We investigate the effect of the electric-charge neutrality in $beta$ equilibrium on the chiral phase transition by solving the chiral and diquark condensates in the two-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We demonstrate that the electric-charge neut
rality plays a similar role as the repulsive vector interaction; they both weaken the first-order chiral phase transition in the high-density and low-temperature region. The first-order chiral phase transition is not affected, however, at finite temperatures where the diquark condensate melts. In this way the chiral phase transition could be second-order at intermediate temperatures if the diquark effects overwhelm the chiral dynamics, while the first-order transition may survive at lower and higher temperatures. The number of the critical points appearing on the phase diagram can vary from zero to three, which depends on the relative strength of the chiral and diquark couplings. We systematically study the possibility of the phase structure with multiple QCD critical points and evaluate the Meissner screening mass to confirm that our conclusion is not overturned by chromomagnetic instability.
At the critical end point in QCD phase diagram, the scalar, vector and entropy susceptibilities are known to diverge. The dynamic origin of this divergence is identified within the chiral effective models as softening of a hydrodynamic mode of the pa
rticle-hole--type motion, which is a consequence of the conservation law of the baryon number and the energy.
It is shown in the framework of an extended NJL model with two flavors that some types of external chromomagnetic field induce the dynamical chiral or color symmetry breaking even at weakest attraction between quarks. It is argued also that an extern
al chromomagnetic field, simulating the chromomagnetic gluon condensate of the real QCD-vacuum, might significantly influence the color superconductivity formation.
We suggest the idea, supported by concrete calculations within chiral models, that the critical endpoint of the phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics with three colors can be detected, by means of Lattice simulations of grand-canonical ensembles wi
th a chiral chemical potential, $mu_5$, conjugated to chiral charge density. In fact, we show that a continuation of the critical endpoint of the phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics at finite chemical potential, $mu$, to a critical end point in the temperature-chiral chemical potential plane, is possible. This study paves the way of the mapping of the phases of Quantum Chromodynamics at finite $mu$, by means of the phases of a fictitious theory in which $mu$ is replaced by $mu_5$.
We investigate the role played by the Polyakov loop in the dynamics of the chiral phase transition in the framework of the so-called PNJL model in the SU(2)sector. We present the phase diagram where the inclusion of the Polyakov loop moves the critic
al points to higher temperatures, compared with the NJL model results. The critical properties of physical observables, such as the baryon number susceptibility and the specific heat, are analyzed in the vicinity of the critical end point, with special focus on their critical exponents. The results with the PNJL model are closer to lattice results and we also recover the universal behavior of the critical exponents of both the baryon susceptibility and the specific heat.