Phase diagram and critical properties within an effective model of QCD: the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model coupled to the Polyakov loop

We investigate the phase diagram of the so-called Polyakov--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model at finite temperature and non-zero chemical potential with three quark flavors. Chiral and deconfinement phase transitions are discussed and the relevant order-like parameters are analyzed. The results are compared with simple thermodynamic expectations and lattice data. We present the phase diagram in the ($T,\,\mu_B)$ plane, paying special attention to the critical end point: as the strength of the flavor-mixing interaction becomes weaker, the critical end point moves to low temperatures and can even disappear.Comment: 46 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Private lands habitat programs benefit California's native birds

To address the loss of wetlands and riparian forests in California, private lands habitat programs are available through U.S. federal and state government agencies to help growers, ranchers and other private landowners create and enhance wildlife habitat. The programs provide financial and technical assistance for implementing conservation practices. To evaluate the benefits of these programs for wildlife, we examined bird use of private wetlands, postharvest flooded croplands and riparian forests enrolled in habitat programs in the Central Valley and North Coast regions of California. We found that private Central Valley wetlands supported 181 bird species during the breeding season. During fall migration, postharvest flooded croplands supported wetland-dependent species and a higher density of shorebirds than did semipermanent wetlands. At the riparian sites, bird species richness increased after restoration. These results demonstrated that the programs provided habitat for the species they were designed to protect; a variety of resident and migratory bird species used the habitats, and many special status species were recorded at the sites

Quark Matter in a Strong Magnetic Background

In this chapter, we discuss several aspects of the theory of strong interactions in presence of a strong magnetic background. In particular, we summarize our results on the effect of the magnetic background on chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement at finite temperature. Moreover, we compute the magnetic susceptibility of the chiral condensate and the quark polarization at zero temperature. Our theoretical framework is given by chiral models: the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL), the Polyakov improved NJL (or PNJL) and the Quark-Meson (QM) models. We also compare our results with the ones obtained by other groups.Comment: 34 pages, survey. To appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye