The QCD transition temperature: results with physical masses in the continuum limit II

Abstract

We extend our previous study [Phys. Lett. B 643 (2006) 46] of the cross-over temperatures (T-c) of QCD. We improve our zero temperature analysis by using physical quark masses and finer lattices. In addition to the kaon decay constant used for scale setting we determine four quantities (masses of the Omega baryon, K*(892) and phi(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 a less than or similar to 0.1 fm (N-t = 12 and N-t = 16 at one point). Our new results confirm completely our previous findings. We compare the results with those of the 'hotQCD' collaboration.