QCD Critical Point: The Race is On

Abstract

A critical point in the phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), if established either theoretically or experimentally, would be as profound a discovery as the good-old gas-liquid critical point. Unlike the latter, however, first-principles based approaches are being employed to locate it theoretically. Due to the short lived nature of the concerned phases, novel experimental techniques are needed to search for it. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in USA has an experimental program to do so. This short review is an attempt to provide a glimpse of the race between the theorists and the experimentalists as well as that of the synergy between them.

15 Pages, Invited Review for Pramana

References in corpus (6)

• Scale for the Phase Diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics
• Freeze-out Conditions in Heavy Ion Collisions from QCD Thermodynamics
• QCD at finite chemical potential with six time slices
• Overlap Dirac operator at nonzero chemical potential and random matrix theory
• Thermodynamics of the ideal overlap quarks on the lattice
• Harrison transformation and charged black objects in Kaluza-Klein theory

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Search for the QCD Critical Point with Fluctuations of Conserved Quantities in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions at RHIC : An Overview
• A Rotation/Magnetism Analogy for the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Angular Momentum in QGP Holography
• Proton Cumulants and Correlation Functions in Au + Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$=7.7-200 GeV from UrQMD Model
• Inverse Magnetic/Shear Catalysis
• Diagonal and off-diagonal susceptibilities of conserved quantities in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Effects of QCD critical point on light nuclei production
• When Is Holography Consistent?
• Dispersion and suppression of sound near QCD critical point
• The Trajectory of the Cosmic Plasma Through the Quark Matter Phase Diagram
• Holography of Little Inflation
• Dynamical spectral structure of density fluctuation near QCD critical point
• Field Theories Without a Holographic Dual
• Role of slow, out-of-equilibrium modes on the dynamic structure factor near the QCD critical point
• A New Phase of Matter: Quark-Gluon Plasma Beyond the Hagedorn Critical Temperature
• The effects of the QCD critical point on the spectra and flow coefficients of hadrons