Ramanujan Auditorium

Topology at High Temperature from the Lattice

Guy Moore

TU Darmstadt

QCD fields can possess nontrivial topology -- instantons.
The density of instantons is strongly temperature dependent, and this temperature dependence
is important to the early-Universe dynamics of the hypothetical axion particle, which may form
the dark matter of the Universe.  A secure lattice measurement of topological susceptibility up to
about 1.1 GeV temperatures would allow a precision prediction of the axion mass. I explain the obstacles
to such a determination, and I introduce a novel set of computational techniques which can help to overcome them.