QCD at finite isospin chemical potential

Understand

We investigate the properties of QCD at finite isospin chemical potential at zero and non-zero temperatures.

• This theory is not affected by the sign problem and can be simulated using Monte-Carlo techniques.
• With increasing isospin chemical potential and temperatures below the deconfinement transition the system changes into a phase where charged pions condense, accompanied by an accumulation of low modes of the Dirac operator.
• The simulations are enabled by the introduction of a pionic source into the action, acting as an infrared regulator for the theory, and physical results are obtained by removing the regulator via an extrapolation.