Critical point of QCD at finite T and μ , lattice results for physical quark masses

A critical point (E) is expected in QCD on the temperature (T) versus baryonic chemical potential (µ) plane. Using a recently proposed lattice method for µ =0 we study dynamical QCD with n f =2+1 staggered quarks of physical masses on L t = 4 lattices. Our result for the critical point is T E = 162 ± 2 MeV and µ E = 360 ± 40 MeV. For the critical temperature at µ = 0 we obtained T c = 164 ± 2 MeV. This work extends our previous study [Z. Fodor and S.D.Katz, JHEP 0203 (2002) 014] by two means. It decreases the light quark masses (m u,d) by a factor of three down to their physical values. Furthermore, in order to approach the thermodynamical limit we increase our largest volume by a factor of three. As expected, decreasing m u,d decreased µ E. Note, that the continuum extrapolation is still missing