Abstract
Several approaches to QCD with two massless quarks at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential suggest the existence of a tricritical point on the boundary of the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. In QCD with massive quarks there is then a critical point at the end of a first order transition line. We discuss possible experimental signatures of this point, which provide information about its location and properties. We propose a combination of event-by-event observables, including suppressed fluctuations in and and, simultaneously, enhanced fluctuations in the multiplicity of soft pions.
- Received 2 June 1998
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.4816
©1998 American Physical Society