Lattice study on QCD-like theory with exact center symmetry

Abstract: We investigate QCD-like theory with exact center symmetry, with emphasis on the finite-temperature phase transition concerning center and chiral symmetries. On the lattice, we formulate center symmetric SU(3) gauge theory with three fundamental Wilson quarks by twisting quark boundary conditions in a compact direction (Z₃-QCD model). We calculate the expectation value of Polyakov loop and the chiral condensate as a function of temperature on 16³ × 4 and 20³ × 4 lattices along the line of constant physics realizing m_PS/m_V = 0.70. We find out the first-order center phase transition, where the hysteresis of the magnitude of Polyakov loop exists depending on thermalization processes. We show that chiral condensate decreases around the critical temperature in a similar way to that of the standard three-flavor QCD, as it has the hysteresis in the same range as that of Polyakov loop. We also show that the flavor symmetry breaking due to the twisted boundary condition gets qualitatively manifest in the high-temperature phase. These results are consistent with the predictions based on the chiral effective model in the literature. Our approach could provide novel insights to the nonperturbative connection between the center and chiral properties.