Phase diagram of dense quark matter in QCD-like theories

TL;DR

This paper explores the phase diagram of QCD-like theories with varying colors and quark representations, highlighting similarities and differences with real QCD, and discusses how lattice data can shed light on deconfinement in dense quark matter.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of phase diagrams in QCD-like theories and discusses implications of lattice data for understanding deconfinement in dense quark matter.

Findings

Lattice data offers clues to deconfinement in cold dense quark matter.

Differences and similarities between QCD and QCD-like theories are characterized.

Interplay of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking is analyzed.

Abstract

I report the results of a series of works on the phase diagram of theories with a different number of colors and/or quarks in a different representation than in QCD. Similarities as well as differences as compared to the real world are pointed out, focusing in particular on the interplay of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. It will be argued that recent lattice data may provide us with a clue to understand deconfinement in cold dense quark matter.