The QCD thermal phase transition in the presence of a small chemical potential
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We propose a new method to investigate the thermal properties of QCD with a small quark chemical potential $μ$. Derivatives of the phase transition point with respect to $μ$ are computed at $μ=0$ for 2 flavors of p-4 improved staggered fermions with $ma=0.1,0.2$ on a $16^3\times4$ lattice. The resulting Taylor expansion is well behaved for the small values of $μ_{\rm q}/T_c\sim0.1$ relevant for RHIC phenomenology, and predicts a critical curve $T_c(μ)$ in reasonable agreement with estimates obtained using exact reweighting. In addition, we contrast the case of isoscalar and isovector chemical potentials, quantify the effect of $μ\not=0$ on the equation of state, and comment on the complex phase of the fermion determinant in QCD with $μ\not=0$.
26 pages, 25 figures, minor modification
26 pages, 25 figures, minor modification