QCD transition temperature: approaching the continuum on the lattice Original Research Article

In order to clarify the source of the discrepancy between our previous transition temperature determination [Phys. Lett. B 643, 46 (2006)] and that of the Bielefeld-Brookhaven-Columbia-Riken collaboration we improved our calculations by taking even smaller lattice spacings (Nt=12 and Nt=16 at one point) and by using physical quark masses also for the T=0 quantities. In addition to the kaon decay constant used for scale setting we determine four quantities (masses of the Ω baryon, k*(892) and ϕ(1020) mesons and the pion decay constant) which are found to agree with experiment. This implies that – independently of which of these quantities is used to set the overall scale – the same results are obtained within a few percent. At finite temperature we use finer lattices down to View the MathML source. Our new results confirm completely our previous findings. We compare the results with those of the ‘hotQCD’ collaboration.