The QCD phase transition at high temperature and low density

Abstract

We study the thermal properties of QCD in the presence of a small quark chemical potential $\hat{I}¼$. Derivatives of the phase transition point with respect to $\hat{I}¼$ are computed at $\hat{I}¼=0$ for 2 and 3 flavors of p-4 improved staggered fermions on a $16^3\times 4$ lattice. Moreover we contrast the case of isoscalar and isovector chemical potentials, quantify the effect of $\hat{I}¼\ne 0$ on the equation of state, and comment on the screening effect by dynamical quarks and the complex phase of the fermion determinant in QCD with $\hat{I}¼\ne 0$.

Lattice2002(nonzerot), 3 pages, 2 figures