Universal relations between nongaussian fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We show that universality near a critical end point implies a characteristic relation between third- and fourth-order baryon susceptibilities $χ_3$ and $χ_4$, resulting in a banana-shaped loop when $χ_4$ is plotted as a function of $χ_3$ along a freeze-out line. Including the individual enhancements of $χ_3$ and $χ_4$ near a critical point, these features may be a consistent set of observations supporting the interpretation of baryon fluctuations data as arising from criticality.

5 pages, 6 figures, revtex style; v2 as published