Modeling chiral criticality and its consequences for heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical fluctuations near the chiral critical endpoint in nuclear matter, emphasizing the importance of self-consistent analysis within models to identify signals in heavy-ion collision experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze signals of the chiral critical endpoint by examining self-consistent lines in the phase diagram, challenging standard freeze-out fits.

Findings

Critical fluctuations are sensitive to the phase boundary location.

Standard freeze-out fits may not accurately reflect critical signals.

Self-consistent analysis provides more reliable signals of the CEP.

Abstract

We explore the critical fluctuations near the chiral critical endpoint (CEP) in a chiral effective model and discuss possible signals of the CEP, recently explored experimentally in nuclear collision. Particular attention is paid to the dependence of such signals on the location of the phase boundary and the CEP relative to the chemical freeze-out conditions in nuclear collisions. We argue that in effective models, standard freeze-out fits to heavy-ion data should not be used directly. Instead, the relevant quantities should be examined on lines in the phase diagram that are defined self-consistently, within the framework of the model. We discuss possible choices for such an approach.