On the Thermodynamics and Phase Structure of Strongly-Interacting Matter in a Polyakov-loop–extended Constituent-Quark Model

Polyakov-loop–extended constituent-quark models are useful to investigate the chiral and (de)confinement phase structure and the thermodynamics of strongly-interacting matter. It is shown that taking into account the quark backreaction on the gauge-field dynamics as well as quantum and thermal fluctuations of quarks and mesons is crucial in such models to achieve results for order parameters and thermodynamics that are in line with non-perturbative calculations at vanishing chemical potential. The dependence of the results on remaining parameters is discussed. The investigations are extended to nonzero quark density and isospin. The impact of unquenching effects in the Polyakov-loop potential on the phase structure at non-vanishing quark densities is discussed. Predictions for thermodynamics at nonzero isospin are shown. Furthermore, the reliability of those models is tested by confronting its results with lattice data on the isospin dependence of the transition temperature. The phase structure of the three-dimensional temperature - isospin - quark density phase diagram is investigated. Moreover, the process of nucleation at small temperatures and large densities is investigated and the surface tension for the phase transition calculated. Some consequences of the results for the early Universe, for heavy-ion collisions, and for proto-neutron stars are discussed