The location of the critical end point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram is determined under different scenarios. The effect of strangeness, isospin/charge asymmetry and an external magnetic field is investigated. The discussion is performed within the 2+1 flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with Polyakov loop. It is shown that isospin asymmetry shifts the CEP to larger baryonic chemical potentials and smaller temperatures. At large asymmetries the CEP disappears. However, a strong enough magnetic field drives the system into a first order phase transition.
@article{arxiv.1307.7894,
title = {Phase transition and critical end point driven by an external magnetic field in asymmetric quark matter},
author = {Pedro Costa and Márcio Ferreira and Hubert Hansen and Débora P. Menezes and Constança Providência},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.7894},
year = {2014}
}