Susceptibilities of strongly interacting matter in a finite volume

TL;DR

This paper explores how finite-volume effects influence baryon number susceptibilities in strongly interacting matter, revealing significant deviations from infinite volume behavior and highlighting the role of color-singlet constraints at different baryochemical potentials.

Contribution

It introduces a model accounting for finite-volume effects and color-singlet constraints, showing their impact on susceptibilities and phase behavior in strongly interacting matter.

Findings

Finite-volume effects cause significant deviations in baryon number susceptibilities.

Color-singlet constraints alter the temperature dependence of susceptibilities.

Finite-volume effects vary qualitatively with baryochemical potential.

Abstract

We investigate possible finite-volume effects on baryon number susceptibilities of strongly interacting matter. Assuming that a hadronic and a deconfined phase both contribute to the thermodynamic state of a finite system due to fluctuations, it is found that the resulting shapes of the net-baryon number distributions deviate significantly from the infinite volume limit for a given temperature $T$ and baryochemical potential $\mu_B$. In particular, the constraint on color-singletness for the finite quark-gluon phase contribution leads to a change of the temperature dependence of the susceptibilities in finite volumes. According to the model, the finite-volume effect depends qualitatively on the value of $\mu_B$.