We study the influence of global baryon number conservation on the non-critical baseline of net baryon cumulants in heavy-ion collisions in a given acceptance, accounting for the asymmetry between ...the mean-numbers of baryons and antibaryons. We derive the probability distribution of net baryon number in a restricted phase space from the canonical partition function that incorporates exact conservation of baryon number in the full system. Furthermore, we provide tools to compute cumulants of any order from the generating function of uncorrelated baryons constrained by exact baryon number conservation. The results are applied to quantify the non-critical baseline for cumulants of net proton number fluctuations obtained in heavy-ion collisions by the STAR collaboration at different RHIC energies and by the ALICE collaboration at the LHC. Furthermore, volume fluctuations are added by a Monte Carlo procedure based on the centrality dependence of charged particle production as measured experimentally. Compared to the predictions based on the hadron resonance gas model or Skellam distribution a clear suppression of fluctuations is observed due to exact baryon-number conservation. The suppression increases with the order of the cumulant and towards lower collision energies. Predictions for net proton cumulants up to the eight order in heavy-ion collisions are given for experimentally accessible collision energies.
Aims.
We aim to present a first step in developing a benchmark equation-of-state (EoS) model for multi-messenger astronomy that unifies the thermodynamics of quark and hadronic degrees of freedom.
...Methods.
A Lagrangian approach to the thermodynamic potential of quark-meson-nucleon matter was used. In this approach, dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is described by the scalar mean-field dynamics coupled to quarks and nucleons and their chiral partners, whereby its restoration occurs in the hadronic phase by parity doubling, as well as in the quark phase. Quark confinement was achieved by an auxiliary scalar field that parametrizes a dynamical infrared cut-off in the quark sector, serving as an ultraviolet cut-off for the nucleonic phase space. The gap equations were solved for the isospin-symmetric case, as well as for neutron star (NS) conditions. We also calculated the mass-radius (MR) relation of NSs and their tidal deformability (TD) parameter.
Results.
The obtained EoS is in accordance with nuclear matter properties at saturation density and with the flow constraint from heavy ion collision experiments. For isospin-asymmetric matter, a sequential occurrence of light quark flavors is obtained, allowing for a mixed phase of chirally-symmetric nucleonic matter with deconfined down quarks. The MR relations and TDs for compact stars fulfill the constraints from the latest astrophysical observations for PSR J0740+6620, PSR J0030+0451, and the NS merger GW170817, whereby the tension between the maximum mass and compactness constraints rather uniquely fixes the model parameters. The model predicts the existence of stars with a core of chirally restored but purely hadronic (confined) matter for masses beyond 1.8
M
⊙
. Stars with pure-quark matter cores are found to be unstable against the gravitational collapse. This instability is shifted to even higher densities if repulsive interactions between quarks are included.
We calculate the first four moments of baryon number, electric charge and strangeness fluctuations within the hadron resonance gas model. Different moments and their ratios as well as skewness and ...kurtosis are evaluated on the phenomenologically determined freeze-out curve in the temperature, baryon chemical potential plane. The model results and its predictions as well as relations between different moments are compared with the first data on net proton fluctuations in Au–Au collisions obtained at RHIC by the STAR Collaboration. We find good agreement between the model calculations and experimental results. We also point out that higher order moments should be more sensitive to critical behavior and will also distinguish hadron resonance gas model calculations from results obtained from lattice QCD.
We discuss the relevance of higher order cumulants of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Using properties ...of
O
(4) scaling functions, we discuss the generic structure of these higher cumulants at vanishing baryon chemical potential and apply chiral model calculations to explore their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. We show that the ratios of the sixth to second and eighth to second order cumulants of the net baryon number fluctuations change rapidly in the transition region of the QCD phase diagram. Already at vanishing baryon chemical potential they deviate considerably from the predictions of the hadron resonance gas model which reproduce the second and fourth order cumulants of the net proton number fluctuations at RHIC. We point out that the sixth order cumulants of baryon number and electric charge fluctuations remain negative at the chiral transition temperature. Thus, they offer the possibility to probe the proximity of the chemical freeze-out to the crossover line.
Calculations and predictions are presented within the framework of the statistical hadronization model for transverse momentum spectra of the charmonium states J/ψ, ψ(2S) and X(3872) produced in ...nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies. The results are confronted with available data and exhibit very good agreement by using particle flow profiles from state-of-the-art hydrodynamic calculations. For X(3872) production in Pb–Pb collisions we predict a transverse momentum distribution similar in shape to that for J/ψ with a strong enhancement at low transverse momenta and a production yield of about 1% relative to that for J/ψ.
The most recent data from the CERN LHC are compared with calculations within the statistical hadronization model. The parameters temperature und baryon chemical potential are fitted to the data. The ...best fit yields a temperature of 156 MeV, slightly below the expectation from RHIC data. Proton yields are nearly three standard deviations below this fit and possible reasons are discussed.
We discuss the properties of hadronic fluctuations, i.e., fluctuations of net quark and isospin numbers as well as electric charge, in the vicinity of the QCD transition in isospin-symmetric matter ...at vanishing quark chemical potential. We analyse second- and fourth-order cumulants of these fluctuations and argue that the ratio of quartic and quadratic cumulants reflects the relevant degrees of freedom that carry the quark number, isospin or charge, respectively. In the hadronic phase we find that an enhancement of charge fluctuations arises from contributions of doubly charged hadrons to the thermodynamics. The rapid suppression of fluctuations seen in the high-temperature phase suggests that in the QGP, net quark number and electric charge are predominantly carried by quasi-particles, with the quantum numbers of quarks.
We present the status of the chemical freeze-out, determined from fits of hadron yields with the statistical hadronization (thermal) model, with focus on the data at the LHC. A description of the ...yields of hadrons containing light quarks as well as the application of the model for the production of the J/ψ meson is presented. The implications for the QCD phase diagram are discussed.
We construct net baryon number and strangeness susceptibilities as well as correlations between electric charge, strangeness and baryon number from experimental data at midrapidity of the ALICE ...Collaboration at CERN. The data were taken in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV and cover one unit of rapidity. The resulting fluctuations and correlations are consistent with Lattice QCD results at the chiral crossover pseudocritical temperature Tc≃155 MeV. This agreement lends strong support to the assumption that the fireball created in these collisions is of thermal origin and exhibits characteristic properties expected in QCD at the transition from the quark gluon plasma to the hadronic phase. The volume of the fireball for one unit of rapidity at Tc is found to exceed 3000 fm3. A detailed discussion on uncertainties in the temperature and volume of the fireball is presented. The results are linked to pion interferometry measurements and predictions from percolation theory.
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