Real and imaginary chemical potential in 2-color QCD

Abstract

In this paper we study the finite temperature SU(2) gauge theory with staggered fermions for non-zero imaginary and real chemical potential. The method of analytical continuation of Monte Carlo results from imaginary to real chemical potential is tested by comparison with simulations performed {\em directly} for real chemical potential. We discuss the applicability of the method in the different regions of the phase diagram in the temperature -- imaginary chemical potential plane.

Comments: 15 pages, 7 figures; a few comments added; version published on Phys. Rev. D