Lattice QCD predictions for shapes of event distributions along the freezeout curve in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper uses lattice QCD to predict the behavior of baryon number fluctuations along the freezeout curve in heavy-ion collisions, providing insights into the QCD phase diagram and potential critical points.

Contribution

It offers new lattice QCD calculations of susceptibility ratios along the freezeout curve, aiding interpretation of heavy-ion collision experiments.

Findings

Skewness and kurtosis of baryon number are positive across studied energies.

Predicted susceptibility ratios vary smoothly with energy, except near a critical point.

Results can help identify signals of the QCD critical point in experiments.

Abstract

We present lattice QCD results along the freezeout curve of heavy-ion collisions for the ongoing RHIC energy scan as well as the LHC heavy-ion runs planned for this year. The skew and kurtosis of the event distribution of baryon number are positive at all energies studied, We predict three ratios of non-linear susceptibilities along the freezeout curve as functions of the colliding energy, Sqrt[S_{NN}]. They have smooth behaviour except in the vicinity of a critical point; this can have multiple benefits.