2-FLAVOR STAGGERED FERMION THERMODYNAMICS AT N-T=12

We present results of an ongoing study of the nature of the high tempe rature crossover in QCD with two light fermion flavors. These results are obtained with the conventional staggered fermion action at the sma llest lattice spacing to date, approximately 0.1 fm. Of particular int erest are (1) a study of the temperature of the crossover, an importan t indicator of continuum scaling, (2) a determination of the induced b aryon charge and baryon susceptibility, used to study the dissolution of hadrons at the crossover, (3) the scalar susceptibility, a signal f or the appearance of soft modes, and (4) the chiral order parameter, u sed to test models of critical behavior associated with chiral symmetr y restoration. From our new data and published results for N-t = 4, 6, and 8, we determine the QCD magnetic equation of state from the chira l order parameter using O(4) and mean field critical exponents and com pare it with the corresponding equation of state obtained from an O(4) spin model and mean field theory. We also present a scaling analysis of the Polyakov loop, suggesting a temperature-dependent ''constituent quark free energy.''