Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase

The search for remnants of the QCD chiral critical point is a central objective of current and future high-energy ion collision experiments. Previous studies suggest that a scaling law relating higher-order factorial moments of hadron multiplicity fluctuations to the second factorial moment could se...

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Main Authors: A. Brofas, M. Zampetakis, F.K. Diakonos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-04-01
Series:Physics Letters B
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269325001364
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author A. Brofas
M. Zampetakis
F.K. Diakonos
author_facet A. Brofas
M. Zampetakis
F.K. Diakonos
author_sort A. Brofas
collection DOAJ
description The search for remnants of the QCD chiral critical point is a central objective of current and future high-energy ion collision experiments. Previous studies suggest that a scaling law relating higher-order factorial moments of hadron multiplicity fluctuations to the second factorial moment could serve as a tool for detecting the QCD critical point. However, we demonstrate that this scaling law is not unique to critical phenomena. Instead, it emerges as a general property of distributions by extending the concept of hypercontractivity—originally applied to ordinary moments—to factorial moments. We present examples of distribution classes that exhibit the same higher-order factorial moment scaling as multiplicity fluctuations in the symmetry-broken phase. This insight allows us to explain the recent intermittency analysis results from the STAR experiment at RHIC (2023) [1], where no indication of criticality was observed.
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spelling doaj-art-040d68ca75264ea4a9fc79946f511fcc2025-08-20T02:50:45ZengElsevierPhysics Letters B0370-26932025-04-0186313937610.1016/j.physletb.2025.139376Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phaseA. Brofas0M. Zampetakis1F.K. Diakonos2Department of Physics, University of Athens, Athens GR-15784, Greece; Corresponding author.Computer Science Department, Yale University, New Haven US-06511, USA; Archimedes Research Unit, Athens GR-15125, GreeceDepartment of Physics, University of Athens, Athens GR-15784, GreeceThe search for remnants of the QCD chiral critical point is a central objective of current and future high-energy ion collision experiments. Previous studies suggest that a scaling law relating higher-order factorial moments of hadron multiplicity fluctuations to the second factorial moment could serve as a tool for detecting the QCD critical point. However, we demonstrate that this scaling law is not unique to critical phenomena. Instead, it emerges as a general property of distributions by extending the concept of hypercontractivity—originally applied to ordinary moments—to factorial moments. We present examples of distribution classes that exhibit the same higher-order factorial moment scaling as multiplicity fluctuations in the symmetry-broken phase. This insight allows us to explain the recent intermittency analysis results from the STAR experiment at RHIC (2023) [1], where no indication of criticality was observed.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269325001364QCD critical pointIntermittencyIon collisionsHypercontractivity
spellingShingle A. Brofas
M. Zampetakis
F.K. Diakonos
Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
Physics Letters B
QCD critical point
Intermittency
Ion collisions
Hypercontractivity
title Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
title_full Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
title_fullStr Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
title_full_unstemmed Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
title_short Hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
title_sort hypercontractivity and factorial moment scaling in the symmetry broken phase
topic QCD critical point
Intermittency
Ion collisions
Hypercontractivity
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269325001364
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AT mzampetakis hypercontractivityandfactorialmomentscalinginthesymmetrybrokenphase
AT fkdiakonos hypercontractivityandfactorialmomentscalinginthesymmetrybrokenphase