Phase Transitions in Dense and Hot Matter

TL;DR

This paper discusses the phase transition from hadronic matter to quark matter at high densities and temperatures, exploring its implications for astrophysical phenomena and heavy-ion collision experiments.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the deconfinement phase transition and the effects of phase mixtures on the QCD phase diagram under conserved quantities.

Findings

Mixtures of phases influence signals of quark matter in astrophysical events.

First-order phase transition occurs beyond a critical point in dense matter.

Modifications in the QCD phase diagram affect observable phenomena.

Abstract

In this conference proceeding, I discuss in detail the deconfinement to quark matter that takes place at large densities and/or temperatures. The first-order phase transition that is assumed to appear beyond a critical point gives rise to mixtures of phases when more than one globally conserved quantity (such as charge fraction) is imposed. The modifications caused by these mixtures of phases in the QCD phase diagram can have consequences on signals of the existence of quark matter expected to be created in heavy-ion collisions, as well as supernova explosions and neutron-star mergers.