The order of the QCD finite temperature transition and Hybrid Monte Carlo

In this talk I describe results obtained in collaboration with Khalil Bitar, Roger Horsley, A.D. Kennedy and Pietro Rossi. Using Hybrid Monte Carlo we study the nature of the finite temperature transition for Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics with Kogut-Susskind staggered fermions at intermediate quark masses. We point out the importance of simulating the action without finite step size corrections. Applying finite size scaling we find indications for a first order chiral symmetry restoring phase transition for lattices with four time-slices and a range of spatial volumes. (orig.)