Bounding the QCD Equation of State with the Lattice
Guy D. Moore🇩🇪 · Tyler Gorda🇩🇪
The equation of state of QCD matter at high densities is relevant for neutron star structure and for neutron star mergers and has been a focus of recent work. We show how lattice QCD simulations, free of sign problems, can provide an upper bound on the pressure as a function of quark chemical potentials. We show that at large chemical potentials this bound should become quite sharp; the difference between the upper bound on the pressure P-phase-quenched and the true pressure P is of order alpha^3 P. The corrections arise from a single Feynman diagram; its calculation would render remaining corrections of order alpha^4 P.