Phase transitions at high and low densities for a rotating QCD matter from holography

TL;DR

This paper uses holographic models to study phase transitions in rotating QCD matter, revealing crossover and first-order transitions at different densities and rotation speeds, with a critical point at specific chemical potential and temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic approach to analyze phase transitions in rotating QCD matter, identifying the nature of transitions and the critical point across densities and rotation speeds.

Findings

Crossover transitions occur at high rotation speeds and low densities.

First-order transitions dominate at higher densities beyond the critical chemical potential.

A critical point is estimated at (μ, T) = (363.554 MeV, 58.507 MeV).

Abstract

We applied the exact Andreev soft-wall holographic model to investigate phase transitions in rotating strongly interacting matter at high and low densities. Using the dual description of hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma via thermal and charged black holes in five-dimensional AdS space with cylindrical symmetry, we find that for relativistic rotations exceeding 16\% of the speed of light, crossover transitions emerge in the low-density regime up to a critical baryon chemical potential $\mu_{CPB}$. These smooth transitions, governed by the negative QCD $\beta$-function, describe a mixed phase of confined and deconfined matter with different angular momenta evolving into a pure plasma at very high temperatures. For $\mu \geq \mu_{CPB}$, first-order transitions dominate, following the critical-temperature curve of non-rotating matter. The critical point separating the low-density crossovers from high-density first-order transitions is numerically estimated as $(\mu_{CPB}, T_{CP}) = (363.554, 58.507)\,\text{MeV}$.