Quark Matter 2025

Session

Parallel session 35

9 Apr 2025, 11:10

Goethe University Frankfurt, Campus Westend, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60629 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Conveners

Parallel session 35: QCD phase diagram & critical point III

• Anar Rustamov (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH)

872. Proton High-order Cumulants Results from the STAR Fixed-Target Program

Zachary Sweger (University of California, Davis)

09/04/2025, 11:10

QCD phase diagram & critical point

Oral

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...

415. The antiproton puzzle, QCD critical point, and fireball properties in heavy-ion collisions

Dr Volodymyr Vovchenko (University of Houston)

09/04/2025, 11:30

QCD phase diagram & critical point

Oral

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...

306. First order transition region of an equation of state for QCD with a critical point

Jamie Karthein (MIT)

09/04/2025, 11:50

QCD phase diagram & critical point

Oral

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...

780. Non-Fluctuational Signature of the QCD Critical Point

Noriyuki Sogabe (University of Illinois Chicago)

09/04/2025, 12:10

QCD phase diagram & critical point

Oral

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...

578. Higher order net-baryon number cumulants and baryon-strangeness correlations: Comparing QCD results on the pseudo-critical line with RHIC-BES II results on the freeze-out line

Jishnu Goswami (Bielefeld University)

09/04/2025, 12:30

QCD phase diagram & critical point

Oral

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...