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

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

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.130.082301

Abstract

We report the beam energy and collision centrality dependence of fifth and sixth order cumulants (C_{5}, C_{6}) and factorial cumulants (κ_{5}, κ_{6}) of net-proton and proton number distributions, from center-of-mass energy (sqrt[s_{NN}]) 3GeV to 200GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. Cumulant ratios of net-proton (taken as proxy for net-baryon) distributions generally follow the hierarchy expected from QCD thermodynamics, except for the case of collisions at 3GeV. The measured values of C_{6}/C_{2} for 0%-40% centrality collisions show progressively negative trend with decreasing energy, while it is positive for the lowest energy studied. These observed negative signs are consistent with QCD calculations (for baryon chemical potential, μ_{B}≤110 MeV) which contains the crossover transition range. In addition, for energies above 7.7GeV, the measured proton κ_{n}, within uncertainties, does not support the two-component (Poisson+binomial) shape of proton number distributions that would be expected from a first-order phase transition. Taken in combination, the hyperorder proton number fluctuations suggest that the structure of QCD matter at high baryon density, μ_{B}∼750 MeV at sqrt[s_{NN}]=3 GeV is starkly different from those at vanishing μ_{B}∼24 MeV at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV and higher collision energies.

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