Quark Confinement in Multi-Flavor Quantum Chromodynamics

Abstract

It is investigated how quark confinement depends on the number of flavors, $N_f$, in QCD on the lattice with Wilson quarks. We strengthen and extend the conclusion reported at {\it Lattice 91}: (1) For $N_f\le 6$ the finite temperature deconfining transition/crossover line crosses the chiral limit at finite ${\hat{I}}^2$. We identify the crossing point for $N_f=2$ and 6 on a $T=4$ lattice, where $T$ is the lattice size in the temporal direction. We find the phase transition at the crossing point is continuous for $N_f=2$, while it is of first order for $N_f=6$. (2) For $N_f\ge 7$, the $T$-independent deconfining transition observed at ${\hat{I}}^2=0$ extends up to ${\hat{I}}^2=4.5$ with the critical quark mass $m_{\mathrm{quark}}=O(a^{-1})$, where $a$ is the lattice spacing.

(Talk presented by K. Kanaya at Lattice 92, Sept.1992, Amsterdam), 4 pages with 7 PostScript figures, LaTeX (espcrc2.sty required), UTHEP-247