Charge fluctuations at mid-rapidity in Au_Au collisions in the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

Abstract

Charged particle event-by-event fluctuations have long been considered as a possible signature of quark gluon plasma formation in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions [1]. That the interest in fluctuations remains high in the era of RHIC is evidenced by the large number of recent theoretical [2–4], as well as experimental [5–7], studies published since the previous Quark Matter conference. Here, new results from the PHENIX experiment on event-by-event fluctuations in net charge and < p T > in Au+Au interactions at S N N = 200 will be presented.