Unified quark-hadron EoS and critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified model for quark-hadron matter in the QCD phase diagram, incorporating cluster decomposition, chiral symmetry restoration, and confinement effects, successfully describing critical endpoints and crossover regions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel unified approach combining the Beth-Uhlenbeck framework with Polyakov-loop and mesonic fields for the QCD phase diagram.

Findings

Accurately describes the QCD phase diagram including critical endpoints.

Achieves excellent agreement with lattice QCD results on temperature.

Models Mott dissociation of hadrons under extreme conditions.

Abstract

We present a recent development towards a unified description of quark-hadron matter in the QCD phase diagram that is based on a cluster decomposition of the generalized Beth-Uhlenbeck approach to quark matter, selfconsistently coupled to Polyakov-loop and mesonic background fields. The Mott dissociation of hadrons under extreme conditions of temperature and density is triggered by chiral symmetry restoration and confining aspects are modeled by the coupling to the background mean fields. First results for the QCD phase diagram with the capability to describe critical endpoints as well as crossover-all-over are presented and an excellent agreement with lattice QCD on the temperature axis is obtained.