Lattice QCD constraints on the critical point from an improved precision equation of state

¹ University of Wuppertal, Department of Physics, Wuppertal D-42119, Germany
² Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, State College, PA 16801, USA
³ Pennsylvania State University, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, State College, PA 16801, USA
⁴ Institute for Theoretical Physics, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. sétány 1/A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
⁵ Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino and INFN Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, I-10125 Torino, Italy
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 17 April 2026

Abstract

A recent proposal (Ref. [1]) suggested searching for the QCD critical point by studying contours of constant entropy density on the phase diagram. In our recent work Ref. [2], we refine and extend this method. Our results exclude, at the 2σ confidence level, the existence of a critical point at baryon chemical potentials below μ_B ≈ 450 MeV along the transition line.