Related papers: On the phase structure and thermodynamics of QCD
Some recent theoretical developments of the QCD phase diagram are summarized. Chiral symmetry restoration and the confinement/deconfinement transition at nonzero temperature and quark densities are analyzed in the framework of an effective…
We study the effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations as well as the mass dependence of the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature and density within a dynamical Polyakov-loop--extended quark-meson model. The glue dynamics is…
We study the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature within a Polyakov-loop enhanced quark-meson model. Such a model describes the chiral as well as the confinement-deconfinement dynamics. In the present investigation, based on the…
Fluctuations in the vicinity of a phase transition are important but neglected in mean-field theory. In order to assess the influence of such fluctuations on the critical endpoint and the size of the critical region in the QCD phase…
We consider the thermodynamics of chiral models in the mean-field approximation and discuss the relevance of the (frequently omitted) fermion vacuum loop. Within the chiral quark-meson model and its Polyakov loop extended version, we show…
In an extension of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model where the quarks interact with the temporal gluon field, represented by the Polyakov loop, we explore the relation between the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions. The effect of…
We study the phase diagram of QCD with the help of order parameters for chiral symmetry breaking and quark confinement. We also introduce a new order parameter for the confinement phase transition, which is related to the quark density. It…
We discuss the influence of fluctuations on thermodynamics near the chiral phase transition within Polyakov loop extended quark--meson model based on the functional renormalization group (FRG) method. We include the gluon fields in the FRG…
We study the impact of higher order quark-meson scattering processes on the chiral phase structure of two-flavour QCD at finite temperature and quark density. Thermal, density and quantum fluctuations are included within a functional…
The relation between the deconfinement and chiral phase transition is explored in the framework of an Polyakov-loop-extended two-flavor quark-meson (PQM) model. In this model the Polyakov loop dynamics is represented by a background…
The low-energy sector of QCD with $N_f = 2\!+\!1$ dynamical quark flavors at non-vanishing chemical potential and temperature is studied with a non-perturbative functional renormalization group method. The analysis is performed in different…
In-medium chiral symmetry breaking in confining potential models of QCD is examined. Past attempts to analyse these models have been hampered by infrared divergences that appear at non-zero temperature. We argue that previous attempts to…
We discuss the critical properties of net-baryon-number fluctuations at the chiral restoration transition in matter at nonzero temperature and net-baryon density. The chiral dynamics of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is modeled by the…
In this contribution the role of quantum fluctuations for the QCD phase diagram is discussed. This concerns in particular the importance of the matter back-reaction to the gluonic sector. The impact of these fluctuations on the location of…
I review recent results obtained within chiral effective models, on the phase structure of hot quark matter in a strong magnetic background. After a brief introduction, I focus on the results obtained within two chiral models improved with…
We apply optimized perturbation theory to the quark-meson model at finite temperature T and quark chemical potential mu. The effective potential is calculated to one loop both in the chiral limit and at the physical point and used to study…
The chiral phase transition in QCD at finite chemical potential and temperature can be characterized for small chemical potential by its curvature and the transition temperature. The curvature is accessible to QCD lattice simulations, which…
We review recent results on the phase structure of QCD and bulk QCD thermodynamics. In particular we discuss how universal critical scaling related to spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry manifests itself in recent lattice QCD…
We investigate the chiral phase transition in the quark-meson effective model using optimised perturbation theory to one loop. Certain terms in the free energy are frequently omitted in calculations, on the assumption that their…
Finite-volume modifications of the two-flavor chiral phase diagram are investigated within an effective quark-meson model in various mean-field approximations. The role of vacuum fluctuations and boundary conditions, their influence on…