Critical point phase transition for finite temperature 3-flavor QCD with non-perturbatively O($a$) improved Wilson fermions at $N_{\rm t}=10$

Abstract

We study the finite temperature phase structure for three-flavor QCD with a focus on locating the critical point which separates crossover and first order phase transition region in the chiral regime of the Columbia plot. In this study, we employ the Iwasaki gauge action and the non-perturvatively O($a$) improved Wilson-Clover fermion action. We discuss the finite size scaling analysis including the mixing of magnetization-like and energy-like observables. We carry out the continuum extrapolation of the critical point using newly generated data at $N_{\rm t}=8$, $10$ and estimate the upper bound of the critical pseudo-scalar meson mass $m_{\rm PS,E} \lesssim 170 {\rm MeV}$ and the critical temperature $T_{\rm E}=134(3){\rm MeV}$. Our estimate of the upper bound is derived from the existence of the critical point as an edge of the 1st order phase transition while that of the staggered-type fermions is based on its absence.