Energy dependence of intermittency for charged hadrons in Au plus Au collisions at RHIC

Abdulhamid, M. I.; Aboona, B. E.; Adamo, J.; Adamczyk, L.; Adams, J. R.; Aggarwal, I.; Aggarwal, M. M.; Ahammed, Z.; Anderson, D. M.; Aschenauer, E. C.; Aslam, S.; Atchison, J.; Bairathi, V.; Baker, W.; Cap, J. G. Ball; Barish, K.; Bellwied, R.; Bhagat, P.; Bhasin, A.; Bhatta, S.; Bielcik, J.; Bielcikova, J.; Brandenburg, J. D.; Cai, X. Z.; Caines, H.; Sanchez, M. Calderon de la Barca; Cebra, D.; Ceska, J.; Chakaberia, I.; Chaloupka, P.; Chan, B. K.; Chang, Z.; Chatterjee, A.; Chen, D.

Science Citation Index Expanded

摘要

Density fluctuations near the QCD critical point can be probed via an intermittency analysis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report the first measurement of intermittency in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 7.7-200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The scaled factorial moments of identified charged hadrons are analyzed at mid-rapidity and within the transverse momentum phase space. We observe a power-law behavior of scaled factorial moments in Au+Au collisions and a decrease in the extracted scaling exponent (v) from peripheral to central collisions. The v is consistent with a constant for different collisions energies in the mid-central (10-40%) collisions. Moreover, the v in the 0-5% most central Au+Au collisions exhibits a non-monotonic energy dependence that reaches a minimum around root s(NN) = 27 GeV. The physics implications on the QCD phase structure are discussed.

关键词

HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS SCALING PROPERTIES CRITICAL QCD FLUCTUATIONS TRANSITION EXPONENT DENSITY MODEL