Lattice-data-driven specific heat and isentropic bulk modulus of SU(3) gluon matter at finite temperature

Abstract

We investigate the specific heat and isentropic bulk modulus of finite-temperature pure SU(3) gauge matter within a lattice-data-driven phenomenological framework. The equation of state is formulated in terms of a temperature-dependent effective gluon mass constrained { by lattice QCD pressure data as input, allowing the pressure}, trace anomaly, gluon number density, energy per thermally active gluonic mode, and derivative-sensitive response functions to be derived in a thermodynamically consistent manner. The resulting pressure and trace anomaly reproduce the characteristic lattice behavior across the deconfinement region, while the effective gluonic degrees of freedom increase rapidly above $T_c$. The normalized specific heat $C_V/T^3$ develops a pronounced enhancement in the vicinity of $T_c$, reflecting the rapid temperature variation of the energy density across the deconfinement region. The isentropic bulk modulus $K_S/T^4$ also rises sharply across the transition region, indicating a substantial stiffening of the equation of state. At high temperatures, both response functions gradually approach values close to their massless conformal Stefan--Boltzmann reference values, with ${\left(C_V/T^3\right)}_{\mathrm{SB}}=32{\pi }^2/15\simeq 21.06$ and ${\left(K_S/T^4\right)}_{\mathrm{SB}}=32{\pi }^2/135\simeq 2.34$. These findings indicate that the specific heat and isentropic bulk modulus provide complementary constraints on the temperature evolution of nonconformal dynamics in pure SU(3) gauge matter.

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. C