PNJL model with a Van der Monde term

TL;DR

This paper enhances the PNJL model by adding a Van der Monde term to better constrain the Polyakov loop, analyzing its effects on thermodynamic quantities and susceptibilities, and comparing results with lattice QCD data.

Contribution

It introduces a Van der Monde term into the PNJL model to improve the physical consistency of the Polyakov loop and provides a detailed comparison with lattice QCD results.

Findings

Polyakov loop remains within [0,1] domain with the VdM term.

Thermodynamic quantities show negligible effects from the VdM term.

Quark susceptibilities approach ideal gas limits near 2 T_c.

Abstract

We extend the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model for two degenerate flavours by including the effect of the SU(3) measure with a Van der Monde (VdM) term. This ensures that the Polyakov loop always remains in the domain [0,1]. The pressure, energy density, specific heat, speed of sound and conformal measure show small or negligible effects from this term. However various quark number and isospin susceptibilities are all found to approach their respective ideal gas limits around 2 $T_c$. We compare our methods with other similar approaches in PNJL model and also present a quantitative comparison with Lattice QCD data.