Quark mass dependent collective excitations and quark number susceptibilities within the hard thermal loop approximation

TL;DR

This paper computes quark mass effects on collective excitations and susceptibilities in QCD using the hard thermal loop approximation, providing insights into finite-mass thermodynamics and comparing with lattice data.

Contribution

It introduces calculations of N-point functions and susceptibilities with finite quark masses within the hard thermal loop framework, advancing finite-mass QCD thermodynamics.

Findings

Calculated quark and baryon number susceptibilities with finite quark masses.

Compared HTL results with lattice QCD data, showing agreement.

Provided detailed N-point functions relevant for three-loop thermodynamics.

Abstract

We calculate all those QCD $N$-point functions which are relevant for a three-loop QCD thermodynamics calculation with finite quark masses within the hard the thermal loop approximation. Using the effective quark propagator, we also calculate second order quark and baryon number susceptibilities within the hard thermal loop approximation and compare the results with available lattice data.