arXiv2010
We study the equation of state at finite temperature and density in two-flavor QCD with the RG-improved gluon action and the clover-improved Wilson quark action on a $ 16^3 \times 4$ lattice. Along the lines of constant physics at $m_{\rm PS}/m_{\rm V} = 0.65$ and 0.80, we compute the second and forth derivatives of the grand canonical partition function with respect to the quark chemical potential $μ_q = (μ_u+μ_d)/2$ and the isospin chemical potential $μ_I = (μ_u-μ_d)/2$ at vanishing chemical potentials, and study the behaviors of thermodynamic quantities at finite $μ_q$ using these derivatives for the case $μ_I=0$. In particular, we study density fluctuations at none-zero temperature and density by calculating the quark number and isospin susceptibilities and their derivatives with respect to $μ_q$. To suppress statistical fluctuations, we also examine new techniques applicable at low densities. We find a large enhancement in the fluctuation of quark number when the density increased near the pseudo-critical temperature, suggesting a critical point at finite $μ_q$ terminating the first order transition line between hadronic and quark gluon plasma phases. This result agrees with the previous results using staggered-type quark actions qualitatively. Furthermore, we study heavy-quark free energies and Debye screening masses at finite density by measuring the first and second derivatives of these quantities for various color channels of heavy quark-quark and quark-anti-quark pairs. The results suggest that, to the leading order of $μ_q$, the interaction between two quarks becomes stronger at finite densities, while that between quark and anti-quark becomes weaker.