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The Bielefeld Parma Collaboration has in recent years put forward a method to probe finite density QCD by the detection of Lee-Yang singularities. The location of the latter is obtained by multi-point Pad\`e approximants, which are in turn calculated matching Taylor series results obtained from Monte Carlo computations at (a variety of values of) imaginary baryonic chemical potential. The method has been successfully applied to probe the Roberge Weiss phase transition and preliminary, interesting results are showing up in the vicinity of a possible QCD critical endpoint candidate. In this talk we will be concerned with a couple of significant aspects in view of a more powerful application of the method. First, we will discuss the possibility of detecting finite size scaling of Lee-Yang/Fisher singularities in finite density (lattice) QCD. Second, we will briefly mention our attempts at detecting both singularities in the complex chemical potential plane and singularities in the complex temperature plane. The former are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the chemical potential at given values of the temperature; the latter are obtained from rational approximations which are functions of the temperature at given values of the chemical potential., Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2023), July 31st - August 4th, 2023, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.03528

Using $N_f=2+1$ QCD calculations at physical quark mass and purely imaginary baryon chemical potential, we locate Lee-Yang edge singularities in the complex chemical potential plane. These singularities have been obtained by the multi-point Pad\'e approach applied to the net baryon number density. We recently showed that singularities extracted with this approach are consistent with universal scaling near the Roberge-Weiss transition. Here we study the universal scaling of these singularities in the vicinity of the QCD critical endpoint. Making use of an appropriate scaling ansatz, we extrapolate these singularities on $N_\tau=6$ and $N_\tau=8$ lattices towards the real axis to estimate the position of a possible QCD critical point. We find an approach toward the real axis with decreasing temperature. We compare this estimate with a HotQCD estimate obtained from poles of a [4,4]-Pad\'e resummation of the eighth-order Taylor expansion of the QCD pressure., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, presented at the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory

Using simulations at multiple imaginary chemical potentials for $(2+1)$-flavor QCD, we construct multi-point Pad\'e approximants. We determine the singularties of the Pad\'e approximants and demonstrate that they are consistent with the expected universal scaling behaviour of the Lee-Yang edge singularities. We also use a machine learning model, Masked Autoregressive Density Estimator (MADE), to estimate the density of the Lee-Yang edge singularities at each temperature. This ML model allows us to interpolate between the temperatures. Finally, we extrapolate to the QCD critical point using an appropriate scaling ansatz., Comment: 4 pages, prepared for Quark Matter 2023

Using an eighth-order Taylor expansion in baryon chemical potential, we recently obtained the (2+1)-flavor QCD equation of state (EoS) at non-zero conserved charge chemical potentials from the lattice. We focused on strangeness-neutral, isospin-symmetric QCD matter, which closely resembles the situation encountered in heavy-ion collision experiments. Using this EoS, we present here results on various QCD material parameters; in particular we compute the specific heat, speed of sound, and compressibility along appropriate lines of constant physics. We show that in the entire range relevant for the beam energy scan at RHIC, the specific heat, speed of sound, and compressibility show no indication for an approach to critical behavior that one would expect close to a possibly existing critical endpoint., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, presented at 30th International Conference on Ultra-relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2023)

Recently interest in calculations of the speed of sound in QCD under conditions like constant temperature $c^2_T$ or constant entropy per net baryon number $c^2_s$ arose in the discussion of experimental results coming from heavy ion experiments. It has been stressed that the former in particular is closely related to higher order cumulants of conserved charge fluctuations that are calculated in lattice QCD. We present here results on $c^2_T$ and $c^2_s$ and compare results at vanishing strangeness chemical potential and vanishing net strangeness number with hadron resonance gas model calculations. We stress the difference of both observables at low temperature arising from the light meson sector, which does not contribute to $c^2_T$., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, presented at the 39th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory. For the HotQCD Collaboration

We update results on the QCD equation of state in (2+1)-flavor QCD with non-zero conserved charge chemical potentials obtained from an eighth-order Taylor series. We present results for basic bulk thermodynamic observables of strangeness-neutral strong-interaction matter, i.e. pressure, number densities, energy and entropy density, and resum Taylor series results using Pad\'e approximants. Furthermore, we calculate the speed of sound as well as the adiabatic compression factor of strangeness-neutral matter on lines of constant entropy per net baryon number. We show that the equation of state ($P(n_B), \epsilon (n_B)$) is already well described by the $4^{\rm th}$-order Taylor series in almost the entire range of temperatures accessible with the beam energy scan in collider mode at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider., Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, minor revision and journal reference added

We report on an ongoing study on the interplay between Roberge-Weiss (RW) and chiral transitions in simulations of (2+1)-flavor QCD with an imaginary chemical potential. We established that the RW endpoint belongs to the 3-$d$, $Z_2$ universality class when calculations are done with the Highly Improved Staggered Quark (HISQ) action in the RW plane with physical quark masses. We also have explored a range of quark masses corresponding to pion mass values, $m_\pi\geq40$~MeV and found that the transition is consistent with $Z_2$ universality class. We argue that observables that were usually used to determine the chiral phase transition temperature, e.g. the chiral condensate and chiral susceptibility, are sensitive to the RW transition and are energy-like observables for the $Z_2$ transition, contrary to the magnetic-like (order parameter) behavior at vanishing chemical potential. Moreover the calculations performed at $m_\pi\sim40$~MeV also put a stringent constraint for a critical pion mass at zero chemical potential for a possible first-order chiral phase transition., Comment: Prepared for the proceedings of LATTICE2021, MIT, USA, online

We employ the R-matrix with time-dependence method to study attosecond angular streaking of F$^-$. Using this negative ion, free of long-range Coulomb interactions, we elucidate the role of short-range electron correlation effects in an attoclock scheme. Through solution of the multielectron time-dependent Schrodinger equation, we aim to bridge the gap between experiments using multielectron targets, and one-electron theoretical approaches. We observe significant negative offset angles in the photoelectron momentum distributions, despite the short-range nature of the binding potential. We show that the offset angle is sensitive to the atomic structure description of the residual F atom. We also investigate the response of co- and counter-rotating electrons, and observe an angular separation in their emission.

Recent experiments [D. Pengel, S. Kerbstadt, L. Englert, T. Bayer, and M. Wollenhaupt, \href{https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.043426}{{\PRA} {\bf 96} 043426 (2017)}] have measured the photoelectron momentum distribution for three-photon ionization of potassium by counter-rotating circularly polarized 790-nm laser pulses. The distribution displays spiral vortices, arising from the interference of ionizing wavepackets with different magnetic quantum numbers. The high level of multidimensional detail observed in the distribution makes this an ideal case in which to demonstrate the accuracy of emerging theoretical techniques applicable to such problems. We use the \(R\)-matrix with time dependence approach to investigate this process. We calculate the full-dimensional photoelectron momentum distribution, and compare against a set of planar projections of this distribution previously measured in experiment., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

We use the $R$-matrix with time-dependence method to study detachment from F$^-$ in circularly-polarized laser fields of infrared wavelength. By decomposing the photoelectron momentum distribution into separate contributions from detached $2p_1$ and $2p_{-1}$ electrons, we demonstrate that the detachment yield is distributed asymmetrically with respect to these initial orbitals. We observe the well-known preference for strong-field detachment of electrons that are initially counter-rotating relative to the field, and calculate the variation in this preference as a function of photoelectron energy. The wavelengths used in this work provide natural grounds for comparison between our calculations and the predictions of analytical approaches tailored for the strong-field regime. In particular, we compare the ratio of counter-rotating electrons to corotating electrons as a function of photoelectron energy. We carry out this comparison at two wavelengths, and observe good qualitative agreement between the analytical predictions and our numerical results.

We describe an ab initio and non-perturbative $R$-matrix with time-dependence theory for ultrafast atomic processes in light fields of arbitrary polarization. The theory is applicable to complex, multielectron atoms and atomic ions subject to ultrashort (particularly few-femtosecond and attosecond) laser pulses with any given ellipticity, and generalizes previous time-dependent $R$-matrix techniques restricted to linearly polarized fields. We discuss both the fundamental equations, required to propagate the multielectron wavefunction in time, as well as the computational developments necessary for their efficient numerical solution. To verify the accuracy of our approach, we investigate the two-photon ionization of He, irradiated by a pair of time-delayed, circularly polarized, femtosecond laser pulses, and compare photoelectron momentum distributions, in the polarization plane, with those obtained from recent time-dependent close-coupling calculations. The predictive capabilities of our approach are further demonstrated through a study of single-photon detachment from F$^{-}$ in a circularly polarized, femtosecond laser pulse, where the relative contribution of the co- and counter-rotating $2p$ electrons is quantified., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures

We employ the R-matrix with time-dependence method to investigate extreme-ultraviolet-initiated high-harmonic generation (XIHHG) in Ar$^{+}$. Using a combination of extreme-ultraviolet (XUV, $92\textrm{ nm}$, $3\times 10^{12}\,\textrm{Wcm}^{-2}$) and time-delayed, infrared (IR, $800\textrm{ nm}$, $3\times 10^{14}\,\textrm{Wcm}^{-2}$) laser pulses, we demonstrate that control over both the mechanism, and timing, of ionization can afford significant enhancements in the yield of plateau, and sub-threshold, harmonics alike. The presence of the XUV pulse is also shown to alter the relative contribution of different electron emission pathways. Manifestation of the Ar$^{+}$ electronic structure is found in the appearance of a pronounced Cooper minimum. Interferences amongst the outer-valence $3p$, and inner-valence $3s$, electrons are found to incur only a minor suppression of the harmonic intensities, at least for the present combination of XUV and IR laser light. Additionally, the dependence of the XIHHG efficiency on time delay is discussed, and rationalized with the aid of classical trajectory simulations., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures