Phase transitions in heavy-quark QCD from an effective theory

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective theory for heavy-quark QCD using combined expansions, enabling the study of deconfinement transitions and critical endpoints at finite temperature and chemical potential.

Contribution

It introduces a dimensionally reduced Polyakov-loop effective theory for heavy quarks, extending the analysis of phase transitions in QCD.

Findings

Critical endpoint of deconfinement transition computed as a function of quark masses and flavors.

The effective theory's applicability to low-temperature, high-density regimes analyzed.

Insights into baryon condensation phenomena at high density obtained.

Abstract

With combined hopping parameter and strong coupling expansions, we calculate a dimensionally reduced Polyakov-loop effective theory valid for heavy quarks at nonzero temperature and arbitrary chemical potential. We numerically compute the critical endpoint of the deconfinement transition as a function of quark masses and number of flavours. We also investigate the applicability of the model to the low-T and high density region, specifically in terms of baryon condensation phenomena.