# Deconfinement and freezeout boundaries in equilibrium thermal models

## TL;DR

This paper compares various models and experimental data to map deconfinement and freezeout boundaries in QCD matter, revealing their behavior across different baryonic densities and energies.

## Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of thermal models, lattice simulations, and experimental results to delineate phase boundaries in QCD matter.

## Key findings

- Excellent agreement between thermal models and experiments along the freezeout boundary.
- Thermal model results align well with Polyakov linear-sigma model estimations.
- Deconfinement and freezeout boundaries coincide at high energies but diverge at high baryonic densities.

## Abstract

In different approaches, the temperature-baryon density plane of QCD matter is studied for deconfinement and chemical freezeout boundaries. Results from various heavy-ion experiments are compared with the recent lattice simulations, the effective QCD-like Polyakov linear-sigma model, and the equilibrium thermal models. Along the entire freezeout boundary, there is an excellent agreement between the thermal model calculations and the experiments. Also, the thermal model calculations agree well with the estimations deduced from the Polyakov linear-sigma model (PLSM). At low baryonic density or high energies, both deconfinement and chemical freezeout boundaries are likely coincident and therefore the agreement with the lattice simulations becomes excellent as well, while at large baryonic density, the two boundaries become distinguishable forming a phase where hadrons and quark-gluon plasma likely coexist.