The finite temperature transition for 3-flavour lattice QCD at finite isospin density

TL;DR

This study investigates the finite temperature phase transition in 3-flavour lattice QCD at finite isospin chemical potential, identifying a critical endpoint and suggesting similarities with finite quark-number chemical potential behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the finite temperature transition at finite isospin density, locating the critical endpoint and comparing it to finite quark-number chemical potential QCD.

Findings

Evidence for a critical endpoint where the transition changes from crossover to first-order.

The transition temperature varies with isospin chemical potential.

QCD at finite isospin density behaves similarly to QCD at finite quark-number chemical potential.

Abstract

We simulate 3-flavour lattice QCD with a small chemical potential $\mu_I$ for isospin, at temperatures close to the finite temperature transition. Using quark masses just above the critical mass for zero chemical potential, we determine the position of the transition from hadronic matter to a quark-gluon plasma as a function of $\mu_I$. We see evidence for a critical endpoint where the transition changes from a crossover to a first-order transition as $\mu_I$ is increased. We argue that QCD at finite $\mu_I$ and QCD at finite quark-numberchemical potential $\mu$ should behave similarly in this region.