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 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.
Lacey
Roy A
RA
Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3400, USA.
Ajitanand
N N
NN
Alexander
J M
JM
Chung
P
P
Holzmann
W G
WG
Issah
M
M
Taranenko
A
A
Danielewicz
P
P
Stöcker
Horst
H