Study of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter in the NA61/SHINE experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports on the NA61/SHINE experiment's investigation of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter, focusing on the onset of deconfinement and the search for the critical point through hadron production measurements across different energies and system sizes.

Contribution

It provides new experimental results on the transition to quark-gluon plasma and critical point signals, enhancing understanding of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter.

Findings

Evidence of the onset of deconfinement at specific energies.

Observations of fluctuations and correlations related to the critical point.

Comparison of results with theoretical models and other experiments.

Abstract

NA61/SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) is a fixed target experiment located at the CERN SPS. Its strong interactions program is devoted to study properties of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. For this goal the two-dimensional scan is performed by measurements of hadron production properties as a function of collision energy (13A - 158A GeV/$c$) and system size (p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb). This contribution presents new results on the onset of deconfinement - the transition between the state of hadronic matter and the quark-gluon plasma. Also, new results on fluctuations and correlations devoted to the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter will be presented. Obtained results are compared with the available data from other experiments and from various theoretical models.