A quasiparticle description of the thermodynamics of deconfined matter, reproducing both the perturbative limit and nonperturbative lattice QCD data at finite temperature, is generalized to finite chemical potential. By a flow equation resulting from Maxwell’s relation, the equation of state is extended from zero to nonzero quark densities. The impact of the massive strange flavor is considered and implications for cold, charge-neutral deconfined matter in $\beta$ equilibrium in compact stars are given.

• Received 16 November 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.61.045203