Related papers: Revisiting the first-order QCD phase transition in…
Current heavy-ion collision experiments might lead to the discovery of a first-order chiral symmetry breaking phase-transition line, ending in a second-order critical point. Nevertheless, the extraction of information about the equilibrium…
The current understanding of finite temperature phase transitions in QCD is reviewed. A critical discussion of refined phase transition criteria in numerical lattice simulations and of analytical tools going beyond the mean-field level in…
I discuss the analytic structure of thermodynamic quantities for complex values of thermodynamic variables within Landau theory. In particular, the singularities connected with phase transitions of second order, first order and cross over…
QCD critical point is a landmark region in the QCD phase diagram outlined by temperature as a function of baryon chemical potential. To the right of this second-order phase transition point, one expects first order quark-hadron phase…
Properties of high-density strong-interaction matter of relevance for astrophysical scenarios that involve neutron stars are discussed. It is argued that theoretical and experimental insights from the small baryo-chemical potential…
The thermodynamics of a first order chiral phase transition is considered in the presence of spinodal phase separation within the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. The properties of the basic thermodynamic observables in the coexistence phase…
We discuss the phase structure of QCD for $N_f=2$ and $N_f=2+1$ dynamical quark flavours at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential. It emerges dynamically from the underlying fundamental interactions between quarks and gluons in…
We discuss the influence of a helicity imbalance on the phase diagram of dense QCD at finite temperature. We argue that the helical chemical potential is a thermodynamically relevant quantity in theories with the mass gap generation. Using…
This chapter, to appear in the section on QCD under extreme conditions within the Encyclopedia of Nuclear Physics, aims to provide a pedagogical introduction to the physics of quarks and gluons in the presence of high temperature, nonzero…
We propose a method to probe the nature of phase transitions in lattice QCD at finite temperature and density, which is based on the investigation of an effective potential as a function of the average plaquette. We analyze data obtained in…
The phase diagram of strongly interacting matter is explored as a function of temperature and baryon number density. We investigate the possible simultaneous formation of condensates in the conventional quark--anti-quark channel (breaking…
We introduce a family of two-dimensional lattice models of quasicrystals, using a range of square hard cores together with a soft interaction based on an aperiodic tiling set. Along a low temperature isotherm we find, by Monte Carlo…
We study the phase structure of the (3+1)-dimensional cold and dense QCD with the Kogut--Susskind quark in the strong coupling limit using the tensor renormalization group method. The chiral and nuclear transitions are investigated by…
Effects of viscosity and thermal conductivity on the dynamics of first-order phase transitions are studied. The nuclear gas-liquid and hadron-quark transitions in heavy-ion collisions are considered. We demonstrate that at non-zero thermal…
I use simple thermodynamic reasoning to argue that at temperatures of order a trillion kelvin, QCD, the theory which describes strongly interacting particles such as protons and neutrons under normal conditions, undergoes a phase transition…
The thermodynamic problem of a gas of static quarks carrying U(N) charges and interacting with each other via U(N) electric gauge fields is formulated and solved in the large N limit. In a lattice theory, the solution can be found in any…
We investigate the nature of the deconfinement and Roberge-Weiss transition in the heavy quark regime for finite real and imaginary chemical potential within the functional approach to continuum QCD. We extract the critical phase boundary…
We propose a method to probe the nature of phase transitions in lattice QCD at finite temperature and density, which is based on the investigation of an effective potential as a function of the average plaquette. We analyze data obtained in…
We give a brief introduction on finite temperature phase transitions in lattice QCD including a discussion on the identification of first order transitions. We present a study of the deconfinement phase transition of one-flavour QCD, using…
An extension of the relativistic density functional approach to the equation of state for strongly interacting matter is suggested which generalizes a recently developed modified excluded-volume mechanism to the case of temperature and…