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  • Letter

Measurement of fifth- and sixth-order fluctuations of (net-)proton number in Au+Au collisions from phase II of the beam energy scan program at RHIC

B. E. Aboona58, J. Adam17, L. Adamczyk3, I. Aggarwal45, M. M. Aggarwal45, Z. Ahammed66, A. K. Alshammri33, E. C. Aschenauer7, S. Aslam22 et al. (STAR Collaboration)

S. Aslam22, J. Atchison2, V. Bairathi56, X. Bao52, P. Barik27, K. Barish12, S. Behera28, R. Bellwied25, P. Bhagat32, A. Bhasin32, S. Bhatta55, S. R. Bhosale3, J. Bielcik17, J. Bielcikova17,43, J. D. Brandenburg44, C. Broodo25, X. Z. Cai53, H. Caines70, M. Calderón de la Barca Sánchez10, D. Cebra10, J. Ceska17, I. Chakaberia36, P. Chaloupka17, Y. S. Chang46, Z. Chang30, A. Chatterjee19, D. Chen12, J. H. Chen22, L. Chen13, Q. Chen23, W. Chen22, Z. Chen52, J. Cheng61, Y. Cheng11, W. Christie7, X. Chu7, S. Corey44, H. J. Crawford9, M. Csanád20, G. Dale-Gau17, A. Das17, D. De Souza Lemos7, I. M. Deppner24, A. Deshpande55, A. Dhamija45, A. Dimri55, P. Dixit22, X. Dong36, J. L. Drachenberg2, E. Duckworth33, J. C. Dunlop7, Y. S. El-Feky5, J. Engelage9, G. Eppley47, S. Esumi62, O. Evdokimov14, O. Eyser7, B. Fan13, Y. Fang61, R. Fatemi34, S. Fazio8, H. Feng13, Y. Feng13, E. Finch54, Y. Fisyak7, F. A. Flor70, B. Fu13, C. Fu31, T. Fu52, C. A. Gagliardi58, T. Galatyuk18, T. Gao52, Y. Gao22, G. Garcia7, F. Geurts47, A. Gibson65, A. Giri25, K. Gopal28, X. Gou52, D. Grosnick65, A. Gu26, J. Gu22, A. Gupta32, W. Guryn7, A. Hamed5, R. J. Hamilton70, J. Han13, X. Han44, S. Harabasz18, M. D. Harasty10, J. W. Harris70, H. Harrison-Smith34, L. B. Havener70, X. H. He31, Y. He52, N. Herrmann24, L. Holub17, C. Hu63, Q. Hu31, Y. Hu36, H. Huang42,1, H. Z. Huang11, S. L. Huang55, T. Huang14, Y. Huang20, Y. Huang31, Y. Huang22, M. Isshiki62, W. W. Jacobs30, A. Jalotra32, C. Jena28, A. Jentsch7, Y. Ji63, J. Jia55,7, X. Jiang13, C. Jin47, Y. Jin13, N. Jindal44, X. Ju49, E. G. Judd9, S. Kabana56, D. Kalinkin34, J. Kang51, K. Kang61, A. R. Kanuganti7, D. Kapukchyan17, K. Kauder7, D. Keane33, M. Kesler33, A. Khanal68, A. Khanal57, Y. V. Khyzhniak44, D. P. Kikoła67, J. Kim7, D. Kincses20, I. Kisel21, A. Kiselev7, A. G. Knospe37, J. Kołaś67, Y. Kong13, B. Korodi44, L. K. Kosarzewski44, L. Kumar45, M. C. Labonte10, R. Lacey55, J. M. Landgraf7, C. Larson34, J. Lauret7, A. Lebedev7, J. H. Lee7, Y. H. Leung24, C. Li13, D. Li49, H-S. Li46, H. Li69, H. Li23, H. Li13, W. Li47, X. Li49, X. Li49, Y. Li61, Z. Li50, Z. Li49, X. Liang12, R. Licenik43,17, T. Lin52, Y. Lin23, M. A. Lisa44, C. Liu31, G. Liu50, H. Liu26, L. Liu52, L. Liu22, Z. Liu22, Z. Liu13, T. Ljubicic47, O. Lomicky17, E. M. Loyd12, T. Lu31, J. Luo49, X. F. Luo13, L. Ma22, R. Ma7, Y. G. Ma22, N. Magdy59, D. Mallick13, R. Manikandhan25, C. Markert60, O. Matonoha17, K. Menduli27, K. Mi63, S. Mioduszewski58, B. Mohanty41, B. Mondal41, M. M. Mondal38, I. Mooney70, J. Mrazkova43,17, M. I. Nagy20, C. J. Naim55, A. S. Nain45, J. D. Nam57, M. Nasim27, H. Nasrulloh49, J. M. Nelson9, M. Nie52, G. Nigmatkulov14, T. Niida62, T. Nonaka62, G. Odyniec36, A. Ogawa7, S. Oh51, K. Okubo62, B. S. Page7, M. Pal57, S. Pal17, A. Pandav36, A. Panday27, A. K. Pandey67, T. Pani48, A. Paul12, S. Paul55, D. Pawlowska67, C. Perkins9, S. Ping22, J. Pluta67, I. D. Ponce Pinto70, M. Posik57, E. Pottebaum70, S. Prodhan28, T. L. Protzman37, A. Prozorov17, V. Prozorova17, N. K. Pruthi45, M. Przybycien3, J. Putschke68, Y. Qi13, Z. Qin61, H. Qiu31, C. Racz12, S. K. Radhakrishnan33, A. Rana45, R. L. Ray60, R. Reed37, C. W. Robertson46, M. Robotkova43,17, M. A. Rosales Aguilar34, D. Roy48, P. Roy Chowdhury67, L. Ruan7, A. K. Sahoo31, N. R. Sahoo28, H. Sako62, S. Salur48, S. S. Sambyal32, D. T. Samuel33, J. K. Sandhu37, S. Sato62, B. C. Schaefer37, N. Schmitz39, F-J. Seck18, J. Seger16, R. Seto12, P. Seyboth39, N. Shah29, P. V. Shanmuganathan7, T. Shao22, M. Sharma32, N. Sharma27, R. Sharma28, S. R. Sharma28, A. I. Sheikh33, D. Shen52, D. Y. Shen31, K. Shen49, S. Shi13, Y. Shi52, Shilpa33, E. Shulga7, F. Si49, J. Singh56, S. Singha31, P. Sinha28, M. J. Skoby6,46, N. Smirnov70, Y. Söhngen24, Y. Song70, T. D. S. Stanislaus65, M. Stefaniak44, Y. Su49, M. Sumbera43, X. Sun31, Y. Sun49, B. Surrow57, M. Svoboda43,17, Z. W. Sweger10, A. C. Tamis70, A. H. Tang7, Z. Tang49, T. Tarnowsky40, J. H. Thomas36, A. R. Timmins25, D. Tlusty16, D. Torres-Valladares47, S. Trentalange11, P. Tribedy7, S. K. Tripathy67, T. Truhlar17, B. A. Trzeciak17, O. D. Tsai11,7, C. Y. Tsang33,7, Z. Tu7, J. E. Tyler58, T. Ullrich7, D. G. Underwood4,65, G. Van Buren7, J. Vanek7, I. Vassiliev21, F. Videbæk7, S. A. Voloshin68, F. Wang46, G. Wang11, G. Wang13, J. S. Wang26, J. Wang52, K. Wang49, X. Wang52, Y. Wang49, Y. Wang13, Y. Wang61, Z. Wang22, Z. Wang13, Z. Wang52, Z. Y. Wang22, J. C. Webb7, P. C. Weidenkaff24, G. D. Westfall40, D. Wielanek67, H. Wieman36, G. Wilks14, S. W. Wissink30, R. Witt64, C. P. Wong7, J. Wu63, X. Wu11, X. Wu49, X. Wu13, A. J. Watroba3, B. Xi22, Y. Xiao22, Z. G. Xiao61, G. Xie63, W. Xie46, H. Xu26, N. Xu13, Q. H. Xu52, X. Xu61, Y. Xu52, Y. Xu22, Y. Xu13, Y. Xu31, Z. Xu33, Z. Xu4, G. Yan52, Z. Yan55, C. Yang52, Q. Yang52, S. Yang50, Y. Yang1,42, Z. Ye50, Z. Ye36, L. Yi52, Y. Yu52, W. Yuan61, H. Zbroszczyk67, W. Zha49, C. Zhang22, D. Zhang50, J. Zhang52, K. Zhang13, L. Zhang13, S. Zhang15, W. Zhang50, X. Zhang31, Y. Zhang31, Y. Zhang49, Y. Zhang52, Y. Zhang23, Z. Zhang7, Z. Zhang14, F. Zhao35, J. Zhao22, S. Zhou13, Y. Zhou13, C. Zhu13, X. Zhu61, M. Zurek4,7, and M. Zyzak21 (STAR Collaboration)

  • 1Academia Sinica, Nankang, 115
  • 2Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas 79699
  • 3AGH University of Krakow, FPACS, Cracow 30-059, Poland
  • 4Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
  • 5American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
  • 6Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 47306
  • 7Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
  • 8University of Calabria & INFN-Cosenza, Rende 87036, Italy
  • 9University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
  • 10University of California, Davis, California 95616
  • 11University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095
  • 12University of California, Riverside, California 92521
  • 13Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei 430079
  • 14University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607
  • 15Chongqing University, Chongqing, 401331
  • 16Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska 68178
  • 17Czech Technical University in Prague, FNSPE, Prague 115 19, Czech Republic
  • 18Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt 64289, Germany
  • 19National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur - 713209, India
  • 20ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary H-1117
  • 21Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies FIAS, Frankfurt 60438, Germany
  • 22Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433
  • 23Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, 541004
  • 24University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69120, Germany
  • 25University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204
  • 26Huzhou University, Huzhou, Zhejiang 313000
  • 27Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Berhampur 760010, India
  • 28Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati, Tirupati 517507, India
  • 29Indian Institute Technology, Patna, Bihar 801106, India
  • 30Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408
  • 31Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000
  • 32University of Jammu, Jammu 180001, India
  • 33Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242
  • 34University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055
  • 35Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000
  • 36Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720
  • 37Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015
  • 38Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar - Delhi G.T. Road, Pagwara, Panjab, 144411, India
  • 39Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Munich 80805, Germany
  • 40Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
  • 41National Institute of Science Education and Research, HBNI, Jatni 752050, India
  • 42National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101
  • 43Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, Rez 250 68, Czech Republic
  • 44The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
  • 45Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
  • 46Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
  • 47Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251
  • 48Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
  • 49University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026
  • 50South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510631
  • 51Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Korea, Republic Of
  • 52Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237
  • 53Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800
  • 54Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut 06515
  • 55State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
  • 56Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica 1000000, Chile
  • 57Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
  • 58Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843
  • 59Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas, 77004
  • 60University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712
  • 61Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084
  • 62University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571, Japan
  • 63University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101408
  • 64United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland 21402
  • 65Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana 46383
  • 66Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata 700064, India
  • 67Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw 00-661, Poland
  • 68Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201
  • 69Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430065
  • 70Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520

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Phys. Rev. C 113, L051901 – Published 15 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lq8c-9fr6

Abstract

We report high-statistics measurements of fifth- and sixth-order factorial cumulants and cumulant ratios of (net-)proton multiplicity distributions in Au+Au collisions at sNN=7.7–27GeV, using data from the STAR experiment collected during the Beam Energy Scan Phase II at RHIC. Protons and antiprotons are identified at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) with transverse momentum 0.4<pT<2.0GeV/c. The proton factorial cumulants κ4, κ5, and κ6 increase with order but exhibit no sign alternation within current uncertainties, offering no evidence for a two-component structure in the proton multiplicity distribution, as might be expected near a first-order phase transition. The cumulant ratios C5/C1 and C6/C2 fluctuate around zero in collisions at 0–40% centrality. The results are consistent with both the negative predictions from lattice QCD and the positive trends obtained from the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model. At sNN≳27GeV, the C4/C2 and C5/C1 results are compatible with predictions from lattice QCD, functional renormalization group (FRG), and hadron resonance gas (HRG) models, while UrQMD describes the data better at lower energies. These measurements place constraints on baryon number fluctuations and offer valuable insights into the QCD phase structure.

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Phys. Rev. C 113, L051901– Published 15 May, 2026
  • Received 23 December 2025
  • Accepted 6 April 2026
Article part of CHORUS
Accepted manuscript will be available starting 15 May, 2027.
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