# Equation of state of a quark-meson mixture in the improved-PNJL model at finite chemical potential

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the equation of state of QCD using an improved three-flavor PNJL model that includes unquenched quark effects and mesonic contributions, comparing results with lattice QCD and exploring finite chemical potential.

## Contribution

It introduces an improved PNJL model incorporating unquenched quarks and mesonic effects, providing detailed thermodynamic calculations and phase diagram analysis.

## Key findings

- Pressure and entropy density agree with lattice QCD at zero chemical potential
- Phase diagram and meson masses are explored at finite chemical potential
- Thermodynamical pressure shows consistency with theoretical expectations

## Abstract

We study the equation of state of QCD using an improved version of the three-flavor Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model beyond the mean-field approximation. It incorporates the effects of unquenched quarks into the Polyakov-loop effective potential, as well as mesonic contributions to the grand-canonical potential. We study in full detail the calculation of the thermodynamical potential in this approach and compare the resulting pressure and entropy density with the most-recent lattice-QCD calculations at zero baryochemical potential. Finally, we present some exploratory results at finite chemical potential which include the phase diagram of the model, the quark and meson masses, and finally, the thermodynamical pressure.