2020/01/31 by STAR Collaboration, J. Adam, L. Adamczyk +347 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #nucl-ex #hep-ex #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.092301
published as Physical Review Letters 126 (2021) 092301 · 12 Pages, 9 Figures and 5 Tables (published version)
arxiv created 2021/10/12 · arxiv updated 2021/10/13
Non-monotonic variation with collision energy (√s\rm NN) of the moments of the net-baryon number distribution in heavy-ion collisions, related to the correlation length and the susceptibilities of the system, is suggested as a signature for the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) critical point. We report the first evidence of a non-monotonic variation in kurtosis times variance of the net-proton number (proxy for net-baryon number) distribution as a function of \rootsnn with 3.1σ significance, for head-on (central) gold-on-gold (Au+Au) collisions measured using the STAR detector at RHIC. Data in non-central Au+Au collisions and models of heavy-ion collisions without a critical point show a monotonic variation as a function of √s\rm NN.