Extended soft-wall model for the QCD phase diagram

TL;DR

This paper extends the soft-wall holographic model to better match the QCD phase diagram by aligning the disappearance temperature of vector mesons with experimental freeze-out and crossover curves.

Contribution

It introduces modifications to the soft-wall model to achieve consistency between the meson disappearance temperature and empirical QCD phase transition data.

Findings

The model can reproduce the freeze-out curve $T_{f.o.}()$ at small chemical potentials.

It aligns the meson disappearance temperature with the QCD crossover curve $T_c()$.

Provides a framework for improved holographic modeling of the QCD phase diagram.

Abstract

The soft-wall model, emerging as bottom-up holographic scenario anchored in the AdS/CFT correspondence, displays the disappearance of normalisable modes referring to vector mesons at a temperature $T_{\dis}$ depending on the chemical potential $\mu$, $T_{\dis}(\mu)$. We explore options for making $T_{\dis}(\mu)$ consistent with the freeze-out curve $T_{\rm f.o.}(\mu)$ from relativistic heavy-ion collisions and the cross-over curve $T_{\rm c}(\mu)$ from QCD at small values of $\mu$.