Where is the chiral critical point in 3-flavor QCD?

TL;DR

This paper locates the chiral critical point in 3-flavor QCD by analyzing the phase transition line's dependence on quark mass and chemical potential, revealing significant quark mass effects.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed determination of the chiral critical point's position in 3-flavor QCD at zero chemical potential using reweighting techniques.

Findings

The critical point's location depends strongly on quark mass.

The transition line shifts with chemical potential.

Reweighting methods effectively map the phase diagram.

Abstract

We determine the location of the second order endpoint of the line of first order chiral phase transition in 3-flavor QCD at vanishing chemical potential. Using Ferrenberg-Swendsen reweighting for two values of the quark mass we determine the dependence of the transition line on the chemical potential and locate the chiral critical point. For both quantities we find a significant quark mass dependence.