On the effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ symmetry at finite temperature

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Aarts, Gert, Allton, Chris, Bignell, Ryan, Jäger, Benjamin, Kim, Seyong, Skullerud, Jon-Ivar, Smecca, Antonio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866911589112741888
author Aarts, Gert
Allton, Chris
Bignell, Ryan
Jäger, Benjamin
Kim, Seyong
Skullerud, Jon-Ivar
Smecca, Antonio
author_facet Aarts, Gert
Allton, Chris
Bignell, Ryan
Jäger, Benjamin
Kim, Seyong
Skullerud, Jon-Ivar
Smecca, Antonio
contents The $U(1)_A$ symmetry of the massless QCD Lagrangian is explicitly broken by the axial anomaly, but it may be effectively restored at finite temperature. Determining the temperature at which this occurs is important for understanding the chiral transition and the structure of the QCD phase diagram. A commonly used probe of effective $U(1)_A$ restoration is the degeneracy of flavour non-singlet pseudoscalar and scalar susceptibilities. Using anisotropic lattice QCD ensembles with Wilson-clover fermions generated by the \textsc{Fastsum} collaboration, we study this degeneracy through hadronic correlation functions over a wide range of temperatures. The fine temporal resolution of our Generation 3 ensembles allows us to determine the temperature at which the pseudoscalar and scalar channels become degenerate. We find evidence for the effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ symmetry at $T_{U(1)_A}=319(22)$ MeV, well above the chiral crossover temperature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_11916
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ symmetry at finite temperature
Aarts, Gert
Allton, Chris
Bignell, Ryan
Jäger, Benjamin
Kim, Seyong
Skullerud, Jon-Ivar
Smecca, Antonio
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
The $U(1)_A$ symmetry of the massless QCD Lagrangian is explicitly broken by the axial anomaly, but it may be effectively restored at finite temperature. Determining the temperature at which this occurs is important for understanding the chiral transition and the structure of the QCD phase diagram. A commonly used probe of effective $U(1)_A$ restoration is the degeneracy of flavour non-singlet pseudoscalar and scalar susceptibilities. Using anisotropic lattice QCD ensembles with Wilson-clover fermions generated by the \textsc{Fastsum} collaboration, we study this degeneracy through hadronic correlation functions over a wide range of temperatures. The fine temporal resolution of our Generation 3 ensembles allows us to determine the temperature at which the pseudoscalar and scalar channels become degenerate. We find evidence for the effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ symmetry at $T_{U(1)_A}=319(22)$ MeV, well above the chiral crossover temperature.
title On the effective restoration of $U(1)_A$ symmetry at finite temperature
topic High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.11916