Lattice QCD at finite density: imaginary chemical potential

Abstract

I describe the results for the critical line and the thermodynamics of different phases of QCD which have been obtained by lattice simulations with an imaginary chemical potential, and review motivations and merits of the different strategies -- Taylor expansion, Fourier analysis and Pade' approximants -- for analytic continuation from imaginary to real chemical potential. I consider phenomenological models which can be easily extended to the complex chemical potential plane, thus affording a direct comparison with lattice data at imaginary $\mu$: the hadronic phase and the high temperature limit are amenable to a simple description, while a rather subtle interplay between thermodynamics and critical behaviour emerges in the hot phase close to $T_c$