The chiral and deconfinement crossover transitions: PNJL model beyond mean field

Understand

The Polyakov loop extended Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model (PNJL model) in a mean field framework shows astonishingly good agreement with lattice QCD calculations which needs to be better understood.

• The present work reports on further developments concerning both Polyakov loop and mesonic fluctuations beyond mean field approximation.
• Corrections beyond mean field are of special interest for the thermal expectation values of the Polyakov loop $\Phi$ and its conjugate $\Phi^*$, which differ once the quark chemical potential is non-zero.
• Mesonic fluctuations are also considered with emphasis on the role of pionic modes.