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Chiral Symmetry transition in the Linear Sigma Model with quarks

This paper investigates the chiral symmetry transition in the QCD phase diagram using the linear sigma model with quarks. It computes the effective potential at finite temperature and density, determining the critical end point (CEP) and pressure in both low and high temperature regimes. The findings suggest that changes in pressure from low to high temperatures are linked to variations in coupling constants and effective degrees of freedom.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
7 views

Chiral Symmetry transition in the Linear Sigma Model with quarks

This paper investigates the chiral symmetry transition in the QCD phase diagram using the linear sigma model with quarks. It computes the effective potential at finite temperature and density, determining the critical end point (CEP) and pressure in both low and high temperature regimes. The findings suggest that changes in pressure from low to high temperatures are linked to variations in coupling constants and effective degrees of freedom.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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International Journal of Modern Physics A

Vol. 31, No. 36 (2016) 1650199 (14 pages)


c World Scientific Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/S0217751X16501992

Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks:


Counting effective QCD degrees of freedom
from low to high temperature
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Alejandro Ayala,∗,‡ Jorge David Castaño-Yepes,∗ J. J. Cobos-Martı́nez,†,§


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Saúl Hernández-Ortiz,† Ana Julia Mizher∗ and Alfredo Raya†


∗ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
Apartado Postal 70-543, México Distrito Federal 04510, Mexico
† Instituto de Fı́sica y Matemáticas,

Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo,


Edificio C-3, Ciudad Universitaria, Morelia, Michoacán 58040, Mexico
‡ Centre for Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, Department of Physics,

University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa


§ Laboratório de Fı́sica Teórica e Computacional – LFTC,

Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul, 01506-000, São Paulo, Brazil

Received 9 November 2016


Revised 28 November 2016
Accepted 29 November 2016
Published 27 December 2016

We use the linear sigma model coupled to quarks, together with a plausible location of
the critical end point (CEP), to study the chiral symmetry transition in the QCD phase
diagram. We compute the effective potential at finite temperature and density up to the
contribution of the ring diagrams, both in the low and high temperature limits, and use
it to compute the pressure and the position of the CEP. In the high temperature regime,
by comparing to results from extrapolated lattice data, we determine the model coupling
constants. Demanding that the CEP remains in the same location when described in
the high temperature limit, we determine again the couplings and the pressure for the
low temperature regime. We show that this procedure gives an average description of
the lattice QCD results for the pressure and that the change from the low to the high
temperature domains in this quantity can be attributed to the change in the coupling
constants which in turn we link to the change in the effective degrees of freedom.

Keywords: Linear sigma model; thermal field theory; QCD phase diagram; critical end
point.

PACS numbers: 25.75.Nq, 11.30.Rd, 11.15.Tk

1. Introduction
In the study of QCD thermodynamics one of the principal goals is to gather accu-
rate knowledge of the phase diagram in the quark chemical potential (μ) versus

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A. Ayala et al.

temperature (T ) plane, describing the degrees of freedom of strongly interacting


matter. Data from the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)1–5 and the
CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC)6,7 show that in heavy-ion collisions a decon-
fined phase, the so-called Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP), is produced. For vanishing
μ, this phase takes place above a (pseudo)critical temperature Tc that lattice QCD
calculations have shown to represent a region where an analytic crossover takes
place.8 The most recent value for this temperature provided by lattice QCD calcu-
lations is Tc = 155(1)(8) MeV9 considering 2 + 1 quark flavors.
On the other hand for vanishing T , a number of different model approaches
indicate that the transition along the quark chemical potential axis is strongly first
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order.10–18 Since the first-order line originating at T = 0 cannot end at the μ = 0


axis, which corresponds to the starting point of the cross-over line, it must terminate
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somewhere in the middle of the phase diagram. This point is generally referred to
as the critical end point (CEP). Mathematical extensions of lattice calculations, for
instance, the Taylor expansion technique19 or the Fourier expansion of the grand
canonical partition function20 (which considers an imaginary chemical potential)
place the CEP in the region (μCEP /Tc, T CEP /Tc ) ∼ (1.0–1.4, 0.9–0.95).21 For recent
reviews see Refs. 22 and 23.
The extension of lattice QCD calculations to μ = 0 is hindered by the sign prob-
lem.24 Although some mathematical extensions of lattice calculations20,25,26 as well
as Schwinger–Dyson equation techniques27–30 can be employed in the finite μ region,
the use of effective QCD models continues to be a useful tool to explore a large
portion of the phase diagram.31–40 As emphasized in Refs. 39 and 40, for theories
where massless bosons appear, the proper treatment of the plasma screening effects
in the calculation of the effective finite temperature potential is paramount to deter-
mining the CEP location. The importance of accounting for screening in plasmas
was pointed out since the pioneering work in Ref. 41 and implemented also in the
context of the Standard Model to study the electroweak phase transition.42
In this work, we use the linear sigma model coupled to quarks (LSMq) as an
effective model for the strong interactions to determinate the transition lines and
the CEP location in the phase diagram. The same model has been previously used
to incorporate magnetic field effects on the couplings to explore the influence of
the latter on the inverse magnetic catalysis phenomenon.43 We compute the effec-
tive potential at finite temperature and density in the low and high temperature
limits. To account for the plasma screening effects, the computation of the effective
potential is carried out up to the contribution of ring diagrams. We use the low
temperature expansion to determine the model coupling constants requiring that
the CEP location agrees with the one provided by extrapolated lattice results and
then compute the pressure. Then, by requiring that the CEP remains in the same
location when described from the high temperature behavior of the effective poten-
tial, we determine the values of the couplings in that limit and also compute the
pressure. We show that the pressure thus computed provides an average description
of lattice results and that its change from the low to the high temperature regimes

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Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks

can be attributed to the change in the coupling constants, which in turn arises from
the change in the effective degrees of freedom from the low to the high temperature
regimes.
This paper is organized as follows. In Sec. 2, we outline the basics of the LSMq.
In Sec. 3, we compute the finite T and μ effective potential up to the ring dia-
grams order. The calculation requires knowledge of the self-energy which we also
find both in the low and high temperature approximations. In Sec. 4 we use the
effective potentials found in the high and low-temperature limits to explore the
phase diagram and in particular to locate the CEP in the region found by mathe-
matical extensions of lattice QCD.21 The guiding benchmark is to obtain the same
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CEP location when working in the high and low-temperature approximations. We


test our findings by computing the pressure and comparing to lattice QCD results.
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Finally, we summarize and conclude in Sec. 5.

2. The Linear Sigma Model Coupled to Quarks


We start from the LSMq. The Lagrangian density is given by
1 1 a2 λ
L= (∂μ σ)2 + (∂μ π)2 + (σ 2 + π2 ) − (σ 2 + π 2 )2
2 2 2 4
+ iψ̄γ μ ∂μ ψ − g ψ̄(σ + iγ5 τ · π)ψ , (1)

where ψ is an SU(2) isospin doublet, π is an isospin triplet and σ is an isospin


singlet. The neutral pion, π 0 , is taken as the third component of π and the charged
pions as π± = (π1 ∓ iπ2 )/2. We require that the squared mass parameter a2 and
the coupling constants λ and g are positive.
The spontaneous breaking of symmetry is obtained when the σ field develops a
vacuum expectation value v that can later be taken as the order parameter of the
theory. Thus, we shift σ as

σ → σ+v, (2)

so that the Lagrangian density becomes


1 1 1 a2
L = − σ∂μ ∂ μ σ − (3λv 2 − a2 )σ 2 − π∂μ ∂ μ π + v 2
2 2 2 2
1 λ
− (λv 2 − a2 )π 2 − v 4 + iψ̄γ μ ∂μ ψ − gv ψ̄ψ + LbI + LfI , (3)
2 4
where
λ
LbI = − [(σ 2 + π02 )2 + 4π + π − (σ 2 + π02 + π + π − )] ,
4 (4)
LfI = −g ψ̄(σ + iγ5 τ · π)ψ ,
describe the interactions among the fields after symmetry breaking. Equation (3)
gives the masses of fields in terms of the order parameter v, the mass parameter a

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A. Ayala et al.

and the coupling constants λ and g, namely,

m2σ = 3λv 2 − a2 ,
m2π = λv 2 − a2 , (5)
mf = gv .

We now proceed to use this theory to compute the effective potential at finite
temperature and density.
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3. Effective Potential and Self-Energy


In this section, we compute the T - and μ-dependent effective potential up to ring
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diagrams order to account for the plasma screening effects. The quark chemical
potential is introduced assuming the conservation of the baryon number Q, so
that in equilibrium the system is described by a grand canonical partition function
Z = Tr[exp{−(H − μQ)β)}], with β = 1/T . Using the imaginary-time formalism
of finite temperature field theory, this amounts to replace the Matsubara fermion
frequencies iω̃n by iω̃n −μ when computing the fermion contribution to the effective
potential.44 We obtain the effective potential both in the high as well as in the low
temperature limits. Since the ring contribution requires calculation of the boson
self-energy, we also show the results for this quantity in these regimes.

3.1. High temperature approximation


The effective potential and the self-energy at finite temperature and chemical po-
tential up to the contribution of the ring diagrams in the limit where the masses are
small compared to temperature, after mass renormalization at the scale μ̃ = e−1/2 a
have been computed in detail in Ref. 39 and are given by
a2 2 λ 4   m4   (4πT )2  
(eff)
V =− v + v + i
ln − 2γE + 1
2 4 i=σ,π
64π 2 2a2
    
π 2 T 4 m2i T 2 T 2 3/2 Nc  4 (4πT )2
− + − (m + Π) − mf ln
90 24 12π i 16π 2 2a2
f =u,d
   
1 iμ 1 iμ
+ 1 + ψ0 + + ψ0 −
2 2πT 2 2πT

μ μ μ μ
+ 8m2f T 2 [Li2 (−e T ) + Li2 (−e− T )] − 32T 4 [Li4 (−e T ) + Li4 (−e− T )] ,

(6)

and
λT 2 Nf Nc g 2 T 2 μ μ
Π= − 2
[Li2 (−e T ) + Li2 (−e− T )] , (7)
2 π
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Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks

respectively, where γE  0.5772 is the Euler–Mascheroni constant, ψ0 (z) is the


digamma function and Lin (x) is a polylogarithm function of order n. Nf = 2 and
Nc = 3 are the number of light flavors and colors, respectively. The first (second)
term in Eq. (7) is the high temperature one-loop boson (fermion) contribution. The
second term is also computed in the approximation where the external momentum
can be neglected compared to the temperature.

3.2. Low temperature approximation


Since for the low temperature calculation of the effective potential we need to
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resort to numerical integration, we start from the original expressions that provide
the boson and fermion contributions to the one-loop effective potential
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 ∞

(1) d3 k 1
Vb =T 3
ln D− 2 ,
i=σ,π n=−∞
(2π)
(8)
 ∞

(1) d3 k
Vf =T ln S ,
(2π)3
i=u,d n=−∞

where the thermal boson and fermion propagators are given by


1 1
D= , S= , (9)
k 2 + m2i + ωn2 k 2 + m2i + (ω̃n − iμ)2
respectively, with

ωn = 2nπT , ω̃n = (2n + 1)πT , (10)

being the Matsubara frequencies for bosons and fermions, respectively.


To account for the plasma screening effects, the boson contribution to the
effective potential is computed up to ring diagrams order.44 This contribution is
written as

(ring) T   d3 k
Vb = ln[1 + ΠD] . (11)
2 i=σ,π n=−∞ (2π)3

Using the expression for the boson propagator in Eq. (9), we obtain
∞  2 
(ring) T   d3 k k + m2i + ωn2 + Π
Vb = ln
2 i=σ,π n=−∞ (2π)3 k 2 + m2i + ωn2

T   d3 k
= ln[k 2 + m2i + ωn2 + Π]
2 i=σ,π n=−∞
(2π)3

T   d3 k
− ln[k 2 + m2i + ωn2 ] . (12)
2 i=σ,π n=−∞
(2π)3

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A. Ayala et al.

By adding the one-loop and the ring diagram boson contribution to the effective
potential, we obtain
(1) (ring)
Vb ≡ Vb + Vb
 ∞
T d3 k
= ln[k 2 + m2i + ωn2 + Π]
2 i=σ,π n=−∞ (2π)3
 ∞
 d3 k 1
=T ln(D(ring) )− 2 . (13)
i=σ,π n=−∞
(2π)3

Therefore, the calculation, after considering the sum of the one-loop and ring
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diagram contributions, is carried out with a boson propagator where m2i → m2i + Π.
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Let us first look at the boson contribution. In order to work with Eq. (13) for a
single boson species with mass mi , we can rewrite the expression as

 d3 k ∂ 1
Vbi = T dm2i ln(D(ring) )− 2
n=−∞
(2π)3 ∂m2i
∞  
d3 k 2 1 (ring) −1 ∂(D(ring) )
=T d mi − (D )
n=−∞
(2π)3 2 ∂m2i


1 d3 k 1
= dm2i T 2 + ω2
, (14)
2 (2π)3 ω
n=−∞ n i

where

ωi2 ≡ k 2 + m2i + Π . (15)

Using the fact that the sum over Matsubara frequencies in Eq. (14) can be written as
∞  
1 1 2
T = 1 + ω , (16)
ω2 + ω2
n=−∞ n
2ω eT − 1

we obtain
  
d3 k ωi ω
− Ti
Vb = + T ln(1 − e ) . (17)
i=σ,π
(2π)3 2

In order to proceed, we need to compute the self-energy Π in the low temperature


limit. The diagrams contributing to Π are depicted in Fig. 1.
The self-energy Πi for a single boson i is given by
 sj k2
Πi = n(ωi )dk + Πf , (18)
j=σ,π
4π 2 ωi

where sj is the symmetry factor that corresponds to each boson loop,


1
n(ωi ) = (19)
exp ωi
T −1

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Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks

 
Fig. 1. Feynman diagrams depicting the contributions to the one-loop boson self-energy. Dashed
lines represent bosons whereas solid lines represent fermions. The boson one-loop diagram receives
contributions from the pions and sigma.

σ π0 π±
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Πσ = 6 +2 +2 +
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σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ

σ π0 π±
f

Ππ0 = 2 +6 +2 +
π0 π0 π0 π0 π0 π0 π0 π0
f

σ π0 π±
f

Ππ± = 2 +2 +6 +
π± π± π± π± π± π± π± π±
f
Fig. 2. Self-energy Feynman diagrams for each boson species together with the corresponding
symmetry factors that multiply each boson loop diagram. Notice that since there is no interaction
that distinguishes between charged and neutral pions, the self-energy expressions for one and the
other species become equal.

and Πf represents the one-loop fermion contribution to the boson’s self-energy. Note
that for the temperatures of interest, namely, close to the phase transition, T can
still be considered large compared to the fermion mass. Therefore, even though the
temperature cannot be taken as small when compared to the mass parameter a in
the boson sector, it is still a good approximation to consider the large temperature
expansion with respect to the mass in the fermion sector. Thus, we take for Πf the
same expression as the one in the second term of Eq. (7), namely

Nf Nc g 2 T 2 μ μ
Πf = [Li2 (−e T ) + Li2 (−e− T )] . (20)
π2

The diagrams contributing to each boson species’ self-energy are depicted in


Fig. 2 together with its corresponding symmetry factor that can be read off from
the interaction Lagrangian.

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A. Ayala et al.

The explicit expressions for the boson self-energies are given by


λ    
± 0
Πσb = 3I m2σ + Πσb + 2I m2π± + Ππb +I m2π0 + Ππb + Πf ,
2
0 λ    
± 0
Ππb = I m2σ + Πσb + 2I m2π± + Ππb + 3I m2π0 + Ππb + Πf , (21)
2
± λ    
± 0
Ππb = I m2σ + Πσb + 4I m2π± + Ππb +I m2π0 + Ππb + Πf ,
2
where
1 k2
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I(x) = √ n k 2 + x2 dk . (22)
4π 2 k 2 + x2
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Given that in our scheme charged and neutral pion masses are equal as a conse-
quence of isospin symmetry, we cannot distinguish between the π 0 and π ± self-
energies. Therefore, Eqs. (21) reduce to the simpler system
λ 
Πσb = 3I m2σ + Πσb + 3I m2π + Ππb + Πf ,
2
(23)
λ 
Ππb = I m2σ + Πσb + 5I m2π + Ππb + Πf .
2
Note that Eqs. (23) represent a system of coupled equations for the self-energies.
Since the boson masses depend on the order parameter v, the solutions will also
depend on v.
Finally, using Eqs. (17), (22) and (23), and after mass renormalization at the
scale μ̃ = e−1/2 a, the effective potential in the low temperature approximation is

a2 2 λ 4  (m2 + Πi )2   m2 + Πi  1

(eff)
V =− v + v + i
ln i
+ γE −
2 4 i=σ,π
64π 2 4πa2 2
   
T 2 k 2 + m2i + Πi
+ 2 dkk ln 1 − exp −
2π T
       
Nc  4 (4πT )2 0 1 iμ 0 1 iμ
− m ln +1+ψ + +ψ −
16π 2 f
2a2 2 2πT 2 2πT
f =u,d

μ μ μ μ
+ 8m2f T 2 [Li2 (−e T ) + Li2 (−e− T )] − 32T 4[Li4 (−e T ) + Li4 (−e− T )] .

(24)

We now proceed to use Eqs. (6) and (24) to study the phase diagram from the
low and the high temperature approaches and in particular to locate a CEP. In
order to determine the model parameters in the low temperature regime, we use as
input the CEP location found in the high temperature approximation in a previous
work,46 which lies within the region found by lattice inspired calculations.21 Our
guiding principle then is to find the same CEP location when computed in both

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Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks

the low and high temperature approaches. Subsequently, we compute the pressure
in both regimes and compare the results to those of lattice QCD.

4. Locating the CEP and Computing the Pressure


In order to determine the phase boundaries we compute from the effective potential
V (eff) the values of μc and Tc for which v0 , the value of the order parameter that
minimizes V (eff) , changes from v0 = 0 to a finite value. For low values of μ such
change is continuous and the corresponding transitions are associated to cross-over
transitions in the general case with nonzero current mass but described as second-
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order phase transitions in this approach with zero current mass. Increasing μ, one
reaches a pair of values μCEP and T CEP for which the change in v0 starts becoming
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discontinuous. These changes are associated to first-order phase transitions. This


procedure requires as starting point the fixing of the model parameters, a procedure
we explain below.
In order to find the values of λ, g and a appropriate for the description of
the phase transition, we note that when considering the thermal effects the boson
masses are modified since they acquire a thermal component. For μ = 0, they are
λT 2 Nf Nc g 2 T 2
m2σ (T ) = 3λv 2 − a2 + + ,
2 6
(25)
λT 2 Nf Nc g 2 T 2
m2π (T ) 2
= λv − a + 2
+ .
2 6
At the phase transition, the curvature of the effective potential vanishes for
v = 0. Since the boson thermal masses are proportional to this curvature, they also
vanish at v = 0. From any of Eqs. (25), we obtain a relation between the model
parameters at Tc

λ Nf Nc g 2
a = Tc + . (26)
2 6
Furthermore, we can fix the value of a by noting from Eqs. (5) that the vacuum
boson masses satisfy

m2σ − 3m2π
a= . (27)
2
Since in our scheme we consider two flavors of quarks in the chiral limit, we take
Tc  170 MeV45 which is slightly larger than Tc obtained in Nf = 2 + 1 lattice
simulations. From Eqs. (26) and (27) the coupling constants are proportional to
mσ , given that this is large compared to the pion mass.
To explore the phase diagram within the high-T approximation, we impose that
the couplings g and λ are restricted by Eq. (26). Also, in order to allow for a cross-
over phase transition for μ = 0 with g, λ ∼ O(1), we need that g 2 > λ. A solution
consistent with the above requirements gives λ = 0.86 and g = 1.11. Figure 3 shows
the phase diagram and the CEP thus found.

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A. Ayala et al.

Λ0.86, g1.11, N f 2, Nc3


1
TTc

0.5
Secondorder
Firstorder
CEP
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0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
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Μ Tc

Fig. 3. Phase diagram computed from the high-temperature approximation. This procedure gives
as a possible solution λ = 0.86 and g = 1.11.

Λ2.4, g1.65, N f 2, Nc3

1
TTc

Secondorder
0.5
Firstorder
CEP

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Μ Tc

Fig. 4. Phase diagram computed from the low-temperature approximation with Tc /a = 1/2,
which corresponds to mσ  540 MeV and λ = 2.4 and g = 1.65. To set the values of the
couplings, we have required that the location of the CEP is in the same region as that obtained
in the high-temperature approximation.

We now turn to study the phase diagram from the low-T approximation.
We consider Tc /a = 1/2, which corresponds to mσ  540 MeV. Therefore,
Eq. (26) provides a concrete new restriction for the possible values of the couplings.
Furthermore, we choose a set of values that place the CEP in the same region as
the one we obtained in the high temperature limit, consistent with mathematical
extensions of lattice QCD.21 This gives λ = 2.4 and g = 1.65 and Fig. 4 shows the
phase diagram and the CEP thus found. Note that Figs. 3 and 4 describe essentially
the same phase diagram.

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Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks
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Fig. 5. The pressure computed in the model divided by T 4 and compared to lattice data for two
light flavors. The values of the couplings used in the low and high-temperature approximations
are λLT = 2.4 and gLT = 1.65, λHT = 0.86 and gHT = 1.11, respectively. Note that the model
gives an average description of lattice data for each temperature range, reproducing the jump of
the pressure around Tc , which is due to the change of the couplings.

In order to test the consequences of describing the phase diagram with two sets
of coupling constants we proceed to compute the pressure P , also in the low and
high-temperature regimes. Recall that the thermodynamical relation between P
and V (eff) is given by

P = −V (eff) (v = 0) . (28)

Figure 5 shows P/T 4 computed at μ = 0 in the low- and high-temperature


approximations compared to the lattice calculation for two light flavors.46 For the
low-temperature regime, we use the appropriate values of the couplings, namely
λ = λLT = 2.4 and g = gLT = 1.65, whereas for the high-temperature regime
we use λ = λHT = 0.86 and g = gHT = 1.11. Note that the computed pres-
sure provides an average description of lattice data for each temperature range,
i.e. the average value of P/T 4 at low temperature (up to the largest value of
T /Tc that we can reach) is about the average value of lattice data in that tem-
perature range, P/T 4  2. The same is true in the high-temperature description,
for which we obtain P/T 4  3. The jump from the low to the high-temperature
phases around Tc can be linked to the change in the values of the coupling con-
stants. Furthermore, it can be shown from Eq. (6) that when the couplings become
smaller the effective potential becomes deeper and thus its negative becomes larger.
Thus, the change in the couplings reflects the way the model can effectively incorpo-
rate the change in the degrees of freedom, which is generally understood as a change
from hadronic to partonic degrees of freedom when going from the low to the high
regimes.

1650199-11
A. Ayala et al.

5. Summary and Conclusions


In this work, we have studied the effective QCD phase diagram using the LSMq.
We have computed the finite T and μ-dependent effective potential including the
plasma screening effects working up to the ring diagram order. In the low tempera-
ture approximation, we fix the couplings by requiring the CEP location to be the
same as the one obtained in the high temperature approximation, which we have
determined in a previous work.39 In this latter approximation, we have used the
restriction stemming from the condition that relates the couplings to the critical
temperature for μ = 0 and the mass parameter a, together with lattice information
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on Tc .
The difference between the sets of couplings thus obtained is a measure of change
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in the effective degrees of freedom in each phase.


The phase diagram derived within the high temperature approximation is essen-
tially the same as the one in the low temperature limit. We use this information to
calculate the pressure and compare it to lattice data for two light flavors. Though
the pressure does not show a total agreement with the lattice results, it provides
an average description. We emphasize that the LSMq is an effective QCD theory
and that as such its use is limited to provide average values of observables. The
change of the pressure with temperature from down below up to above the critical
temperature is a signature of QCD that reveals the way the degrees of freedom
are activated as the temperature is raised, and this detailed description cannot be
captured by an effective model such as the LSMq. Nevertheless, the change of the
pressure curve from the low to the high-temperature descriptions can be attributed
to the change of the values of the coupling constants, which reflects the way the
model can describe the change of degrees of freedom when going from the hadronic
to the quark–gluon phase.
Overall the findings of this work support the idea that the LSMq is an adequate
effective analytical tool to describe in average the phase transition in QCD at finite
temperature and density. We believe this description can also play an important
role in determining the location of the CEP in QCD in the sense that, as in the case
of the LSMq, the infrared properties of the plasma need to be accounted for and
furthermore, the identification of the transition curves could be accomplished from
knowledge of the behavior of the order parameter for the chiral transition without
resorting to studying simultaneously the order parameter for the deconfinement
transition.

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge seminal conversations with R. L. S. Farias and G. Krein.
Support for this work has been received in part from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia
y Tecnologı́a grant number 256494 from UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT grant number
IN101515 and CIC-UMSNH grant number 4.22.

1650199-12
Chiral symmetry transition in the linear sigma model with quarks

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