Percolation leads to finite-size effects on the transition temperature and center of mass energy required for the quark-gluon plasma formation

TL;DR

This paper studies how finite-size effects influence the transition temperature and energy needed for quark-gluon plasma formation, revealing that smaller systems require higher energies and providing a power-law relationship based on nucleon number.

Contribution

It introduces a percolation-based model to quantify finite-size effects on QGP transition temperature and energy, aligning theoretical predictions with experimental observations.

Findings

Transition temperature increases for smaller systems.

Minimal triggering energy in pp collisions is about twenty times higher than in heavy-ion collisions.

Estimated energy thresholds match observed QGP formation energies.

Abstract

We investigate the finite-size effects on the transition temperature associated with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation. From a percolation perspective, the onset of the QGP in high-energy collisions occurs when the spanning cluster of color strings emerges. The principal result presented here is the finite-size effects on the transition temperature expressed as a power law in terms of the nucleon number. We found that the transition temperature is higher for small systems than for large ones. It means that minimal triggering conditions events in pp collisions require about twenty times higher energies than AuAu-PbPb collisions. We also estimate the center of mass energy required for the QGP formation as a function of the nucleon number. Our results are consistent with the minimal center of mass energies at which the QGP has been observed.