Non-Gaussian fluctuations near the QCD critical point

Understand

We study the effect of the QCD critical point on non-Gaussian moments (cumulants) of fluctuations of experimental observables in heavy-ion collisions.

• We find that these moments are very sensitive to the proximity of the critical point, as measured by the magnitude of the correlation length xi.
• For example, the cubic central moment of multiplicity ~ xi^4.5 and the quartic cumulant ~ xi^7.
• We estimate the magnitude of critical point contributions to non-Gaussian fluctuations of pion and proton multiplicities.