Multiplicity fluctuations near the QCD critical point

Abstract

Statistical moments of particle multiplicities in heavy-ion collision experiments are an important probe in the exploration of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter and, particularly, in the search for the QCD critical end point. In order to appropriately interpret experimental measures of these moments, however, it is necessary to understand the role of experimental limitations, as well as background contributions, providing expectations on how critical behavior should be affected by them. We here present a framework for calculating moments of particle multiplicities in the presence of correlations of both critical and spurious origins. We also include effects from resonance decay and a limited acceptance window, as well as detector efficiency. Although we focus on second-order moments, for simplicity, an extension to higher-order moments is straightforward.

13 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Mapping the Phases of Quantum Chromodynamics with Beam Energy Scan
• Theoretical and Experimental Constraints for the Equation of State of Dense and Hot Matter
• Far-from-equilibrium search for the QCD critical point
• Rapidity dependence of proton cumulants and correlation functions
• Dynamics of critical fluctuations: Theory -- phenomenology -- heavy-ion collisions
• Volume effects on the QCD critical end point from thermal fluctuations within the super statistics framework
• Hydrodynamic results on multiplicity fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions
• Features of the QCD phase diagram from small, noisy, fluctuating systems