Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The STAR experiment has recently reported data on the 〈 Δ p T , i Δ p T , j 〉 / 〈 〈 p T 〉 〉 charged hadron correlation in Au+Au reactions from s N N = 3 − 200 GeV. The beam energy dependence of this quantity is non-monotonic, showing a pronounced minimum at s N N ≈ 7.7 GeV, while being essentially flat at lower and higher energies. It has been proposed that such a non-monotonicity would be consistent with increased momentum correlations due to a critical point of QCD. In the present work it is shown, using a simplified model, that the observed structure can be consistently explained by the transition from a baryon dominated system to a meson dominated system and is therefore not a good observable for the critical point of QCD.
Source: Physics Letters B
Authors: Tom Reichert, Jan Steinheimer, Marcus Bleicher
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7163343123