https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2018-12438-1
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Broadening of the chiral critical region in a hydrodynamically expanding medium
1
School of Physics, Suranaree University of Technology, 111 University Avenue, 30000, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
2
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
3
SUBATECH, UMR 6457, IMT Atlantique, Université de Nantes, IN2P3/CNRS, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44307, Nantes cedex 3, France
4
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Planckstr. 1, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
5
John von Neumann-Institut für Computing, Forschungzentrum Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany
6
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe-University, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany
* e-mail: bleicher@th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de
Received:
4
October
2017
Accepted:
24
November
2017
Published online:
19
February
2018
We investigate higher cumulants of the sigma field as the chiral order parameter at the QCD phase transition. We derive a thermodynamic expression for the skewness and kurtosis from susceptibilities and use these to determine 
and 
for the sigma field in equilibrium. In a next step, we study the behavior of these cumulants in both an equilibrated static medium and an expanding medium resembling the hydrodynamic stage of a heavy-ion collision. For the latter one, we find a significant broadening of the critical region.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2018
