Deconfinement and chiral restoration in nonlocal SU(3) chiral quark models

Abstract

We study the features of nonlocal SU(3) chiral quark models with wave function renormalization. Model parameters are determined from meson phenomenology, considering different nonlocal form factor shapes. In this context we analyze the characteristics of the deconfinement and chiral restoration transitions at finite temperature, introducing the couplings of fermions to the Polyakov loop. We analyze the results obtained for various thermodynamical quantities considering different Polyakov loop potentials and nonlocal form factors, in comparison with data obtained from lattice QCD calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures. Discussion of results enlarged, figures modified, references added. Version to appear in Physical Review