Curvature of the chiral pseudo-critical line in QCD: continuum extrapolated results

TL;DR

This paper calculates the curvature of the QCD pseudo-critical line using lattice simulations at imaginary chemical potentials, extrapolating to the continuum to provide a precise estimate.

Contribution

It provides a continuum-extrapolated estimate of the QCD pseudo-critical line curvature using improved lattice techniques and multiple lattice spacings.

Findings

Final estimate of curvature: 0.0135(20)

Used four lattice spacings for continuum extrapolation

Employs improved staggered fermions with physical quark masses

Abstract

We determine the curvature of the pseudo-critical line of strong interactions by means of numerical simulations at imaginary chemical potentials. We consider $N_f=2+1$ stout improved staggered fermions with physical quark masses and the tree level Symanzik gauge action, and explore four different sets of lattice spacings, corresponding to $N_t = 6,8,10,12$, in order to extrapolate results to the continuum limit. Our final estimate is $\kappa = 0.0135(20)$.