The lattice gradient flow at tree level
The cut-off effects of the lattice gradient flow -- often called Wilson flow -- are calculated on a periodic 4-torus at leading order in the gauge coupling. A large class of discretizations is considered which includes all frequently used cases in practice. It is shown how the results lead to a smoother continuum extrapolation for the beta-function of SU(3) gauge theory with N_f = 4 flavors of fermions.

title: Baryon spectrum in the composite sextet model
abstract: The strongly coupled near-conformal gauge theory with two fermion flavors in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of SU(3) is potentially a minimal realization of the composite Higgs mechanism. We discuss the staggered fermion construction of baryonic states, present our first numerical results and comment on implications for dark matter.

title: The ﬁnite volume spectrum of excited states from lattice QCD simulations
abstract: We present results for the spectrum of excited mesons obtained from temporal correlations of spatially-extended single-hadron and multi-hadron operators computed in lattice QCD. The stochastic LapH algorithm is implemented on anisotropic, dynamical lattices for isovectors for pions of mass 390 MeV. A large correlation matrix with single-particle and two-particle probe operators is diagonalized to identify resonances. The masses of excited states in the I = 1,S = 0,T 1u channel as well as the mixing of single and multi-particle probe operators are presented.

title: Twelve fundamental and two sextet fermion flavors
abstract: We report extended simulation results and their new analysis in two important gauge theories with twelve fermion flavors in the fundamental SU(3) color representation and two fermions in the sextet representation. We probe the $N_f=12$ model with respect to the conformal window using mass deformed finite size scaling (FSS) theory driven by the fermion mass anomalous dimension. Our results at fixed gauge coupling show problems with the conformal scenario of the $N_f=12$ model. In the sextet model with two flavors, under the conformal hypothesis, we determine large values for the anomalous fermion mass dimension with $\gamma\geq 1$. Since our sextet analysis favors the chiral symmetry breaking hypothesis without conformality, the large exponent $\gamma$ could play an important role in understanding the composite Higgs mechanism. The new results discussed here include our extended data sets and exceed what was presented at the conference.

title: Pion-pion scattering phase shifts with the stochastic LapH method
abstract: Progress in calculating scattering phase shifts on $N_f=2+1$ anisotropic clover Wilson lattices is described. The stochastic LapH method facilitates computations in large volumes and for light pion masses. Results for pion masses down to 240 MeV, keeping $m_\pi L > 4$, are presented.

title: Can the nearly conformal sextet gauge model hide the Higgs impostor
abstract: New results are reported from large scale lattice simulations of a frequently discussed strongly interacting gauge theory with a fermion flavor doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. We find that the chiral condensate and the mass spectrum of the sextet model are consistent with chiral symmetry breaking in the limit of vanishing fermion mass. In contrast, sextet fermion mass deformations of spectral properties are not consistent with leading conformal scaling behavior near the critical surface of a conformal theory. A recent paper could not resolve the conformal fixed point of the gauge coupling from the slowly walking scenario of a very small nearly vanishing β -function (DeGrand et al.  ). It is argued that overall consistency with our new results is resolved if the sextet model is close to the conformal window, staying outside with a very small non-vanishing β -function. The model would exhibit then the simplest composite Higgs mechanism leaving open the possibility of a light scalar state with quantum numbers of the Higgs impostor. It would emerge as the pseudo-Goldstone dilaton state from spontaneous symmetry breaking of scale invariance. We will argue that even without association with the dilaton, the scalar Higgs-like state can be light very close to the conformal window. A new Higgs project of sextet lattice simulations is outlined to resolve these important questions.

title: Reaction cross sections in heavy-ion collisions
abstract: Previously a compact formula for total reaction cross section for heavy-ion collisions as a function of energy was obtained by treating the angular momentum $l$ as a continuous variable. The accuracy of the continuum approximation is assessed and corrections are evaluated. The accuracy of the compact equation can be improved by a simple modification, if a higher accuracy is required. Simple rules to determine the barrier heights and the penetration probability for the $l$ partial wave from experimental data are presented for the collision of identical or nonidentical light nuclei.

title: Extended Glauber Model of Antiproton-Nucleus Annihilation for All Energies and Mass Numbers
abstract: Previous analytical formulas in the Glauber model for high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions developed by Wong are utilized and extended to study Antiproton-nucleus annihilations for both high and low energies, after taking into account the effects of Coulomb and nuclear interactions, and the change of the antiproton momentum inside a nucleus. The extended analytical formulas capture the main features of the experimental antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections for all energies and mass numbers. At high antiproton energies, they exhibit the granular property for the lightest nuclei and the black-disk limit for the heavy nuclei. At low antiproton energies, they display the effect of the antiproton momentum increase due to the nuclear interaction for the light nuclei, and the effect of the magnification due to the attractive Coulomb interaction for the heavy nuclei.

title: Bose-Einstein Interference in the Passage of a Jet in a Dense Medium †
abstract: When an energetic fermion collides with many fermion scatterers at very high energies, the Bose-Einstein symmetry with respect to the interchange of the virtual bosons leads to a destructive interference of the Feynman amplitude components in most regions of the momentum transfer phase space but a constructive interference in some other regions of the momentum transfer phase space. As a consequence, the recoiling scatterers have a tendency to come out collectively along the incident jet direction, each carrying a substantial fraction of the incident jet longitudinal momentum. This collective recoil of the scatterers may be the origin of the longitudinal momentum kick in the momentum kick model proposed to explain the "ridge" correlations in high-energy Pb-Pb collisions at RHIC and p-p collisions at LHC.

title: Effects of dynamical quarks on the stability of heavy quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma
abstract: To study the stability of heavy quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma, we use a color-singlet Q-Qbar potential determined previously to be a well-defined linear combination of the free energy F_1 and the internal energy U_1. Using the lattice gauge results of Kaczmarek et al., the dissociation temperatures of J/psi and chi_b in quenched QCD are found to be 1.62Tc and 1.18Tc respectively, in good agreement with spectral function analyses. The dissociation temperature of J/psi in full QCD with 2 flavors is 1.42Tc. Thus, the presence of dynamical quarks in full QCD lowers the dissociation temperature of J/psi, but J/psi remains bound up to 1.42Tc.

title: Quarkonia and quark drip lines in a quark-gluon plasma
abstract: We extract the Q-Q potential by using the thermodynamic quantities obtained in lattice gauge calculations. The potential is tested and found to give spontaneous dissociation temperatures that agree well with those from lattice gauge spectral function analysis. Using such a Q-Q potential, we examine the quarkonium states in a quark-gluon plasma and determine the "quark drip lines" which separate the region of bound color-singlet Q Q states from the unbound region. The characteristics of the quark drip lines severely limit the region of possible bound Q Q states with light quarks to temperatures close to the phase transition temperature. Bound quarkonia with light quarks may exist very near the phase transition temperature if their effective quark mass is of the order of 300-400 MeV and higher.