Color-flavor dependence of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and QCD phase diagram

We study the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking/restoration for various numbers of light quarks flavors \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document} and colors \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model of quarks in the Schwinger-Dyson equation framework, dressed with a color-flavor dependence of effective coupling. For fixed \begin{document}$ N_f = 2 $\end{document} and varying \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document}, we observe that the dynamical chiral symmetry is broken when \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} exceeds its critical value \begin{document}$ N^{c}_{c}\approx2.2 $\end{document}. For a fixed \begin{document}$ N_c = 3 $\end{document} and varying \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document}, we observe that the dynamical chiral symmetry is restored when \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document} reaches its critical value \begin{document}$ N^{c}_{f}\approx8 $\end{document}. Strong interplay is observed between \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} and \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document}, i.e., larger values of \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} tend to strengthen the dynamical generated quark mass and quark-antiquark condensate, while higher values of \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document} suppress both parameters. We further sketch the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram at a finite temperature T and quark chemical potential μ for various \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} and \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document}. At finite T and μ, we observe that the critical number of colors \begin{document}$ N^{c}_c $\end{document} is enhanced, whereas the critical number of flavors \begin{document}$ N^{c}_f $\end{document} is suppressed as T and μ increase. Consequently, the critical temperature \begin{document}$ T_c $\end{document}, \begin{document}$ \mu_c $\end{document}, and co-ordinates of the critical endpoint \begin{document}$ (T^{E}_c,\mu^{E}_c) $\end{document} in the QCD phase diagram are enhanced as \begin{document}$ N_c $\end{document} increases and suppressed when \begin{document}$ N_f $\end{document} increases. Our findings agree with the lattice QCD and Schwinger-Dyson equations predictions.