QCD Phase Transition with Strange Quark in Wilson Formalism for Fermions

TL;DR

This study investigates the nature of the QCD phase transition with light and strange quarks using lattice Wilson formalism, finding evidence that it is predominantly first order under various strange quark masses.

Contribution

It provides new lattice QCD results indicating a first order phase transition for realistic strange quark masses, enhancing understanding of QCD thermodynamics.

Findings

QCD phase transition is first order for strange quark masses around 150 MeV and 400 MeV.

Results support the hypothesis that the QCD phase transition is generally first order.

Lattice simulations with Wilson fermions reveal the nature of the transition in the presence of a strange quark.

Abstract

The nature of QCD phase transition is studied with massless up and down quarks and a light strange quark, using the Wilson formalism for quarks on a lattice with the temporal direction extension $N_t=4$. We find that the phase transition is first order in the cases of both about 150 MeV and 400 MeV for the strange quark mass. These results together with those for three degenerate quarks suggest that QCD phase transition in nature is first order.