Published July 9, 2010 | Version v1
Journal article

Higher Moments of Net Proton Multiplicity Distributions at RHIC

Description

We report the first measurements of the kurtosis (κ), skewness (S), and variance (σ2) of net-proton multiplicity (Np-Np) distributions at midrapidity for Au+Au collisions at √(sNN)=19.6, 62.4, and 200 GeV corresponding to baryon chemical potentials (μB) between 200 and 20 MeV. Our measurements of the products κσ2 and Sσ, which can be related to theoretical calculations sensitive to baryon number susceptibilities and long-range correlations, are constant as functions of collision centrality. We compare these products with results from lattice QCD and various models without a critical point and study the √(sNN) dependence of κσ2. From the measurements at the three beam energies, we find no evidence for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for μB below 200 MeV.

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
105
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
p. 022302-022302.6
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2010 The American Physical Society
Collaborations
STAR Collaboration