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Abstract

To quantitatively provide reliable predictions for the hot and dense QCD
matter, a holographic model should be adjusted to describe first-principles
lattice results available at vanishing baryon chemical potential. The equation
of state from two well-known lattice groups, the HotQCD collaboration and the
Wuppertal-Budapest (WB) collaboration, shows visible differences at high
temperatures. We revisit the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) holographic model
for hot QCD with 2+1 flavors and physical quark masses by fitting lattice QCD
data from the WB collaboration. Using the parameterization for the scalar
potential and gauge coupling proposed in our work [Phys.Rev.D 106 (2022) 12,
L121902], the equation of state, the higher order baryon number
susceptibilities, and the chiral condensates are in quantitative agreement with
state-of-the-art lattice results. We find that the critical endpoint (CEP)
obtained from fitting the WB collaboration data is nearly identical to the one
from the HotQCD collaboration, suggesting the robustness of the location of the
CEP. Moreover, our holographic prediction for the CEP location is in accord
with more recent Bayesian analysis on a large number of holographic EMD models
and an effective potential approach of QCD from gap equations.