Beam Energy Dependence of Fifth- and Sixth-Order Net-Proton Number Fluctuations in Au + Au Collisions at RHIC

Journal Article · Fri Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.130.082301· OSTI ID:2222636

Aboona, B.  E.; Adam, J.; Adamczyk, L.; Adams, J.  R.; Aggarwal, I.; Aggarwal, M.  M.; Ahammed, Z.; Anderson, D.  M.; Aschenauer, E.  C.; Atchison, J.; Bairathi, V.; Baker, W.; Ball Cap, J.  G.; Barish, K.; Bellwied, R.; Bhagat, P.; Bhasin, A.; Bhatta, S.; Bielcik, J.; Bielcikova, J. ; Brandenburg, J.  D.; Cai, X.  Z.; Caines, H.; Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, M.; Cebra, D.; Ceska, J.; Chakaberia, I.; Chaloupka, P.; Chan, B.  K.; Chang, Z.; Chen, D.; Chen, J.; Chen, J.  H.; Chen, Z.; Cheng, J.; Cheng, Y.; Choudhury, S.; Christie, W.; Chu, X.; Crawford, H.  J.; Csanád, M.; Dale-Gau, G.; Das, A.; Daugherity, M.; Deppner, I.  M.; Dhamija, A.; Di Carlo, L.; Didenko, L.; Dixit, P.; Dong, X.; Drachenberg, J.  L.; Duckworth, E.; Dunlop, J.  C.; Engelage, J.; Eppley, G.; Esumi, S.; Evdokimov, O.; Ewigleben, A.; Eyser, O.; Fatemi, R.; Fazio, S.; Feng, C.  J.; Feng, Y.; Finch, E.; Fisyak, Y.; Flor, F.  A.; Fu, C.; Gagliardi, C.  A.; Galatyuk, T.; Geurts, F.; Ghimire, N.; Gibson, A.; Gopal, K.; Gou, X.; Grosnick, D.; Gupta, A.; Guryn, W.; Hamed, A.; Han, Y.; Harabasz, S.; Harasty, M.  D.; Harris, J.  W.; Harrison, H.; He, W.; He, X.  H.; He, Y.; Heppelmann, S.; Herrmann, N.; Holub, L.; Hu, C.; Hu, Q.; Hu, Y.; Huang, H.; Huang, H.  Z.; Huang, S.  L.; Huang, T.; Huang, X.; Huang, Y.; Huang, Y.; Humanic, T.  J.; Isenhower, D.; Isshiki, M.; Jacobs, W.  W.; Jalotra, A.; Jena, C.; Jentsch, A.; Ji, Y.; Jia, J.; Jin, C.; Ju, X.; Judd, E.  G.; Kabana, S.; Kabir, M.  L.; Kagamaster, S.; Kalinkin, D.; Kang, K.; Kapukchyan, D.; Kauder, K.; Ke, H.  W.; Keane, D.; Kelsey, M.; Khyzhniak, Y.  V.; Kikoła, D.  P.; Kimelman, B.; Kincses, D.; Kisel, I.; Kiselev, A.; Knospe, A.  G.; Ko, H.  S.; Kosarzewski, L.  K.; Kramarik, L.; Kumar, L.; Kumar, S.; Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, R.; Lacey, R.; Landgraf, J.  M.; Lauret, J.; Lebedev, A.; Lee, J.  H.; Leung, Y.  H.; Lewis, N.; Li, C.; Li, C.; Li, W.; Li, X.; Li, Y.; Li, Y.; Li, Z.; Liang, X.; Liang, Y.; Licenik, R.; Lin, T.; Lisa, M.  A.; Liu, C.; Liu, F.; Liu, H.; Liu, H.; Liu, L.; Liu, T.; Liu, X.; Liu, Y.; Liu, Z.; Ljubicic, T.; Llope, W.  J.; Lomicky, O.; Longacre, R.  S.; Loyd, E.; Lu, T.; Lukow, N.  S.; Luo, X.  F.; Ma, L.; Ma, R.; Ma, Y.  G.; Magdy, N.; Mallick, D.; Margetis, S.; Markert, C.; Matis, H.  S.; Mazer, J.  A.; McNamara, G.; Mi, K.; Mioduszewski, S.; Mohanty, B.; Mooney, I.; Mukherjee, A.; Nagy, M.  I.; Nain, A.  S.; Nam, J.  D.; Nasim, Md; Neff, D.; Nelson, J.  M.; Nemes, D.  B.; Nie, M.; Niida, T.; Nishitani, R.; Nonaka, T.; Nunes, A.  S.; Odyniec, G.; Ogawa, A.; Oh, S.; Okubo, K.; Page, B.  S.; Pak, R.; Pan, J.; Pandav, A.; Pandey, A.  K.; Pani, T.; Paul, A.; Pawlik, B.; Pawlowska, D.; Perkins, C.; Pluta, J.; Pokhrel, B.  R.; Posik, M.; Protzman, T.; Prozorova, V.; Pruthi, N.  K.; Przybycien, M.; Putschke, J.; Qin, Z.; Qiu, H.; Quintero, A.; Racz, C.; Radhakrishnan, S.  K.; Raha, N.; Ray, R.  L.; Reed, R.; Ritter, H.  G.; Robertson, C.  W.; Robotkova, M.; Romero, J.  L.; Rosales Aguilar, M.  A.; Roy, D.; Roy Chowdhury, P.; Ruan, L.; Sahoo, A.  K.; Sahoo, N.  R.; Sako, H.; Salur, S.; Sato, S.; Schmidke, W.  B.; Schmitz, N.; Seck, F-J; Seger, J.; Seto, R.; Seyboth, P.; Shah, N.; Shanmuganathan, P.  V.; Shao, M.; Shao, T.; Sharma, M.; Sharma, N.; Sharma, R.; Sharma, S.  R.; Sheikh, A.  I.; Shen, D.  Y.; Shen, K.; Shi, S.  S.; Shi, Y.; Shou, Q.  Y.; Si, F.; Singh, J.; Singha, S.; Sinha, P.; Skoby, M.  J.; Smirnov, N.; Söhngen, Y.; Song, Y.; Srivastava, B.; Stanislaus, T.  D. S.; Stefaniak, M.; Stewart, D.  J.; Stringfellow, B.; Su, Y.; Suaide, A.  A. P.; Sumbera, M.; Sun, C.; Sun, X.; Sun, Y.; Sun, Y.; Surrow, B.; Sweger, Z.  W.; Szymanski, P.; Tamis, A.; Tang, A.  H.; Tang, Z.; Tarnowsky, T.; Thomas, J.  H.; Timmins, A.  R.; Tlusty, D.; Todoroki, T.; Tomkiel, C.  A.; Trentalange, S.; Tribble, R.  E.; Tribedy, P.; Truhlar, T.; Trzeciak, B.  A.; Tsai, O.  D.; Tsang, C.  Y.; Tu, Z.; Ullrich, T.; Underwood, D.  G.; Upsal, I.; Van Buren, G.; Vanek, J.; Vassiliev, I.; Verkest, V.; Videbæk, F.; Voloshin, S.  A.; Wang, F.; Wang, G.; Wang, J.  S.; Wang, X.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Z.; Webb, J.  C.; Weidenkaff, P.  C.; Westfall, G.  D.; Wielanek, D.; Wieman, H.; Wilks, G.; Wissink, S.  W.; Witt, R.; Wu, J.; Wu, J.; Wu, X.; Wu, Y.; Xi, B.; Xiao, Z.  G.; Xie, W.; Xu, H.; Xu, N.; Xu, Q.  H.; Xu, Y.; Xu, Y.; Xu, Z.; Xu, Z.; Yan, G.; Yan, Z.; Yang, C.; Yang, Q.; Yang, S.; Yang, Y.; Ye, Z.; Ye, Z.; Yi, L.; Yip, K.; Yu, Y.; Zbroszczyk, H.; Zha, W.; Zhang, C.; Zhang, D.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, S.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Z.  J.; Zhang, Z.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, F.; Zhao, J.; Zhao, M.; Zhou, C.; Zhou, J.; Zhou, S.; Zhou, Y.; Zhu, X.; Zurek, M.; Zyzak, M.

We report the beam energy and collision centrality dependence of fifth and sixth order cumulants (C₅, C₆) and factorial cumulants (κ₅, κ₆) of net-proton and proton distributions, from $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$=3-200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The net-proton cumulant ratios generally follow the hierarchy expected from QCD thermodynamics, except for the case of collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$ = 3 GeV. C₆/C₂ for 0-40\% centrality collisions is increasingly negative with decreasing $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$, while it is positive for the lowest $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$ studied. These observed negative signs are consistent with QCD calculations (at baryon chemical potential, μ_B≤ 110 MeV) that include a crossover quark-hadron transition. In addition, for $$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$≥ 11.5 GeV, the measured proton κ_n, within uncertainties, does not support the two-component shape of proton distributions that would be expected from a first-order phase transition. Taken in combination, the hyper-order proton number fluctuations suggest that the structure of QCD matter at high baryon density, μ_B~750 MeV ($$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$ = 3 GeV) is starkly different from those at vanishing μ_B~20MeV ($$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$$ = 200 GeV and higher).

• Research Organization: Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• Contributing Organization: STAR Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0017982; SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 2222636
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1879427
• Report Number(s): BNL-223191-2022-JAAM
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 130, Issue 8; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Lattice QCD
QCD phase transitions
Quark-gluon plasma
Relativistic heavy-ion collisions