Charm Quarks and the QCD Equation of State

TL;DR

This paper investigates how charm quarks influence the QCD equation of state at high temperatures, providing preliminary results that compare lattice calculations with free-field predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a partially-quenched approach to include charm quarks in lattice QCD simulations of the equation of state at finite temperature.

Findings

Charm quark contribution increases energy density and pressure at high temperatures.

Preliminary lattice results are consistent with free-field calculations.

Charm quark effects become significant above the critical temperature.

Abstract

We present a study of the effect of charm quarks on the QCD equation of state using partially-quenched p4 charm quarks on a dynamically generated 2+1 flavor background, at zero chemical potential. We show preliminary results for the charm quark contribution to the energy density and pressure in the high temperature region ($T_c < T < 4 T_c$) and compare it to the free-field calculation. The charm quark mass is determined by measuring the charmonium spectrum.