Has the QCD critical point been signaled by observations at the BNL relativistic heavy ion collider?

The shear viscosity to entropy ratio (eta/s) is estimated for the hot and dense QCD matter created in Au+Au collisions at BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (square root[s_{NN}]=200 GeV). A very low value is found; eta/s approximately 0.1, which is close to the conjectured lower bound (1/4pi). It i...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physical review letters 2007-03, Vol.98 (9), p.092301-092301, Article 092301
Hauptverfasser: Lacey, Roy A, Ajitanand, N N, Alexander, J M, Chung, P, Holzmann, W G, Issah, M, Taranenko, A, Danielewicz, P, Stöcker, Horst
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The shear viscosity to entropy ratio (eta/s) is estimated for the hot and dense QCD matter created in Au+Au collisions at BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (square root[s_{NN}]=200 GeV). A very low value is found; eta/s approximately 0.1, which is close to the conjectured lower bound (1/4pi). It is argued that such a low value is indicative of thermodynamic trajectories for the decaying matter which lie close to the QCD critical end point.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.98.092301