The Equation of State of Deconfined Matter at Finite Chemical Potential in a Quasiparticle Description

Abstract

A quasiparticle description of the thermodynamics of deconfined matter, reproducing both the perturbative limit and nonperturbative lattice QCD data at finite temperature, is generalized to finite chemical potential. By a flow equation resulting from Maxwell's relation, the equation of state is extended from zero to non-zero quark densities. The impact of the massive strange flavor is considered and implications for cold, charge-neutral deconfined matter in $\beta$-equilibrium in compact stars are given.

Comments: REVTEX, 21 pages, 9 figures