Quark mass thresholds in QCD thermodynamics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
2011-08-01 v2
Abstract
We discuss radiative corrections to how quark mass thresholds are crossed, as a function of the temperature, in basic thermodynamic observables such as the pressure, the energy and entropy densities, and the heat capacity of high temperature QCD. The indication from leading order that the charm quark plays a visible role at surprisingly low temperatures, is confirmed. We also sketch a way to obtain phenomenological estimates relevant for generic expansion rate computations at temperatures between the QCD and electroweak scales, pointing out where improvements over the current knowledge are particularly welcome.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0603048,
title = {Quark mass thresholds in QCD thermodynamics},
author = {M. Laine and Y. Schroder},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0603048},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
14 pages. v2: minor additions and clarifications; published version