Deconfinement and Chiral Restoration in Hot and Dense Matter

Abstract

We propose a picture that the chiral phase transition at zero quark mass and the deconfinement transition at infinite quark mass are continuously connected. This gives a simple interpretation on the coincidence of the pseudo-critical temperatures observed in lattice QCD. We discuss a possible dynamical mechanism behind the simultaneous crossovers and show the results in a model study.

Comments: Contributed to the XXII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice2004(nonzero)), Batavia, Illinois, Jun 21-26, 2004