Sign of Kurtosis near the QCD Critical Point
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Date
2011-07Author
Stephanov, M. A.
Publisher
American Physical SocietyMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We point out that the quartic cumulant (and kurtosis) of the order parameter fluctuations is universally negative when the critical point is approached on the crossover side of the phase separation line. As a consequence, the kurtosis of a fluctuating observable, such as, e.g., proton multiplicity, may become smaller than the value given by independent Poisson statistics. We discuss implications for the beam energy scan program at RHIC at BNL.