# Simulating QCD at finite density with static quarks

## TL;DR

This paper explores lattice QCD at high quark mass and chemical potential, revealing that deconfinement becomes a smooth crossover and chiral symmetry remains broken at all densities in this static quark limit.

## Contribution

It introduces a new static quark approximation at finite density, providing insights into the phase transition behavior in this regime.

## Key findings

- Deconfinement transition becomes a smooth crossover at nonzero density.
- Chiral symmetry remains broken at low temperatures and all densities.
- The static quark approximation offers a controllable way to study dense QCD.

## Abstract

We study lattice QCD in the limit that the quark mass and chemical potential are simultaneously made large, resulting in a controllable density of quarks which do not move; this is similar in spirit to the quenched approximation for zero density QCD. In this approximation we find that the deconfinement transition seen at zero density becomes a smooth crossover for any nonzero density at which we simulated, and that at low enough temperature chiral symmetry remains broken at all densities.