paradigm of open quantum systems. We review recent developments, placing an emphasis on quarkonium real-time dynamics., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, plenary talk given at the XXVIIIth International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2019), November 3rd-9th 2019, Wuhan, PRC

In this report we review recent progress achieved in the understanding of heavy quarkonium under extreme conditions from a theory perspective. Its focus lies both on quarkonium properties in thermal equilibrium, as well as recent developments towards a genuine real-time description, valid also out-of-equilibrium. We will give an overview of the theory tools developed and deployed over the last decade, including effective field theories, lattice field theory simulations, modern methods for spectral reconstructions and the the open-quantum systems paradigm. The report will discuss in detail the concept of quarkonium melting, providing the reader with a contemporary perspective. In order to judge where future progress is needed we will also discuss recent results from experiments and phenomenological modeling of quarkonium in relativistic heavy-ion collisions., Comment: 129 pages, 55 figures, submitted to Physics Reports on July 23rd 2019

In this paper we study the real-time evolution of heavy quarkonium in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) on the basis of the open quantum systems approach. In particular, we shed light on how quantum dissipation affects the dynamics of the relative motion of the quarkonium state over time. To this end we present a novel non-equilibrium master equation for the relative motion of quarkonium in a medium, starting from Lindblad operators derived systematically from quantum field theory. In order to implement the corresponding dynamics, we deploy the well established quantum state diffusion method. In turn we reveal how the full quantum evolution can be cast in the form of a stochastic non-linear Schr\"odinger equation. This for the first time provides a direct link from quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to phenomenological models based on non-linear Schr\"odinger equations. Proof of principle simulations in one-dimension show that dissipative effects indeed allow the relative motion of the constituent quarks in a quarkonium at rest to thermalize. Dissipation turns out to be relevant already at early times well within the QGP lifetime in relativistic heavy ion collisions., Comment: 26pages, 7figures; added some sentences

We present the first calculation of the hadronic tensor on the lattice for the nucleon. The hadronic tensor can be used to extract the structure functions in deep inelastic scatterings and also provide information for the neutrino-nucleon scattering which is crucial to the neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments at low energies. The most challenging part in the calculation is to solve an inverse problem. We have implemented and tested three algorithms using mock data, showing that the Bayesian Reconstruction method has the best resolution in extracting peak structures while the Backus-Gilbert and Maximum Entropy methods are somewhat more stable for the flat spectral function. Numerical results are presented for both the elastic case (clover fermions on domain wall configuration with $m_\pi\sim$ 370 MeV and $a\sim$ 0.06 fm) and a case (anisotropic clover lattice with $m_\pi\sim$ 380 MeV and $a_t\sim$ 0.035 fm) with large momentum transfer. For the former case, the reconstructed Minkowski hadronic tensor gives precisely the vector charge which proves the feasibility of the approach. While for the latter case, the nucleon resonances and possibly shallow inelastic scattering contributions around $\nu=1$ GeV are clearly observed but no information is obtained for higher excited states with $\nu>2$ GeV. A check of the effective masses of $\rho$ meson with different lattice setups indicates that, in order to reach higher energy transfers, using lattices with smaller lattice spacings is essential., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures

We present an improved analytic parametrisation of the complex in-medium heavy quark potential derived rigorously from the generalised Gauss law. To this end we combine in a self-consistent manner a non-perturbative vacuum potential with a weak-coupling description of the QCD medium. The resulting Gauss-law parametrisation is able to reproduce full lattice QCD data by using only a single temperature dependent parameter, the Debye mass $m_D$. Using this parametrisation we model the in-medium potential at finite baryo-chemical potential, which allows us to estimate the $\Psi^\prime$/$J/\Psi$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions at different beam energies., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1906.00035

We report on recent theory progress in understanding the production of heavy quarkonium in heavy-ion collisions based on the in-medium heavy-quark potential extracted from lattice QCD simulations. On the one hand, the proper in-medium potential allows us to study the spectral properties of heavy quarkonium in thermal equilibrium, from which we estimate the $\psi^\prime$ to $J/\psi$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions. On the other hand, the potential provides a central ingredient in the description of the real-time evolution of heavy-quarkonium formulated in the open-quantum-systems framework., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, talk given at the 19th Zimanyi school winter workshop, December 2-6 2018, Budapest, Hungary

We explore the in-medium properties of heavy-quarkonium states at finite baryo-chemical potential and finite transverse momentum based on a modern complex-valued potential model. Our starting point is a novel, rigorous derivation of the generalized Gauss law for in-medium quarkonium, combining the non-perturbative physics of the vacuum bound state with a weak coupling description of the medium degrees of freedom. Its relation to previous models in the literature is discussed. We show that our approach is able to reproduce the complex lattice QCD heavy quark potential even in the non-perturbative regime, using a single temperature dependent parameter, the Debye mass $m_D$. After vetting the Gauss-law potential with state-of-the-art lattice QCD data, we extend it to the regime of finite baryon density and finite velocity, currently inaccessible to first principles simulations. In-medium spectral functions computed from the Gauss-law potential are subsequently used to estimate the $\psi'/J/\psi$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions at different beam energies and transverse momenta. We find qualitative agreement with the predictions from the statistical model of hadronization for the $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ dependence and a mild dependence on the transverse momentum., Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures

We explore artificial neural networks as a tool for the reconstruction of spectral functions from imaginary time Green's functions, a classic ill-conditioned inverse problem. Our ansatz is based on a supervised learning framework in which prior knowledge is encoded in the training data and the inverse transformation manifold is explicitly parametrised through a neural network. We systematically investigate this novel reconstruction approach, providing a detailed analysis of its performance on physically motivated mock data, and compare it to established methods of Bayesian inference. The reconstruction accuracy is found to be at least comparable, and potentially superior in particular at larger noise levels. We argue that the use of labelled training data in a supervised setting and the freedom in defining an optimisation objective are inherent advantages of the present approach and may lead to significant improvements over state-of-the-art methods in the future. Potential directions for further research are discussed in detail., Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures

We compute temporal correlators and spectral functions for light, open charm and charmonium mesons in the pseudoscalar and vector channel for a range of temperatures below and above the deconfinement transition. The study is carried out using anisotropic lattice QCD with 2+1 dynamical flavours, $a_s=0.123\,$fm and $a_s/a_\tau=3.5$. The high-temperature results are benchmarked by comparing them to reconstructed correlators obtained by direct summation of the zero temperature correlator. We use two Bayesian methods to reconstruct the spectral functions: the maximum entropy method and the more recent BR method., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, based on poster presented at the XIIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference 2018, Maynooth, Ireland

We present the final results from a multi-year study of the in-medium spectral properties of heavy quarkonium bound states on the lattice. In this work we combine high statistics $N_f=2+1$ ensembles from the HotQCD collaboration with the effective theory NRQCD and improved Bayesian spectral reconstruction methods. We corroborate with high precision the hierarchical in-medium modification of quarkonium states with respect to their vacuum binding energy and provide updated values on melting temperatures. In particular we are able to understand previous disagreements between different Bayesian methods as resulting from underestimated systematic uncertainties. The main quantitative result is a robust determination of the in-medium mass shifts of quarkonium ground states, which we find are negative, consistent with the behavior observed in strongly coupled pNRQCD potential based computations., Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, talk given at the XIIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference 2018, Maynooth, Ireland

Realizing the full potential of interconnecting the large amounts of data created in physics experiments, phenomenological models and theory simulations requires robust tools for statistical inference. Here I review a particularly promising branch, Bayesian statistics, which over the past decade has found manifold use in high-energy physics. After a brief introduction to Bayesian statistics I will present two concrete examples, where Bayesian thinking has led to progress in understanding strongly interacting matter: unfolding problems in the form of lattice QCD spectral functions (in spirit similar to detector corrections), as well as the efficient estimation of quark-gluon-plasma parameters from a systematic comparison of experimental heavy-ion collision data and phenomenological models., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the XIIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum Conference 2018, Maynooth, Ireland

The computation of the parton distribution functions (PDF) or distribution amplitudes (DA) of hadrons from first principles lattice QCD constitutes a central open problem. In this study, we present and evaluate the efficiency of a selection of methods for inverse problems to reconstruct the full $x$-dependence of PDFs. Our starting point are the so called Ioffe time PDFs, which are accessible from Euclidean time calculations in conjunction with a matching procedure. Using realistic mock data tests, we find that the ill-posed incomplete Fourier transform underlying the reconstruction requires careful regularization, for which both the Bayesian approach as well as neural networks are efficient and flexible choices., Comment: 1+41 pages, 20 figures

We present our first results on a direct computation of the complex in-medium heavy quark potential from realistic lattice QCD simulations. Ensembles with $N_\tau=12$ from the HotQCD and TUMQCD collaboration offer unprecedented high statistics, those with $N_\tau=16$ unprecedented time resolution, making possible a robust extraction of the real part from the spectral functions of Wilson line correlators. To this end we deploy a combination of a Bayesian reconstruction (BR method), as well as a Pad\'e-like approximation. We corroborate findings made on less realistic lattices that ${\rm Re}[V]$ smoothly transitions from a confining to a screened behavior at high temperatures and its values lie close to the color singlet free energies. A finite value of the ${\rm Im}[V]$ is observed in the quark-gluon-plasma phase., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the XXVIIth International Conference on Ultra-relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2018), Venice, Italy

We present the final results of our high statistics study on the properties of bottomonium and charmonium at finite temperature. We focus on the temperature range around the crossover transition $150\leq T\leq 410$MeV, relevant for current heavy ion collision experiments. The QCD medium degrees of freedom which consist of dynamical u,d, and s quarks and gluons are captured by realistic state-of-the art ($m_\pi\approx 161$MeV) lattice QCD simulations of the HotQCD collaboration. For the heavy quarks we deploy the non-relativistic effective field theory of QCD, NRQCD. The in-medium properties of quarkonium are deduced from their spectral functions, which are reconstructed using improved and novel Bayesian approaches. Through a systematic analysis we shed light on the origin of the discrepancies in melting temperatures previously reported in the literature, showing that they are owed to underestimated methods uncertainties of the deployed spectral reconstructions. Our simulations corroborate a picture of sequential in-medium modification, ordered according to the vacuum binding energy of the states. As a central quantitative result, our study reveals how the mass of the heavy quarkonium ground state reduces as temperature increases. The observed spectral modifications are interpreted in the light of, and compared to previous studies based on the complex lattice potential for heavy quarkonium. Thus for the first time we provide a robust picture of in-medium heavy quarkonium modification in the quark-gluon plasma consistent among different non-relativistic methods. We also critically discuss the perspectives for improving on these results., Comment: 84 pages, 45 figures (t.b.p. in JHEP, submission includes ancillary datafiles for in-medium mass shifts and tentative widths)

The strong suppression of heavy quarkonia is a good indicator that one has generated a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. Recent advancements in first principles calculations of the heavy quark potential provide additional insight into this suppression and can be used to further pin down the in-medium properties of the QGP. Realistic 3+1d dissipative hydrodynamical models can be used to simulate the QGP and, with bottomonium as a probe, one can make inferences for the initial temperature of the QGP and other phenomenological parameters such as the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio. However, progressing to LHC $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV Pb-Pb collisions, one expects regeneration to have an increasingly important impact on the suppression observables. In this proceedings, we present a brief overview to set up the model and then provide model results for bottomonium suppression and regeneration, for ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and LHC., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures; proceedings contribution to Quark Matter 2018, May 13-19 2018

We study the open system dynamics of a heavy quark in the quark-gluon plasma using a Lindblad master equation. Applying the quantum state diffusion approach by Gisin and Percival, we derive and numerically solve a nonlinear stochastic Schr\"odinger equation for wave functions, which is equivalent to the Lindblad master equation for the density matrix. From our numerical analysis in one spatial dimension, it is shown that the density matrix relaxes to the Boltzmann distribution in various setups (with and without external potentials), independently of the initial conditions. We also confirm that quantum dissipation plays an essential role not only in the long-time behavior of the heavy quark but also at early times if the heavy quark initial state is localized and quantum decoherence is ineffective., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, v2: published version

We reconstruct the gluon spectral function in Landau gauge QCD from numerical data for the gluon propagator. The reconstruction relies on two novel ingredients: Firstly we derive analytically the low frequency asymptotics of the spectral function. Secondly we construct a functional basis from a careful consideration of the analytic properties of the gluon propagator in Landau gauge. This allows us to reliably capture the non-perturbative regime of the gluon spectrum. We also compare different reconstruction methods and discuss the respective systematic errors., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures

We present the first combined study of correlators and spectral properties of charmonium and open-charm-mesons at finite temperature using a fully relativistic lattice QCD approach. The QCD medium is captured by second generation anisotropic 24^3xN_t lattices from the FASTSUM collaboration, including 2+1 flavors of clover discretized quarks with m_pi~380 MeV. Two Bayesian methods are deployed to reconstruct the spectral functions, the recent BR method as well as the Maximum Entropy Method with Fourier basis. We take particular care to disentangle genuine in-medium effects from method artifacts with the help of the reconstructed correlator. Consistent with the direct inspection of correlators, we observe no significant in-medium modification for J/Psi and eta_c around the crossover, while the chi_c states on the other hand show clear changes around the transition. At the highest temperature, T=352 MeV, J/Psi and eta_c also exhibit discernible changes compared to the vacuum. For D mesons around $T_c$, no significant modifications are observed, but we find clear indications that no bound state survives at the highest temperature of T=352 MeV. Above T_c we discover a significant difference between D and D* mesons, the latter being much more strongly affected by the medium., Comment: 17 pages, many pdf figures. Matches version published in PRD