MATRIX MODELS AND QCD WITH CHEMICAL POTENTIAL

Abstract

The random matrix model approach to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) with nonvanishing chemical potential is reviewed. The general concept using global symmetries is introduced, as well as its relation to field theory, the so-called epsilon regime of chiral perturbation theory (∊χPT). Two types of matrix model results are distinguished: phenomenological applications leading to phase diagrams, and an exact limit of the QCD Dirac operator spectrum matching with ∊χPT. All known analytic results for the spectrum of complex and symplectic matrix models with chemical potential are summarised for the symmetry classes of ordinary and adjoint QCD, respectively. These include correlation functions of Dirac operator eigenvalues in the complex plane for real chemical potential, and in the real plane for imaginary isospin chemical potential. Comparisons of these predictions to recent lattice simulations are also discussed.