Curvature of the phase transition line in the mu-T plane

TL;DR

This paper investigates the curvature of the QCD phase transition line in the chemical potential-temperature plane using lattice simulations and Taylor expansion methods, providing insights into the phase structure of strongly interacting matter.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice QCD study measuring the phase transition line curvature with improved actions and physical quark masses, advancing understanding of QCD phase structure.

Findings

Measured the curvature of the phase transition line in the mu-T plane.

Used Polyakov loop and strange quark number susceptibility as indicators.

Performed simulations on multiple lattice sizes with improved actions.

Abstract

We determined the curvature of the phase transition line in the mu-T plane using a Taylor expansion in mu. The Polyakov loop and the strange quark number susceptibility were measured to locate the pseudocritical line. The analysis was carried out on Nt=4,6,8,10 lattices generated with a Symanzik improved gauge and stout-link improved (2+1) flavour staggered fermion action using physical quark masses.