An effective chiral Hadron-Quark Equation of State Part I: Zero baryochemical potential

Abstract

We construct an effective model for the QCD equation of state, taking into account chiral symmetry restoration as well as the deconfinement phase transition. The correct asymptotic degrees of freedom at the high and low temperature limits are included (quarks $\leftrightarrow$ hadrons). The model shows a rapid crossover for both order parameters, as is expected from lattice calculations. We then investigate the thermodynamic properties of the model at $\mu_B=0$. All thermodynamic quantities are in qualitative agreement with lattice data, while apparent quantitative differences can be attributed to hadronic contributions and excluded volume corrections.