Effects of a Finite Volume in the Phase Structure of QCD

Working in the SU(2) flavor version of the NJL model, we study the effect of taking a finite system volume on a strongly interacting system of quarks, and, in particular, the location of the chiral phase transition and the CEP. We consider two shapes for the volume, spherical and cubic regions with different sizes and different boundary conditions. To analyze the QCD phase diagram, we use a novel criterion to study the crossover zone. A comparison between the results obtained from the two different shapes and several boundary conditions is carried out. We use the method of Multiple Reflection Expansion to determine the density of states and three kinds of boundary conditions over the cubic shape. These boundary conditions are: periodic, anti-periodic and stationary boundary conditions on the quark fields.

Influence of Finite Volume Effect on the Polyakov Quark–Meson Model

In the current work, we study the influence of a finite volume on 2 + 1 S U ( 3 ) Polyakov Quark–Meson model (PQM) order parameters, (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges and the quark–hadron phase boundary. Our study of the PQM model order parameters and the (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges indicates a sizable shift of the quark–hadron phase boundary to higher values of baryon chemical potential ( μ B ) and temperature (T) for decreasing the system volume. The detailed study of such effect could have important implications for the extraction of the (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges of the QCD phase diagram from heavy ion data.