Nonzero chemical potential in the overlap Dirac operator and comparison to random matrix theory

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In this talk we present the results published recently in Ref. [1], where we showed how to introduce a quark chemical potential in the overlap Dirac operator. The resulting operator satisfies a Ginsparg-Wilson relation and has exact zero modes. It is no longer gamma₅-Hermitian, but its nonreal eigenvalues still occur in pairs. We compute the spectral density of the operator on the lattice and show that, for small eigenvalues, the data agree with analytical predictions of non-Hermitian chiral random matrix theory for both trivial and nontrivial topology. We also explain an observed change in the number of zero modes as a function of chemical potential.