2024/11/14 by R. Lacey, Lacey, Roy A.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.09139
openalex publication_date 2024/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Finite-size scaling (FSS) is applied to net-baryon cumulant ratios C2/C1, C3/C2, C4/C2, C3/C1, and C4/C1 measured in Au+Au collisions over the Beam Energy Scan Phase~I range √sNN=7.7--200~GeV to constrain the location and universality class of the QCD critical end point (CEP). Although finite-size and finite-time effects suppress non-monotonic signatures in unscaled data, the FSS analysis reveals a collapse of measurements from different beam energies and centralities onto universal scaling functions. All cumulant ratios collapse under a single, common set of critical exponents and exhibit divergence patterns characteristic o 3D Ising critical behavior. The scaling results indicate a CEP at √(s)\rm CEP≈33.0~GeV, corresponding to μB,\rm CEP≈130~MeV and T\rm CEP≈158.5~MeV. These findings demonstrate that finite-size scaling provides a robust, model-independent framework for accessing critical behavior in finite, dynamically evolving systems, where non-equilibrium baryon-number transport can enhance the experimental visibility of susceptibility-driven fluctuations without modifying the underlying universality class.