Year: 1998
Type: article
Abstract: Several approaches to QCD with two massless quarks at finite temperature $T$ and baryon chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$ suggest the existence of a tricritical point on the boundary of the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. In QCD with massive quarks there is then a critical point at the end of a first order transition line. We discuss possible experimental signatures of this point, which provide information about its location and properties. We propose a combination of event-by-event observables, including suppressed fluctuations in $T$ and $\ensuremath{\mu}$ and, simultaneously, enhanced fluctuations in the multiplicity of soft pions.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: M. Stephanov, K. Rajagopal, E. Shuryak
Institutions: Stony Brook University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1983524782