The QCD equation of state with dynamical quarks

The present paper concludes our investigation on the QCD equation of state with 2 + 1 staggered flavors and one-link stout improvement. We extend our previous study [ JHEP 01 (2006) 089] by choosing even finer lattices. Lattices with N t =6 , 8 and 10 are used, and the continuum limit is approached by checking the results at N t = 12. A Symanzik improved gauge and a stout-link improved staggered fermion action is utilized. We use physical quark masses, that is, for the lightest staggered pions and kaons we fix the m π /f K and m K /f K ratios to their experimental values. The pressure, the interaction measure, the energy and entropy density and the speed of sound are presented as functions of the temperature in the range 100 ... 1000MeV. We give estimates for the pion mass dependence and for the contribution of the charm quark. We compare our data to the equation of state obtained by the “hotQCD” collaboration.