Quark-mass dependence of the three-flavor QCD phase diagram at zero and imaginary chemical potential: Model prediction

TL;DR

This paper uses a Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model to predict how the three-flavor QCD phase diagram depends on quark masses at zero and imaginary chemical potential, aligning with lattice QCD results.

Contribution

It introduces a model with a Polyakov loop-dependent four-quark vertex to study the quark-mass dependence of the QCD phase diagram, providing predictions consistent with lattice QCD.

Findings

Qualitative agreement with lattice QCD at zero chemical potential.

Consistency with degenerate three-flavor lattice QCD at imaginary chemical potential.

Model captures key features of the QCD phase structure.

Abstract

We draw the three-flavor phase diagram as a function of light- and strange-quark masses for both zero and imaginary quark-number chemical potential, using the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with an effective four-quark vertex depending on the Polyakov loop. The model prediction is qualitatively consistent with 2+1 flavor lattice QCD prediction at zero chemical potential and with degenerate three-flavor lattice QCD prediction at imaginary chemical potential.