Chiral symmetry at finite temperatures and densities in the Coulomb gauge

The gap equation at finite temperatures and densities obtained from the Schwinger-Dyson equation in the ladder approximation to the QCD Hamiltonian in the Coulomb gauge is solved numerically for several potential models. Critical temperatures for chiral-symmetry restoration and critical lines in the T-μ plane are obtained showing the conditions for symmetry restoration. The order parameter is evaluated for various potentials and the agreement with experiment is found to be within 15% for the case of a confining plus an attractive Coulomb potential when the string tension √σ is taken to be 350 MeV