THERMODYNAMICS OF LATTICE QCD WITH 2 LIGHT QUARKS ON A 16(3) X 8 LATTICE

We have carried out a numerical study of the high-temperature behavior of lattice QCD with two flavors of staggered quarks. Our simulations were performed on 16(3) x 8 lattices with a quark mass m(q) = 0.0125, in units of the inverse lattice spacing. By monitoring the Wilson-Polyakov line, the chiral order parameter [psipsiBAR), and the average plaquette, we have determined that a crossover between the low-temperature state of ordinary hadronic matter and the high-temperature quark-gluon plasma occurs at a gauge coupling of 6/g2 = 5.54(2). Thermodynamic quantities do not show a large jump, although the equilibration time becomes quite long in the vicinity of the crossover. We have measured the entropy densities in the neighborhood of the crossover and further into the plasma phase. Measurements of the hadronic screening lengths and the Debye screening lengths were made which cast light on the differences between the two regimes. Finally, we measured the topological susceptibilities to further explore the chiral properties of QCD.