Multiple Critical Points in the QCD Phase Diagram

TL;DR

This paper investigates the QCD phase diagram using a linear sigma model, revealing that the number of critical points varies with the pion mass, influenced by thermal fluctuations of bosons and fermions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the QCD phase diagram with thermal fluctuations, showing how the number of critical points depends on the pion mass.

Findings

Multiple critical points can occur depending on pion mass.

Thermal fluctuations significantly affect phase structure.

The phase diagram complexity varies with model parameters.

Abstract

We use the linear sigma model with two flavors of quarks to study the phase diagram at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential as a function of the vacuum pion mass. Our calculations include thermal fluctuations of both the bosonic and fermionic fields. An interesting phase structure occurs that results in two, one, or no critical points depending on the value of the pion mass.