Three Flavor QCD at High Temperatures

TL;DR

This study investigates the phase diagram of high temperature QCD with three flavors of improved staggered quarks, finding a crossover behavior that intensifies as quark masses decrease, and providing new data on crossover temperatures and susceptibilities.

Contribution

The paper presents new simulation results for three-flavor QCD at high temperatures, including crossover temperature estimates and susceptibilities, extending understanding of the phase diagram.

Findings

Crossover behavior observed, not a true phase transition.

Crossover strengthens as light quark masses decrease.

New estimates for crossover temperature and quark susceptibilities.

Abstract

We have continued our study of the phase diagram of high temperature QCD with three flavors of improved staggered quarks. We are performing simulations with three degenerate quarks with masses less than or equal to the strange quark mass m_s and with degenerate up and down quarks with masses m_{u,d} less than the strange quark mass. For the quark masses studied to date, we find a crossover that strengthens as m_{u,d} decreases, rather than a bona fide phase transition. We present new results for the crossover temperature extrapolated to the physical value of m_{u,d}, and for quark number susceptibilities.