Effect of curvature on the nucleation of quark-gluon plasma droplets from a hadronic gas

We study the nucleation of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) droplets in a hadronic gas phase (HG). This process is driven by statistical fluctuations which are determined by the difference in free energy in the QGP and hadronic gas phases. We investigate this difference in free energy in two cases; when considering the curvature term additionally to the volume term in the density of states of particles constituting the QGP and without considering it, and this for the color singlet SU(3) representation of the QGP. The behavior of the obtained change in free energy is examined with varying radius of the QGP droplet, at vanishing chemical potential, in the two cases. The obtained results with and without the curvature contribution in the density of states are compared, and the effect of the curvature term on the nucleation of QGP droplets from a hadronic gas is analyzed. (paper)