Impact of non-zero strangeness on thermodynamics of finite volume quark matter

TL;DR

This study explores how non-zero strangeness and finite volume effects influence the QCD phase diagram and thermodynamics of quark matter using a (2+1) flavored Polyakov quark meson model, revealing shifts in the chiral transition boundary.

Contribution

It extends the Polyakov quark meson model to include finite volume and strangeness chemical potential effects, analyzing their impact on QCD critical phenomena.

Findings

Chiral transition boundary shifts to higher $\mu_q$ and lower T with decreasing volume.

Opposite shift observed with decreasing strangeness chemical potential.

Susceptibilities analyzed via Taylor expansion provide insights into conserved charge fluctuations.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of strangeness chemical potential and finite volume on QCD critical end point by employing a (2+1) flavored Polyakov quark meson model. Within the mean-field approximation, the model has been extended to study the effect of vector interactions on the thermodynamics of isospin-asymmetric quark matter. Susceptibilities of conserved charges like the quark and strangeness number are analyzed using Taylor's series expansion. The chiral phase transition boundary in the QCD phase diagram is found to be shifted towards higher values of the quark chemical potential ($\mu_q$) and lower temperature (T) for decreasing system size. On the other hand, there is an opposite change to lower quark chemical potential and higher temperature for decreasing strangeness chemical potential.