The Effect of Fluctuations on the QCD Critical Point in a Finite Volume

Understand

We investigate the effect of a finite volume on the critical behavior of the theory of the strong interaction (QCD) by means of a quark-meson model for two quark flavors.

• In particular, we analyze the effect of a finite volume on the location of the critical point in the phase diagram existing in our model.
• In our analysis, we take into account the effect of long-range fluctuations with the aid of renormalization group techniques.
• We find that these quantum and thermal fluctuations, absent in mean-field studies, play an import role for the dynamics in a finite volume.