We discuss the isentropic trajectories on the QCD phase diagram in the temperature and the quark chemical potential plane using the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model with the Polyakov loop coupling. We impose a constraint on the strange quark chemical potential so that the strange quark density is zero, which is the case in the ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We compare our numerical results with the truncated estimates by the Taylor expansion in terms of the chemical potential to quantify the reliability of the expansion used in the lattice QCD simulation. We finally discuss the strange quark chemical potential induced by the strangeness neutrality condition and relate it to the ratio of the Polyakov loop and the anti-Polyakov loop.

• Received 22 January 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.79.074015