Phase transition of a finite quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

The deconfinement transition region between hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is studied for finite volumes. Assuming simple model equations of state and a first order phase transition, we find that fluctuations in finite volumes hinder a sharp separation between the two phases around the critical temperature, leading to a rounding of the phase transition. For reaction volumes expected in heavy ion experiments, the softening of the equation of state is reduced considerably. This is especially true when the requirement of exact color singletness is included in the QGP equation of state.