Critical behavior near deconfinement

Abstract

We determine the temperature dependence of the pressure, the energy density, and the entropy density in statistical QCD with dynamical quarks. Our results are based on Monte Carlo calculations with Wilson fermions in a fourth-order hopping-parameter expansion on an $8^3$×3 lattice. Using these results, we study the velocity of sound and the thermodynamic quantities relevant for the collective transverse expansion of the system and for the transverse momentum of secondaries in nuclear collisions.