We investigate the quark backreaction on the Polyakov loop and its impact on the thermodynamics of quantum chromodynamics. The dynamics of the gluons generating the Polyakov-loop potential is altered by the presence of dynamical quarks. However, this backreaction of the quarks has not yet been taken into account in Polyakov-loop extended model studies. In the present work, we show within a 2+1 flavour Polyakov-quark-meson model that a quark-improved Polyakov-loop potential leads to a smoother transition between the low-temperature hadronic phase and the high-temperature quark-gluon plasma phase. In particular, we discuss the dependence of our results on the remaining uncertainties that are the critical temperature and the parametrisation of the Polyakov-loop potential as well as the mass of the sigma-meson.
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