Thermodynamics of SU(3) gauge theory from gradient flow on the lattice

A novel method to study the bulk thermodynamics in lattice gauge theory is proposed on the basis of the Yang-Mills gradient flow with a fictitious time t. The energy density e and the pressure P of SU(3) gauge theory at fixed temperature are calculated directly on 32(3) x (6, 8, 10) lattices from the thermal average of the well-defined energy-momentum tensor T-mu nu(R)(x) obtained by the gradient flow. It is demonstrated that the continuum limit can be taken in a controlled manner from the t dependence of the flowed data.