QCD strings and the thermodynamics of the metastable phase of QCD at large Nc

The thermodynamics of a metastable hadronic phase of QCD at large Nc are related to properties of an effective QCD string. In particular, it is shown that in the large Nc limit and near the maximum hadronic temperature, TH, the energy density and pressure of the metastable phase scale as E∼(TH−T)−(D⊥−6)/2 (for D⊥<6) and P∼(TH−T)−(D⊥−4)/2 (for D⊥<4) where D⊥ is the effective number of transverse dimensions of the string theory. It is shown, however, that for the thermodynamic quantities of interest the limits T→TH and Nc→∞ do not commute. The prospect of extracting D⊥ via lattice simulations of the metastable hadronic phase at moderately large Nc is discussed.