Quark mass and the QCD transition

Abstract

We discuss different aspects of the quark mass dependence of the chiral and deconfinement transitions. We make predictions for locating the deconfining critical point, by analyzing the mq dependence of the ratio of imaginary and real mass of the Polyakov loop. We then present an effective theory that allows the extraction of coupling constants from available lattice data for the temperature dependence of the chiral and Polyakov loop condensates at different quark masses. † Email: (mocsy@th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de) ‡ Some other approaches to study deconfinement are in [3].

A Fluctuation Theory of Topological Susceptibility

“…For light quarks, it is known that the chiral symmetry restoration drives the deconfinement. This is supported by σ model and generalized Landau-Ginzburg theory [37]. On the other hand, for very heavy quarks, the deconfinement induces the chiral symmetry restoration in the realm of Polyakov loop model [32].…”

Stranger in a strange land

“…Of course, various implementations of QCD suggest a rich set of phase transitions (first order, second order, smooth crossover) on the T , µ B plane between a rich set of QCD states of matter (hadron gas, quark-gluon plasma, colour superconductor). These issues are discussed at length by Karsch and others [4][5][6], and, in the absence of clear experimental evidence supporting any particular scenario, it will not be discussed in this summary.…”

Connecting an effective model of confinement and chiral symmetry to lattice QCD

“…For realistic quark masses both chiral and Z N symmetries are explicitly broken, and most likely both transitions are in the crossover domain [14]. The phase diagram illustrating the quark mass dependence of the deconfinining and the chiral symmetry restoring transition has been qualitatively investigated in effective theories in [14][15][16] and on the lattice in [17][18][19]. In the crossover region neither σ nor can play the role of a true order parameter.…”