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Thermodynamics of the QCD Plasma and the Large-N Limit

Marco Panero
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 232001 – Published 3 December 2009
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Abstract

The equilibrium thermodynamic properties of the SU(N) plasma are studied nonperturbatively in the large-N limit, via high-precision lattice simulations at temperatures from 0.8Tc to 3.4Tc (Tc being the critical deconfinement temperature). Our results for SU(N) Yang-Mills theories with N=3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 colors show a very mild dependence on N, supporting the idea that the QCD plasma could be described by models based on the large-N limit. We compare our data with various theoretical descriptions, including, in particular, the improved holographic QCD model proposed by Kiritsis and collaborators. We also comment on the relevance of an AdS/CFT description in a phenomenologically interesting temperature range where the system, while still strongly coupled, becomes approximately scale invariant. Finally, we extrapolate our results to the N limit.

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  • Received 20 August 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.232001

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Marco Panero*

  • Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland and Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

  • *panero@phys.ethz.ch

See Also

Quark Colors Unbound

Michael Schirber
Phys. Rev. Focus 24, 22 (2009)

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Vol. 103, Iss. 23 — 4 December 2009

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