Study of event-by-event fluctuations in heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test as a new method to detect event-by-event fluctuations in rapidity distributions during heavy ion collisions, which could indicate a first-order quark-hadron phase transition.

Contribution

It proposes a novel application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to identify fluctuations potentially caused by spinodal decomposition in heavy ion collisions.

Findings

Kolmogorov-Smirnov test can effectively recognize fluctuations in rapidity distributions.

Fluctuations detected may signal a first-order quark-hadron phase transition.

Method provides a new tool for analyzing heavy ion collision data.

Abstract

We propose Kolmogorov-Smirnov test as a means for recognising event-by-event fluctuations of rapidity distributions in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Such fluctuations may be induced by the spinodal decomposition of the rapidly expanding system during the 1st order quark-hadron phase transition.