Lattice determination of the critical point of QCD at finite T and \mu

TL;DR

This paper uses lattice QCD simulations with finite size scaling to locate the critical point in the QCD phase diagram, providing specific temperature and chemical potential values relevant for heavy-ion collision experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice method combined with finite size scaling to determine the QCD critical point at finite temperature and chemical potential with dynamical quarks.

Findings

Critical point at T_E=160±3.5 MeV and μ_E=725±35 MeV.

Critical temperature at μ=0 is T_c=172±3 MeV.

Method applicable to study phase transitions in QCD.

Abstract

Based on universal arguments it is believed that there is a critical point (E) in QCD on the temperature (T) versus chemical potential (\mu) plane, which is of extreme importance for heavy-ion experiments. Using finite size scaling and a recently proposed lattice method to study QCD at finite \mu we determine the location of E in QCD with n_f=2+1 dynamical staggered quarks with semi-realistic masses on $L_t=4$ lattices. Our result is T_E=160 \pm 3.5 MeV and \mu_E= 725 \pm 35 MeV. For the critical temperature at \mu=0 we obtained T_c=172 \pm 3 MeV.