Probing QCD critical fluctuations from light nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

2017/02/28 by Kai-Jia Sun, Lie-Wen Chen, Che Ming Ko +2 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Baryon #Coalescence (physics) #Heavy ion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Ion #Kinetic energy #Large Hadron Collider #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Proton #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider #Super Proton Synchrotron #Thermodynamics #Yield (engineering) #hep-ph #nucl-ex #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2017.09.056

published as Phys. Lett. B 774: 103-107, 2017 · 6 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Correlations between neutron and proton density fluctuations considered and presentation improved. Accepted version to appear in PLB

arxiv created 2017/09/20 · openalex publication_date 2017/09/22 · arxiv updated 2019/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Based on the coalescence model for light nuclei production, we show that the yield ratio Op-d-t=NH3Np/Nd2 of p, d, and 3H in heavy-ion collisions is sensitive to the neutron relative density fluctuation Δn=〈(δn)2〉/〈n〉2 at kinetic freeze-out. From recent experimental data in central Pb + Pb collisions at sNN=6.3 GeV, 7.6 GeV, 8.8 GeV, 12.3 GeV and 17.3 GeV measured by the NA49 Collaboration at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), we find a possible non-monotonic behavior of Δn as a function of the collision energy with a peak at sNN=8.8 GeV, indicating that the density fluctuations become the largest in collisions at this energy. With the known chemical freeze-out conditions determined from the statistical model fit to experimental data, we obtain a chemical freeze-out temperature of ∼144 MeV and baryon chemical potential of ∼385 MeV at this collision energy, which are close to the critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram predicted by various theoretical studies. Our results thus suggest the potential usefulness of the yield ratio of light nuclei in relativistic heavy-ion collisions as a direct probe of the large density fluctuations associated with the QCD critical phenomena.

Citations

• Observation of the antimatter helium-4 nucleus
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• Quark number fluctuations at finite temperature and finite chemical potential via the Dyson-Schwinger equation approach
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• Indications for a Critical End Point in the Phase Diagram for Hot and Dense Nuclear Matter
• Light nuclei quasiparticle energy shifts in hot and dense nuclear matter
• Partonic coalescence in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Cited by

• Study of QCD critical point with three-nucleon correlations in light nuclei yields ratios using PYTHIA8/Angantyr
• Baryon preclustering at the freeze-out of heavy-ion collisions and light-nuclei production
• Probing QCD critical fluctuations from the yield ratio of strange hadrons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions