Mean field approximation for effective theories of lattice QCD

TL;DR

This paper applies mean field approximation to effective Polyakov loop theories derived from lattice QCD to explore the QCD phase diagram, especially near the critical endpoint, providing a practical approach for complex interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a mean field framework for effective lattice QCD theories with long-range interactions, aiding the study of the QCD phase diagram at finite chemical potentials.

Findings

Reliable results for the critical endpoint of deconfinement transition.

Potential to investigate phase diagram at non-zero baryon and isospin chemical potential.

Abstract

For the exploration of the phase diagram of QCD, effective Polyakov loop theories derived from lattice QCD provide a valuable tool in the heavy quark mass regime. In practice, the evaluation of these theories is complicated by the appearance of long-range and multipoint interaction terms. On the other hand, it is well known that for theories with such kind of interactions mean field approximations can be expected to yield reliable results. Here, we apply this framework to the critical endpoint of the deconfinement transition and results are compared to the literature. This treatment can also be used to investigate the phase diagram at non-zero baryon and isospin chemical potential.