Finite-temperature transition for QCD with heavy quarks

We use the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm (HMCA) to simulate QCD with four flavors of staggered dynamical fermions on $6^3$×4 and $8^3$×4 lattices. We find evidence that the first-order finite-temperature transition found at small quark masses persists for m=0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5. Our data strengthen the hypothesis that four-flavor QCD has a first-order finite-temperature transition for all quark masses.