$m_{q}=0.4T$ and $m_{s}=1.0T$ compared to the physical quark masses $m_{u,d}\sim10\,{\text{M}\hspace{-.5px}e\hspace{-.8px}\text{V}}$ and $m_{s}\sim90-150\,{\text{M}\hspace{-.5px}e\hspace{-.8px}\text{V}}$ [@PDG06]. Recently, new lattice data has become available [@Kar07], which relies on lattice restmasses much closer to the physical quark masses and which is used in this work.

Also, lattice calculations are performed on a finite lattice, while our quasiparticle model is formulated in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. aimed at describing a spatially infinite plasma. In order to compare our model with lattice data, the proper continuum extrapolation of the latter one is required. A safe continuum extrapolation on the lattice is a fairly demanding work. Therefore, various estimates have been applied, e.g. simply scaling the lattice results by a factor being strictly valid only for asymptotically high temperatures or for the non-interacting limit. To account for a possible deficit of such rough continuum estimates of the lattice data we introduce an ad hoc scaling factor $d_{\text{lat}}$ which turns out to be nearly unity.

Nonzero chemical potential
--------------------------

The parametrization of $G^{2}$ in eq. (\[eq:eff coupling\]) is valid for $\mu=0$ only. However, it is possible to use the thermodynamic consistency of the QPM to map the results at zero chemical potential into the $T$-$\mu$ plane [@Pes00]. Specifically, this 