Thermodynamic properties of a confining quark model

We study the equilibrium thermodynamics of a simple, confining Dyson-Schwinger- equation-model of 2-flavour QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential. The phase boundary between the confined and deconfined phases is defined by the zero of the vacuum-pressure difference. Chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement are coincident with the transition being of first order, except for μ = 0, where it is second order. Nonperturbative modifications of the dressed-quark propagator persist into the deconfined domain. This entails that the Stefan-Boltzmann limit for the bulk thermodynamic quantities is attained only for large values of temperature and chemical potential. We apply our model to the calculation of the quark condensate and hadronic properties, such as the mπ, ∫π, π0 → γγ and mp and their dependence on temperature and density. Where a comparison is possible, our results confirm those obtained in numerical simulations of lattice-QCD. We note a tendency for quantities that increase with T to decrease with μ