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Hadron Resonance Mass Spectrum and Lattice QCD Thermodynamics

We confront lattice QCD results on the transition from the hadronic phase to the quark--gluon plasma with hadron resonance gas and percolation models. We argue that for T < T_c the equation of state derived from Monte--Carlo simulations of (2+1) quark--flavor QCD can be well described by a hadron resonance gas. We examine the quark mass dependence of the hadron spectrum on the lattice and discuss its description in terms of the MIT bag model. This is used to formulate a resonance gas model for arbitrary quark masses which can be compared to lattice calculations. We finally apply this model to analyze the quark mass dependence of the critical temperature obtained in lattice calculations. We show that the value of T_c for different quark masses agrees with lines of constant energy density in a hadron resonance gas. For large quark masses a corresponding contribution from a glueball resonance gas is required.