Karlsruhe 2011 – scientific programme

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SYDI: Dissertationspreissymposium

SYDI 1: Dissertationspreissymposium

SYDI 1.2: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 09:00–09:30, 30.95: 001

Modeling the thermodynamics of QCD — •Thomas Hell — Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, D-85747 Garching, Germany

Strongly interacting (QCD) matter is expected to exhibit a multifaceted phase structure: a hadron gas at low temperatures, a quark-gluon plasma at very high temperatures, nuclear matter in the range of low temperature and intermediate baryon densities, color superconductors at asymptotically high densities. Matter under such extreme conditions is in the active focus of high-energy nuclear collisions and the physics of neutron stars. The present theoretical picture is based on lattice-QCD computations (where applicable) and on model calculations.

I have elaborated a nonlocal covariant extension of the Nambu and Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model with built-in constraints from the running coupling of QCD at high-momentum and instanton physics at low-momentum scales. At finite temperatures and densities, gluon dynamics is incorporated through a gluonic background field, expressed in terms of the Polyakov loop (P). The thermodynamics of this nonlocal PNJL model accounts for both chiral and deconfinement transitions. Results in mean-field approximation and beyond are shown, including additional pionic and kaonic contributions to the chiral condensate, the pressure and other thermodynamic quantities. Finally, the QCD phase diagram is discussed and an outlook is given concerning future steps and perspectives.