Density fluctuations in the presence of spinodal instabilities

Abstract

Density fluctuations resulting from spinodal decomposition in a non-equilibrium first-order chiral phase transition are explored. We show that such instabilities generate divergent fluctuations of conserved charges along the isothermal spinodal lines appearing in the coexistence region. Thus, divergent density fluctuations could be a signal not only for the critical end point but also for the first order phase transition expected in strongly interacting matter. We also compute the mean-field critical exponent at the spinodal lines. Our analysis is performed in the mean-field approximation to the NJL model formulated at finite temperature and density. However, our main conclusions are expected to be generic and model independent.

4 pages, 3 figures; final version to appear in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (3)

• Susceptibilities near the QCD (tri)critical point
• Quark Number Fluctuations in a Chiral Model at Finite Baryon Chemical Potential
• Charge Fluctuations along the QCD phase boundary

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