Quasiparticle Description of the QCD Plasma, Comparison with Lattice Results at Finite T and Mu

Abstract

We compare our 2+1 flavor, staggered QCD lattice results with a quasiparticle picture. We determine the pressure, the energy density, the baryon density, the speed of sound and the thermal masses as a function of T and $\mu_B$. For the available thermodynamic quantities the difference is a few percent between the results of the two approaches. We also give the phase diagram on the $\mu_B$--T plane and estimate the critical chemical potential at vanishing temperature.