Phase structure and critical temperature of two-flavor QCD with a renormalization group improved gauge action and clover improved Wilson quark action

We study the finite-temperature phase structure and the transition temperature of QCD with two flavors of dynamical quarks on a lattice with the temporal size Nₓ=4, using a renormalization group improved gauge action and the Wilson quark action improved by the clover term. The region of a parity-broken phase is identified, and the finite-temperature transition line is located on a two-dimensional parameter space of the coupling (=6/g^2) and hopping parameter K. Near the chiral transition point, defined as the crossing point of the critical line of the vanishing pion mass and the line of finite-temperature transition, the system exhibits behavior well described by the scaling exponents of the three-dimensional O (4) spin model. This indicates a second-order chiral transition in the continuum limit. The transition temperature in the chiral limit is estimated to be T₂=171 (4) MeV.