Phase transitions in heavy-quark QCD from an effective theory

Abstract

With combined hopping parameter and strong coupling expansions, we calculate a dimensionally reduced Polyakov-loop effective theory valid for heavy quarks at nonzero temperature and arbitrary chemical potential. We numerically compute the critical endpoint of the deconfinement transition as a function of quark masses and number of flavours. We also investigate the applicability of the model to the low-T and high density region, specifically in terms of baryon condensation phenomena.

Comments: Proceeding for Extreme QCD (xQCD 2012), August 21-23 2012, Washington DC, U.S.A.; 5 pages, 2 figures; uses jpconf.cls