An Augmented QCD Phase Portrait: Mapping Quark-Hadron Deconfinement for Hot, Dense, Rotating Matter under Magnetic Field

Abstract

The quark-hadron transition that happens in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is expected to be influenced by the effects of rotation and magnetic field, both present due to the geometry of a generic non-head-on impact. We augment the conventional $T$--$μ_B$ planar phase diagram for QCD matter by extending it to a multi-dimensional domain spanned by temperature $T$, baryon chemical potential $μ_B$, external magnetic field $B$ and angular velocity $ω$. Using two independent approaches, one from a rapid rise in entropy density and another dealing with a dip in the squared speed of sound, we identify deconfinement in the framework of a modified statistical hadronization model. We find that the deconfinement temperature $T_C(μ_B,~ω,~eB)$ decreases nearly monotonically with increasing $μ_B,~ω$ and $eB$ with the most prominent drop (by nearly $40$ to $50$ MeV) in $T_C$ occurring when all the three quasi-control (via collision energy and centrality) parameters are simultaneously tuned to finite values that are typically achievable in present and upcoming heavy-ion colliders.