Multiplicity fluctuations at the quark-hadron phase transition from a fluid dynamical model

TL;DR

This paper models the quark-hadron phase transition in heavy-ion collisions using a fluid dynamical approach coupled with chiral and dilaton fields to study baryon number fluctuations as potential signals of critical phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a fluid dynamical model coupled with chiral and dilaton fields to analyze nonequilibrium signals during the phase transition.

Findings

Baryon number fluctuations show sensitivity to the phase transition dynamics.

The model predicts observable signals for upcoming FAIR experiments.

Event-by-event analysis reveals potential critical point signatures.

Abstract

The region of large net-baryon densities in the QCD phase diagram is expected to exhibit a first-order phase transition. Experimentally, its study will be one of the primaryobjectives for the upcoming FAIR accelerator. We model the transition between quarks and hadrons in a heavy-ion collision using a fluid which is coupled to the explicit dynamics of the chiral order parameter and a dilaton field. This allows us to investigate signals stemming from the nonequilibrium evolution during the expansion of the hot plasma. Special emphasis is put on an event-by-event analysis of baryon number fluctuations which have long since been claimed to be sensitive to a critical point.