Non-perturbative thermal QCD up to the electroweak scale

by Michele Pepe (INFN, Milano Bicocca)

Monday 16 Mar 2026, 14:30 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

Studying QCD at high temperatures is essential for understanding the properties of strongly interacting matter and its role in the evolution of the early Universe. I present recent non-perturbative lattice results on the thermodynamics and long-distance properties of QCD in the high-temperature regime. In particular, I discuss a determination of the QCD Equation of State with three massless quark flavours over a wide range of temperatures, from the electroweak scale down to about 3 GeV, smoothly connecting to the low-temperature regime. I will also present results for mesonic and baryonic screening masses at high temperatures. The comparison with perturbative predictions shows that, even at temperatures approaching the electroweak scale, the non-perturbative results can be reproduced only when higher-order terms in the strong-coupling expansion, including non-perturbative contributions, are taken into account. The strategy that allows the investigation of QCD in this previously unexplored high-temperature regime combines shifted boundary conditions with a definition of the lines of constant physics based on the running of a non-perturbatively defined renormalized coupling. This methodology is general and can be applied to QCD with four or five massive quark flavors.

Pepe.pdf