Related papers: Studying the QCD phase diagram using pressure deri…

We determine the equation of state of 2+1-flavor QCD with physical quark masses, in the presence of a constant (electro)magnetic background field on the lattice. To determine the free energy at nonzero magnetic fields we develop a new…

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…

Scaling behavior is analyzed for the two-flavor QCD lattice gauge theory chiral transition. Leading scaling behavior and correction to leading scaling from lattice spacing effects are examined for the quark condensate. Scaling predictions…

The QCD phase diagram is analyzed within chiral quark models with nonlocal separable interactions. For the case of two light flavors, we describe in detail the characteristics of the chiral phase transition in the T-mu plane, and analyze…

Chiral phase transition of two flavor QCD at finite quark masses is known to be crossover except near the chiral limit, but it can turn to a first order transition when adding many extra flavors. This property is used to explore the nature…

We propose a new framework for investigating two-flavor lattice QCD with finite temperature and density by applying the Karsten-Wilczek lattice fermion, in which a species-dependent imaginary chemical potential can reduce the number of…

We investigate the effect of screening of the four-quarks contact interactions by the ring diagram at finite temperature and density in an effective chiral model inspired by QCD in the Coulomb gauge. As a consequence, a medium-dependent…

These lectures describe the use of effective field theories to extrapolate results from the parameter region where numerical simulations of lattice QCD are possible to the physical parameters (physical quark masses, infinite volume,…

In this talk I discuss three recent developments in the theoretical understanding of the phase diagram of the strong interaction. The first topic deals with the comparison of model calculations of the quark-hadron transition at vanishing…

The critical endpoint of the QCD phase diagram is usually expected to belong to the chiral critical surface, i.e. the surface of second order transitions bounding the region of first order chiral phase transitions for small quark masses in…

We propose a novel quasiparticle interpretation of the equation of state of deconfined QCD at finite temperature. Using appropriate thermal masses, we introduce a phenomenological parametrization of the onset of confinement in the vicinity…

We present results on the QCD equation of state, obtained with two different improved dynamical staggered fermion actions and almost physical quark masses. Lattice cut-off effects are discussed in detail as results for three different…

We present a lattice QCD study of the chiral properties of $(2\!+\!1)$-flavor QCD in background magnetic fields at zero temperature with physical pion masses. Simulations are performed using the highly improved staggered quark action across…

The phase diagram of QCD, as a function of temperature T and quark chemical potential mu, may contain a critical point (mu_E,T_E) whose non-perturbative nature makes it a natural object of lattice studies. However, the sign problem prevents…

In order to quantify the universal properties of the chiral phase transition in (2+1)-flavor QCD, we make use of an improved, renormalized order parameter for chiral symmetry breaking which is obtained as a suitable difference of the…

In this thesis the finite temperature transition between confined and deconfined matter is studied at zero and nonzero quark densities. The findings are relevant for the understanding of the evolution of the early Universe and contemporary…

We analyze general convergence properties of the Taylor expansion of observables to finite chemical potential in the framework of an effective 2+1 flavor Polyakov-quark-meson model. To compute the required higher order coefficients a novel…

We will discuss here some of the recent results obtained from lattice simulations of QCD at non-zero temperature. Such calculations aim at a quantitative understanding of the thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter in equilibrium. We…

I discuss different approaches to finite density lattice QCD. In particular, I focus on the structure of the phase diagram and discuss attempts to determine the location of the critical end-point. Recent results on the transiton line as…

I explore the rich phase diagram of two-flavor QCD as a function of the quark masses. The theory involves three parameters, including one that is CP violating. As the masses vary, regions of both first and second order transitions are…