Thermodynamics of Deconfined Matter at Finite Chemical Potential in a Quasiparticle Description

Abstract

An effective quasiparticle description of the thermodynamics of deconfined matter, compatible with both finite-temperature lattice data and the perturbative limit, is generalized to finite chemical potential. Within this approach, the available 4-flavor lattice equation of state is extended to finite baryon density, and implications for cold, charge-neutral deconfined matter in beta-equilibrium in compact stars are considered.

Comments: 4 pages REVTEX, 3 eps figures