Baryon number diffusion with critical fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper investigates how baryon number fluctuations evolve near the QCD critical point using a stochastic diffusion model, highlighting the importance of nonequilibrium effects for interpreting heavy-ion collision data.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic diffusion framework to analyze baryon density fluctuations, emphasizing the role of nonequilibrium dynamics near the QCD critical point.

Findings

Nonequilibrium effects significantly influence fluctuation evolution.

The stochastic diffusion equation captures critical fluctuation dynamics.

Implications for interpreting experimental data from heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract

The description of dynamical fluctuations near the QCD critical point in heavy-ion collisions is crucial for understanding the existing and upcoming experimental data from the beam energy scan programs. In this talk we discuss the evolution of fluctuations of the net-baryon density as given by a stochastic diffusion equation. We study equilibrium as well as dynamical systems for which we can show the impact of nonequilibrium effects on the second-order moment.