Search for the critical point of strongly-interacting matter in 40Ar+45Sc collisions at 150A Ge V /c using scaled factorial moments of protons

The critical point of dense, strongly interacting matter is searched for at the CERN SPS in Ar-40 + Sc-45 collisions at 150A Ge V /c. The dependence of second-order scaled factorial moments of proton multiplicity distribution on the number of subdivisions of transverse momentum space is measured. The intermittency analysis is performed using both transverse momentum and cumulative transverse momentum. For the first time, statistically independent data sets are used for each subdivision number. The obtained results do not indicate any statistically significant intermittency pattern. An upper limit on the fraction of correlated proton pairs and the power of the correlation function is obtained based on a comparison with the Power-law Model developed for this purpose.

Automated summary

At the CERN SPS, the critical point of dense, strongly interacting matter is investigated in Ar-40 + Sc-45 collisions at 150A Ge V /c. The relationship between the second-order scaled factorial moments of proton multiplicity distribution and the number of subdivisions of transverse momentum space is measured. Intermittency analysis is performed using both transverse momentum and cumulative transverse momentum. The obtained results do not show any statistically significant intermittency pattern, and an upper limit on the fraction of correlated proton pairs and the power of the correlation function is determined based on a comparison with the Power-law Model developed for this purpose.