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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kapusta, Joseph I., Wan, Shensong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02845
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author Kapusta, Joseph I.
Wan, Shensong
author_facet Kapusta, Joseph I.
Wan, Shensong
contents Lattice QCD calculations have shown that the transition from hadrons to quarks and gluons is a rapid crossover at $T = 155-160$ MeV at vanishing chemical potential. Many model calculations show that the transition is first-order at sufficiently high baryon chemical potential. It is then natural to expect the existence of a critical point where the crossover and first-order phase transition lines meet. We show how to embed a phase boundary that terminates at the critical point in a smooth background equation of state, using several different but closely related criteria, so as to yield the critical exponents and critical amplitude ratios expected of a transition in the 3D Ising and liquid-gas universality class. The crossover curves can be tuned to pass through experimental freeze-out data from heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The resulting equations of state can be used in hydrodynamic simulations of these collisions to probe the existence of a critical point and corresponding first-order phase transition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02845
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Variations of the crossover and first-order phase transition curve in modeling the QCD equation of state
Kapusta, Joseph I.
Wan, Shensong
Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Theory
Lattice QCD calculations have shown that the transition from hadrons to quarks and gluons is a rapid crossover at $T = 155-160$ MeV at vanishing chemical potential. Many model calculations show that the transition is first-order at sufficiently high baryon chemical potential. It is then natural to expect the existence of a critical point where the crossover and first-order phase transition lines meet. We show how to embed a phase boundary that terminates at the critical point in a smooth background equation of state, using several different but closely related criteria, so as to yield the critical exponents and critical amplitude ratios expected of a transition in the 3D Ising and liquid-gas universality class. The crossover curves can be tuned to pass through experimental freeze-out data from heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The resulting equations of state can be used in hydrodynamic simulations of these collisions to probe the existence of a critical point and corresponding first-order phase transition.
title Variations of the crossover and first-order phase transition curve in modeling the QCD equation of state
topic Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02845