A non-fluctuational signature of the QCD critical point

¹ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Osaka, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
³ Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA
⁴ Laboratory for Quantum Theory at the Extremes, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA

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Published online: 17 April 2026

Abstract

We propose a novel, non-fluctuational signature of the QCD critical point, originating from hydrodynamic trajectories that bend toward the maximum of the specific entropy per baryon along the chiral phase transition boundary. Specifically, if the critical point lies sufficiently close to the freeze-out points, the freeze-out chemical potential may exhibit a discontinuous jump as a function of the collision energy.