UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Master’s Presentation

Joe Marincel

“Lattice QCD at finite density and the Lefschetz Thimble Method”

To understand nuclear matter from first principles one needs to study QCD at nonzero density. Despite the success of lattice QCD at zero density, lattice QCD with a chemical potential remains unexplored due to the sign problem. I will review the formulation of field theory on the lattice and discuss some promising approaches to circumventing the sign problem, in particular the Lefschetz Thimble method.