Abstract
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 √sNN = 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 (ν) from peripheral to central collisions. The ν is consistent with a constant for different collisions energies in the mid-central (10-40%) collisions. Moreover, the ν in the 0-5% most central Au+Au collisions exhibits a non-monotonic energy dependence that reaches a minimum around √sNN = 27 GeV. The physics implications on the QCD phase structure are discussed.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138165
Funding Information
Funded by SCOAP.
Repository Citation
The STAR Collaboration, "Energy dependence of intermittency for charged hadrons in Au+Au collisions at RHIC" (2023). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 710.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/710
Notes/Citation Information
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).