Methods to study event-by-event fluctuations in the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS

TL;DR

This paper discusses methods for analyzing event-by-event fluctuations in the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN SPS, aiming to search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter through transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces technical methods for fluctuation analysis, building upon previous NA49 results, to improve the search for the critical point in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

NA49 results on fluctuations summarized

Methods for removing Non-Target interactions described

Plans for future fluctuation analyses outlined

Abstract

Theoretical calculations locate the critical point of strongly interacting matter (CP) at energies accessible at the CERN SPS. Event-by-event transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations are considered as one of the most important tools to search for the CP. Pilot studies of the energy dependence and the system size dependence of both $p_T$ and multiplicity fluctuations were performed by the NA49 experiment. The NA61/SHINE ion program is a continuation of these efforts. After briefly recalling the essential NA49 results on fluctuations we will discuss the technical methods (removing Non-Target interactions) which we plan to apply for future transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuation analyses.