Comment on "Non-Monotonicity of Transverse-Momentum Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC"
Abstract
Recent measurements of two-particle transverse-momentum correlations, CpT, in Au+Au collisions have revealed a statistically significant non-monotonic beam-energy dependence over the range √(sNN)=3.0--$7.7$~GeV that has been interpreted as potentially indicative of critical phenomena associated with a critical end point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram. This interpretation is assessed in light of the absence of a controlled framework establishing CpT as a quantitative proxy for the underlying critical response. The implications of this limitation are examined by considering the expected finite-size and finite-time modification of critical fluctuations, substantial non-critical dynamical contributions, the lack of demonstrated critical scaling, and the sizeable discrepancy between the CEP region inferred from the observed CpT non-monotonicity and that constrained by susceptibility-based measurements and finite-size scaling analyses. Taken together, these considerations indicate that the observed CpT non-monotonicity does not, by itself, establish a critical origin nor provide reliable quantitative constraints on the existence or location of a possible CEP.
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BibTeX
@misc{lacey2026comment,
title = {{Comment on "Non-Monotonicity of Transverse-Momentum Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC"}},
author = {Roy A. Lacey},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17279},
eprint = {2609.17279},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17279},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Comment on "Non-Monotonicity of Transverse-Momentum Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC"
AU - Roy A. Lacey
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17279
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17279
AB - Recent measurements of two-particle transverse-momentum correlations, C_p_T, in Au+Au collisions have revealed a statistically significant non-monotonic beam-energy dependence over the range √(s_NN)=3.0--$7.7$~GeV that has been interpreted as potentially indicative of critical phenomena associated with a critical end point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram. This interpretation is assessed in light of the absence of a controlled framework establishing C_p_T as a quantitative proxy for the underlying critical response. The implications of this limitation are examined by considering the expected finite-size and finite-time modification of critical fluctuations, substantial non-critical dynamical contributions, the lack of demonstrated critical scaling, and the sizeable discrepancy between the CEP region inferred from the observed C_p_T non-monotonicity and that constrained by susceptibility-based measurements and finite-size scaling analyses. Taken together, these considerations indicate that the observed C_p_T non-monotonicity does not, by itself, establish a critical origin nor provide reliable quantitative constraints on the existence or location of a possible CEP.
ER -