Locating the critical end point of QCD

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential using Dyson-Schwinger equations, aiming to locate the critical end point and compare with lattice-QCD results.

Contribution

It provides a continuum approach to study QCD phase transitions and offers insights into the critical end point at high chemical potential.

Findings

Agreement with lattice-QCD at zero chemical potential

Identification of potential critical end point at large chemical potential

Analysis of chiral and deconfinement transition order parameters

Abstract

We summarize recent results for the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature and light-quark chemical potential for N_f=2+1 and N_f=2+1+1 dynamical quark flavors. We discuss order parameters for the chiral and deconfinement transitions obtained from solutions of a coupled set of (truncated) Dyson-Schwinger equations for the quark and gluon propagators of Landau gauge QCD. Based on excellent agreement with results from lattice-QCD at zero chemical potential we study the possible appearance of a critical end-point at large chemical potential.