English

Strangeness neutrality and the QCD phase diagram

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-03-18 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment Nuclear Experiment Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We map out the phase structure of Nf=2+1N_f=2+1 flavour QCD at strangeness neutrality with functional QCD. We find a critical end point at (TCEP,μB,CEP)nS=0=(92,696)(T_{\rm CEP},\mu_{B,{\rm CEP}})|_{n_S=0} = (92, 696)\,MeV. The computation is done with the functional renormalisation group, and we systematically improve on previous works, hence reducing the systematic error significantly. Our results pass relevant QCD benchmarks: they agree well with and corroborate the QCD phase structure from functional QCD results at vanishing strangeness chemical potential. Moreover, they agree well with lattice QCD results at vanishing chemical potential. Specifically, the ratio of the second order curvature coefficient κ2\kappa_2 agrees with that obtained from lattice computations, κ2(nS=0)/κ2(μS=0)=0.897(20)\kappa_2(n_S=0)/\kappa_2(\mu_S=0)=0.897(20).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.13455,
  title  = {Strangeness neutrality and the QCD phase diagram},
  author = {Wei-jie Fu and Chuang Huang and Jan M. Pawlowski and Fabian Rennecke and Rui Wen and Shi Yin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.13455},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

26 pages, 9 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:19:14.392Z