Influence of an inhomogeneous and expanding medium on signals of the QCD phase transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates how inhomogeneity and expansion in a QCD fireball affect signals of the chiral phase transition, showing that averaging over regions prevents divergence of correlation length near the critical point.

Contribution

It introduces a fluid dynamic model to study inhomogeneous effects on the QCD phase transition signals, highlighting the impact of averaging on correlation length behavior.

Findings

Averaging temperature over fireball regions prevents correlation length divergence.

Inhomogeneity influences the observable signals of the QCD phase transition.

Expansion dynamics modify the critical behavior of the system.

Abstract

According to a fluid dynamic expansion of the fireball we investigate how the inhomogeneity of the system influences the chiral phase transition of QCD. We compare the averaged values of the order parameter in equilibrium with that of a homogeneous system. If the temperature is averaged over a certain region of the fireball the corresponding correlation length does not diverge in an expansion with a critical point.