Dirac eigenspectrum and the fate of anomalous U(1) chiral symmetry in thermal QCD [HBNI Th290] 

Abstract

This thesis presents a systematic investigation into the thermal phases and properties of strongly interacting nuclear matter described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), focusing on the effective restoration of the different subgroups of the almost exact two-flavor chiral symmetry. From the properties of the eigenvalue spectrum of the quark Dirac operator calculated using lattice techniques, this thesis addresses the specific implications of the effective restoration, specifically of the anomalous singlet subgroup of chiral symmetry. Understanding the fate of chiral symmetry in QCD is of fundamental importance since its breaking is responsible for the origin of more than 99% of the mass of the visible universe.