We explore the phase diagram and the critical behavior of QCD thermodynamic quantities in the context of the so-called Polyakov--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We show that this improved field theoretical model is a successful candidate for studying the equation of state and the critical behavior around the critical end point. We argue that a convenient choice of the model parameters is crucial to get the correct description of isentropic trajectories. The effects of the regularization procedure in several thermodynamic quantities is also analyzed. The results are compared with simple thermodynamic expectations and lattice data.
@article{arxiv.0909.5124,
title = {How parameters and regularization affect the PNJL model phase diagram and thermodynamic quantities},
author = {Pedro Costa and H. Hansen and M. C. Ruivo and C. A. de Sousa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.5124},
year = {2010}
}