2007/02/28 by Chihiro Sasaki, C. Sasaki, Bengt Friman +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.232301
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.99:232301,2007 · 4 pages, 3 figures; final version to appear in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2007/12/03 · openalex publication_date 2007/12/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Density fluctuations resulting from spinodal decomposition in a nonequilibrium first-order chiral phase transition are explored. We show that such instabilities generate divergent fluctuations of conserved charges along the isothermal spinodal lines appearing in the coexistence region. Thus, divergent density fluctuations could be a signal not only for the critical end point but also for the first-order phase transition expected in strongly interacting matter. We also compute the mean-field critical exponent at the spinodal lines. Our analysis is performed in the mean-field approximation to the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model formulated at finite temperature and density. However, our main conclusions are expected to be generic and model independent.