{
  "abstract": "Some cumulants of the fluctuations of conserved charges soon above the chiral crossover behave as if the quarks were free. This was taken by many as evidence of deconfinement. At the same temperatures the mesonic correlators reveal the chiral spin and SU (4) symmetries, indicating that the propagating degrees of freedom are massless quarks connected into color singlets by the chromoelectric confining string. These correlators are qualitatively different from the free quark gas. Here we clarify the reason for the difference. The conserved quark number densities do not propagate in time but do propagate in spatial directions. The mesonic propagators calculated in full QCD differ radically from the free quark loop (quark gas) above $$T_{ch}.$$ T ch . In contrast, the quark number density spatial propagator in full QCD at $$T \\ge 220$$ T ≥ 220 MeV is very close to the free quark loop. In other words, the conserved charges do not see confinement, in contrast to the mesonic correlators. This is consistent with the well understood quark-hadron duality at $$T=0$$ T = 0 in $$e^+e^- \\rightarrow hadrons,$$ e + e - → h a d r o n s , where at invariant masses above 2 GeV the cross-section in the confining regime is represented by the free quark loop plus small perturbative corrections. All these features above $$T_{ch}$$ T ch but below the deconfinement temperature $$T_d$$ T d can be combined within the following microscopic picture of the stringy fluid matter. It is a medium of the overlapping strongly interacting color singlet clusters. The quark interchanges between the clusters, required by Pauli principle, make the quarks quasifree, which is reflected in fluctuations of conserved charges.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Graz"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "L. Ya. Glozman",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3042-3381"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ayq4mh8fenhtp.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16479-1",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13694311",
  "id": "ayq4mh8fenhtp",
  "issns": [
    "1434-6044",
    "1434-6052"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16479-1",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "QB460-466"
    ],
    [
      "lcc",
      "QC770-798"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|High-Energy Particle Collisions Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7164909689",
  "pdf_url": "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16479-1.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13694311",
  "pmid": "42927002",
  "published": "2026-10-23",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ayq4mh8fenhtp.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:04Z",
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      "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16479-1"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:18Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42927002",
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      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927002"
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    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:46:24Z",
      "native_id": "9a397b5e0a894399b3d6b2921f61c721",
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      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16479-1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "openalex:3106|High-Energy Particle Collisions Research",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Why fluctuations of conserved charges in the confining regime above $$T_{ch}$$ behave as if the quarks were free?",
  "title_text": "Why fluctuations of conserved charges in the confining regime above T_ch behave as if the quarks were free?",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:46:24Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ayq4mh8fenhtp",
  "venue": "The European Physical Journal C",
  "versions": []
}