Deconfinement and Chiral Symmetry Restoration

TL;DR

This paper reviews lattice QCD results on the phase transition of strongly interacting matter, highlighting the coincidence of deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration in QCD and their separation in other theories.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration across different gauge theories using lattice calculations.

Findings

Deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration coincide in QCD.

In SU(3) gauge theory with adjoint fermions, the transitions are separate.

Deconfinement in quenched QCD occurs at non-zero baryon number.

Abstract

We discuss the critical behaviour of strongly interacting matter close to the QCD phase transition. Emphasis is put on a presentation of results from lattice calculations that illustrate deconfining as well as chiral symmetry restoring features of the phase transition. We show that both transitions coincide in QCD while they fall apart in an SU(3) gauge theory coupled to adjoint fermions. We also discuss some results on deconfinement in quenched QCD at non-zero baryon number.