Large-Nc universality of phases in QCD and QCD-like theories

Abstract

QCD with a finite baryon chemical potential, despite its importance, is not well understood because the standard lattice QCD simulation is not applicable due to the sign problem. Although sign-free QCD-like theories have been studied intensively, relation to QCD with a finite baryon chemical potential was not clear until recently. In this talk we explain the large-Nc equivalences between QCD and various QCD-like theories, which lead us to a unified viewpoint for QCD with baryon and isospin chemical potentials, SO(2Nc) and Sp(2Nc) gauge theories. In particular two-flavor QCD with the baryon chemical potential is equivalent to its phase quenched version in a certain parameter region, which is relevant for heavy ion collision experiments.