Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions and the QCD Critical Point

Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

58 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. D

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.60.114028

The event-by-event fluctuations of suitably chosen observables in heavy ion collisions at SPS, RHIC and LHC can tell us about the thermodynamic properties of the hadronic system at freeze-out. By studying these fluctuations as a function of varying control parameters, it is possible to learn much about the phase diagram of QCD. As a timely example, we stress the methods by which present experiments at the CERN SPS can locate the second-order critical endpoint of the first-order transition between quark-gluon plasma and hadron matter. Those event-by-event signatures which are characteristic of freeze-out in the vicinity of the critical point will exhibit nonmonotonic dependence on control parameters. We focus on observables constructed from the multiplicity and transverse momenta of charged pions. We first consider how the event-by-event fluctuations of such observables are affected by Bose-Einstein correlations, by resonances which decay after freeze-out and by fluctuations in the transverse flow velocity. We compare our thermodynamic predictions for such noncritical event-by-event fluctuations with NA49 data, finding broad agreement. We then focus on effects due to thermal contact between the observed pions and a heat bath with a given (possibly singular) specific heat, and due to the direct coupling between the critical fluctuations of the sigma field and the observed pions. We also discuss the effect of the pions produced in the decay of sigma particles just above threshold after freeze-out on the inclusive pion spectrum and on multiplicity fluctuations. We estimate the size of these nonmonotonic effects which appear near the critical point, including restrictions imposed by finite size and finite time, and conclude that they should be easily observable.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions and the QCD Critical Point does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions and the QCD Critical Point, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions and the QCD Critical Point will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-389275

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.