Conveners
Parallel session 35: QCD phase diagram & critical point III
- Anar Rustamov (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH)
Fluctuations of conserved charges in heavy-ion collisions are expected to be sensitive to a critical point in the phase diagram of QCD matter [1, 2]. Such a critical point is increasingly predicted to be located in the high baryon chemical potential ($\mu_B$) region around $\mu_B$ = 500 - 650 MeV [3–8]. In 2018, the STAR Experiment started collecting data in a fixed-target configuration in...
We contrast the behavior of ordinary and factorial cumulants of proton number and point out that the latter has numerous advantages over the former, in particular with regards to the critical point search in heavy-ion collisions. The new RHIC BES-II data on factorial cumulants of protons is analyzed, indicating clear deviation of two- and three-particle proton correlations from the...
In addition to signals for the critical point, evidence for a first order phase transition would indicate a nontrivial structure within the QCD phase diagram. Moreover, while not a direct measurement of the critical point, the presence of a first order transition would imply its existence. This motivates the need to understand signatures of this first order transition in addition to directly...
We study the influence of the QCD critical point on the trajectories describing the evolution of the expanding fireball in heavy-ion collisions. We find that the lines of constant specific entropy (entropy per baryon) on the phase diagram are drawn towards a special point on the coexistence (first-order) line where the specific entropy reaches a maximum [1]. We study the interplay between this...
Non-monotonic behavior in the RHIC net proton number fluctuation data could signal the presence of a QCD critical point if they probe thermal conditions at the time of freeze-out. However, the connection between higher-order baryon number cumulants calculated in equilibrium QCD thermodynamics and higher-order net proton number cumulants may not be straightforward. Moreover, correlations...
