Longitudinal density correlations of produced matter in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV have been measured from the inclusive charged particle distributions as a function of pseudorapidity window sizes. The extracted \alpha \xi parameter, related to the susceptibility of the density fluctuations in the long wavelength limit, exhibits a non-monotonic behavior as a function of the number of participant nucleons, N_part. A local maximum is seen at N_part ~ 90, with corresponding energy density based on the Bjorken picture of \epsilon_Bj \tau ~ 2.4 GeV/(fm^2 c) with a transverse area size of 60 fm^2. This behavior may suggest a critical phase boundary based on the Ginzburg-Landau framework.
Weighted mean of corrected NBD $k$, $<k_c>$ as a function of pseudorapidity window size. The dominant sources systematic correlate with dead maps (corr.sys.(dead)) and two-track seperation cuts (corr.sys.(fake)). The total systematic error (uncorr.sys.) is the quadratic sum over all errors.
Weighted mean of corrected NBD $k$, $<k_c>$ as a function of pseudorapidity window size. The dominant sources systematic correlate with dead maps (corr.sys.(dead)) and two-track seperation cuts (corr.sys.(fake)). The total systematic error (uncorr.sys.) is the quadratic sum over all errors.
Fit results based on $k(\delta_{\eta})$=$1/{{2\alpha\xi}/{\delta_{\eta}}}$ ($\xi << \delta_{\eta}$).
Forum