@article{a7754d341ec34c6eb8f6cd9d18ebb262,
title = "Nonmonotonic Energy Dependence of Net-Proton Number Fluctuations",
abstract = "Nonmonotonic variation with collision energy (sNN) of the moments of the net-baryon number distribution in heavy-ion collisions, related to the correlation length and the susceptibilities of the system, is suggested as a signature for the quantum chromodynamics critical point. We report the first evidence of a nonmonotonic variation in the kurtosis times variance of the net-proton number (proxy for net-baryon number) distribution as a function of sNN with 3.1 σ significance for head-on (central) gold-on-gold (Au+Au) collisions measured solenoidal tracker at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Data in noncentral Au+Au collisions and models of heavy-ion collisions without a critical point show a monotonic variation as a function of sNN.",
author = "{(STAR Collaboration)} and J. Adam and L. Adamczyk and Adams, {J. R.} and Adkins, {J. K.} and G. Agakishiev and Aggarwal, {M. M.} and Z. Ahammed and I. Alekseev and Anderson, {D. M.} and A. Aparin and Aschenauer, {E. C.} and Ashraf, {M. U.} and Atetalla, {F. G.} and A. Attri and Averichev, {G. S.} and V. Bairathi and K. Barish and A. Behera and R. Bellwied and A. Bhasin and J. Bielcik and J. Bielcikova and Bland, {L. C.} and Bordyuzhin, {I. G.} and Brandenburg, {J. D.} and Brandin, {A. V.} and J. Butterworth and H. Caines and {Calder{\'o}n De La Barca S{\'a}nchez}, M. and D. Cebra and I. Chakaberia and P. Chaloupka and Chan, {B. K.} and Chang, {F. H.} and Z. Chang and N. Chankova-Bunzarova and A. Chatterjee and D. Chen and J. Chen and Chen, {J. H.} and X. Chen and Z. Chen and J. Cheng and M. Cherney and M. Chevalier and S. Choudhury and W. Christie and X. Chu and Crawford, {H. J.} and S. Heppelmann",
note = "Funding Information: We thank P. Braun-Munzinger, S. Gupta, F. Karsch, M. Kitazawa, V. Koch, D. Mishra, K. Rajagopal, K. Redlich, and M. Stephanov for stimulating discussions. We thank the RHIC Operations Group and RCF at BNL, the NERSC Center at LBNL, and the Open Science Grid consortium for providing resources and support. This work was supported in part by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education at NCKU, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Czech Science Foundation and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic, the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office, the New National Excellency Program of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology of the government of India, the National Science Center of Poland, the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, RosAtom of Russia and the German Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, and Technologie (BMBF), the Helmholtz Association, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Physical Society. ",
year = "2021",
month = mar,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.092301",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "126",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "9",
}