Fluctuations of Conserved Quantities in High Energy Nuclear Collisions at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the analysis of fluctuations in conserved quantities like net-proton, net-kaon, and net-charge in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC, aiming to explore the QCD phase diagram and critical point.

Contribution

It presents the analysis techniques used by the STAR experiment and reports on the moments of net-proton and net-charge distributions from the Beam Energy Scan program.

Findings

Analysis techniques for fluctuation measurements are detailed.

Results on net-proton and net-charge moments from RHIC data are presented.

Insights into the QCD phase diagram are discussed.

Abstract

Fluctuations of conserved quantities in heavy-ion collisions are used to probe the phase transition and the QCD critical point for the strongly interacting hot and dense nuclear matter. The STAR experiment has carried out moment analysis of net-proton (proxy for net-baryon (B)), net-kaon (proxy for net-strangeness (S)), and net-charge (Q). These measurements are important for understanding the quantum chromodynamics phase diagram. We present the analysis techniques used in the moment analysis by the STAR experiment and discuss the moments of net-proton and net-charge distributions from the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.