Cross-over versus first-order phase transition in holographic gravity-single-dilaton models of QCD thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper uses a holographic gravity-single-dilaton model to analyze QCD thermodynamics, adjusting the dilaton potential to lattice data and exploring conditions for different types of phase transitions in the quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic model tuned to lattice QCD data that distinguishes conditions for first-order versus crossover phase transitions.

Findings

The model fits lattice QCD thermodynamics data in the specified temperature range.

Conditions for enforcing or avoiding first-order phase transitions are discussed.

The model maintains a softest point in the sound velocity despite the transition type.

Abstract

A dilaton potential is adjusted to recently confirmed lattice QCD thermodynamics data in the temperature range $(0.7 \ldots 3.5) T_c$ where $T_c = 155 \text{MeV}$ is the pseudo-critical temperature. The employed holographic model is based on a gravity--single-field dilaton dual. We discuss conditions for enforcing (for the pure gluon plasma) or avoiding (for the QCD quark-gluon plasma) a first-order phase transition, but still keeping a softest point (minimum of sound velocity).