Latent heat in the chiral phase transition

Masaharu Iwasaki, Hiyoshi Kiuchi

Published 2003-05-09Version 1

The chiral phase transition at finite temperature and density is discussed in the framework of the QCD-like gauge field theory. The thermodynamical potential is investigated using a variational approach. Latent heat generated in the first-order phase transition is calculated. It is found that the latent heat is enhanced near the tricritical point and is more than several hundred MeV per quark.