Baryon fluctuation signatures of the onset of deconfinement

TL;DR

This paper predicts a unique energy-dependent fluctuation signature in proton numbers due to the transition from confined to deconfined matter in heavy-ion collisions, explaining recent experimental results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fluctuation signature as an indicator of the onset of deconfinement in heavy-ion collisions, linking theoretical predictions with experimental observations.

Findings

Predicts anomalous proton fluctuation dependence on collision energy.

Provides a natural explanation for recent beam-energy-scan results.

Links changes in degrees of freedom to experimental fluctuation data.

Abstract

An anomalous collision-energy dependence of proton number fluctuations is predicted as a consequence of the onset of deconfinement in heavy-ion collisions at the center of mass energy of the nucleon pair of about 10 GeV. The effect arises from changes in the effective degrees of freedom between confined and deconfined matter. This may provide a natural explanation of the recent beam-energy-scan results on proton number fluctuations at the BNL RHIC and offers a consistent interpretation of data from the CERN SPS and RHIC experiments in terms of the onset of deconfinement.