High cumulants of conserved charges and their statistical uncertainties

We study the influence of measured high cumulants of conserved charges on their associated statistical uncertainties in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. With a given number of events, the measured cumulants randomly fluctuate with an approximately normal distribution, while the estimated statistical uncertainties are found to be correlated with corresponding values of the obtained cumulants. Generally, with a given number of events, the larger the cumulants we measure, the larger the statistical uncertainties that are estimated. The error-weighted averaged cumulants are dependent on statistics. Despite this effect, however, it is found that the three sigma rule of thumb is still applicable when the statistics are above one million.     

Event-by-event efficiency fluctuations and efficiency correction for cumulants of superposed multiplicity distributions in relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments

We performed systematic studies on the effects of event-by-event efficiency fluctuations on efficiency correction for cumulant analysis in relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. Experimentally, particle efficiencies of events measured under different experimental conditions should be different. For fluctuation measurements, the final event-by-event multiplicity distributions should be the superposed distributions of various type of events measured under different conditions. We demonstrate efficiency fluctuation effects using numerical simulation, in which we construct an event ensemble consisting of events with two different efficiencies. By using the mean particle efficiencies, we find that the efficiency corrected cumulants show large deviations from the original inputs when the discrepancy between the two efficiencies is large. We further studied the effects of efficiency fluctuations for the cumulants of net-proton distributions by implementing the UrQMD events of Au+Au collisions at sNN~(1/2) = 7.7 GeV in a realistic STAR detector acceptance. We consider the unequal efficiency in two sides of the Time Projection Chamber(TPC), multiplicity dependent efficiency, and the event-by-event variations of the collision vertex position along the longitudinal direction(V_z). When the efficiencies fluctuate dramatically within the studied event sample,the effects of efficiency fluctuations have significant impacts on the efficiency corrections of cumulants with the mean efficiencies. We find that this effect can be effectively suppressed by binning the entire event ensemble into various sub-event samples, in which the efficiency variations are relatively small. The final efficiency corrected cumulants can be calculated from the weighted average of the corrected factorial moments of the sub-event samples with the mean efficiencies.     

CUMULANTS OF STOCHASTIC RESPONSE FOR A CLASS OF SPECIAL NONHOLONOMIC SYSTEMS

This paper studies the response cumulants for a kind of special nonholonomic systems under non-Gaussian, delta-correlated excitations. We present a new methodology for formulating the equations governing the evolution of the response cumulants of the stochastic dynamic systems. The response cumulant differential equations (CDEs) derived can be used to calculate the response cumulants for both linear and nonlinear systems. One example is given to illustrate how to use the CDEs for calculating response cumulants.     

Fluctuations as probe of the QCD phase transition and freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC

We discuss the relevance of higher order cumulants of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Using properties of O(4) scaling functions, we discuss the generic structure of these higher cumulants at vanishing baryon chemical potential and apply chiral model calculations to explore their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. We show that the ratios of the sixth to second and eighth to second order cumulants of the net baryon number fluctuations change rapidly in the transition region of the QCD phase diagram. Already at vanishing baryon chemical potential they deviate considerably from the predictions of the hadron resonance gas model which reproduce the second and fourth order cumulants of the net proton number fluctuations at RHIC. We point out that the sixth order cumulants of baryon number and electric charge fluctuations remain negative at the chiral transition temperature. Thus, they offer the possibility to probe the proximity of the chemical freeze-out to the crossover line.     

Thermal momentum distribution from path integrals with shifted boundary conditions

For a thermal field theory formulated in the grand canonical ensemble, the distribution of the total momentum is an observable characterizing the thermal state. We show that its cumulants are related to thermodynamic potentials. In a relativistic system, for instance, the thermal variance of the total momentum is a direct measure of the enthalpy. We relate the generating function of the cumulants to the ratio of (a) a partition function expressed as a Matsubara path integral with shifted boundary conditions in the compact direction and (b) the ordinary partition function. In this form the generating function is well suited for Monte Carlo evaluation, and the cumulants can be extracted straightforwardly. We test the method in the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory and obtain the entropy density at three different temperatures.     

Baryon number cumulants and proton number cumulants in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Baryon number cumulants are invaluable tools to diagnose the primordial stage of heavy ion collisions. In experiments, however, proton number cumulants have been measured as substitutes. In fact, proton number fluctuations are further modified in the hadron phase and different from those of baryon number. We give formulas that express the baryon number cumulants solely in terms of proton number fluctuations, which are experimentally observable.     

Cumulants and moments

We introduce a ¹-algebra of terminating sequences. The set of normalized linear functionals on this algebra is then equipped with a quasi-multiplication and thus with a multiplication. A state corresponds to a sequence of moments. With it we associate its sequence of cumulants. The quasi-multiplication relates cumulants and moments in a very easy way. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a sequence to be a sequence of moments and necessary and sufficient conditions for a sequence to be a sequence of cumulants.     

Full counting statistics of phonon transport in disordered systems

The coherent potential approximation (CPA) within full counting statistics (FCS) formalism is shown to be a suitable method to investigate average electric conductance, shot noise as well as higher order cumulants in disordered systems. We develop a similar FCS-CPA formalism for phonon transport through disordered systems. As a byproduct, we derive relations among coefficients of different phonon current cumulants. We apply the FCS-CPA method to investigate phonon transport properties of graphene systems in the presence of disorders. For binary disorders as well as Anderson disorders, we calculate up to the 8-th phonon transmission moments and demonstrate that the numerical results of the FCS-CPA method agree very well with that of the brute force method. The benchmark shows that the FCS-CPA method achieves 20 times more speedup ratio. Collective features of phonon current cumulants are also revealed.     

Baryon and electric charge fluctuations at crossover

We discuss the higher order cumulants of net-baryon and electric charge fluctuations as a probe of the QCD crossover. The sensitivity of the higher order cumulants in the hadron resonance gas model to an inclusion of repulsive interactions is also considered.     

A self-consistent master equation and a new kind of cumulants

Generalized master equations correspond to different kinds of cumulants. Here, we discuss the recently introduced non-crossing cumulants from a physical point of view and propose the corresponding integro-differential master equation as a new type of equation for a self-consistent treatment of memory effects. We prove the cluster property of the non-crossing cumulants, and show that the Gaussian approximation of our equation is given by a random matrix process. As an instructive example for our expansion formula we treat the random frequency-modulated oscillator.     

Bohmian and quantum phase space distribution expansions and approximations

Dias and Patra derived an expansion of the Wigner distribution and related it to the de Broglie–Bohm model. We show that the coefficients of the expansion are related to the conditional central moments and cumulants of the Wigner distribution. The even order cumulants depend only on the amplitude of the wave function and the odd order cumulants depend only on the phase. In addition, we give a different expansion of the Wigner distribution from which their expansion can be derived as a special case. Our expansion allows for different approximations for higher order terms. We also give expansions for the momentum representation. We show how the results are applicable to pulse propagation in a dispersive medium.     

Cumulants in perturbation expansions for non-equilibrium field theory

The formulation of perturbation expansions for a quantum field theory of strongly interacting systems in a general non-equilibrium state is discussed. Non-vanishing initial correlations are included in the formulation of the perturbation expansion in terms of cumulants. The cumulants are shown to be the suitable candidate for summing up the perturbation expansion. Also a linked-cluster theorem for the perturbation series with cumulants is presented. Finally, a generating functional of the perturbation series with initial correlations is studied. We apply the methods to a simple model of a fermion-boson system.     

Fixed point behavior of cumulants in the three-dimensional Ising universality class

High-order cumulants and factorial cumulants of conserved charges are suggested for the study of the critical dynamics in heavy-ion collision experiments. In this paper, using the parametric representation of the three-dimensional Ising model which is believed to belong to the same universality class as quantum chromo-dynamics, the temperature dependence of the second- to fourth-order (factorial) cumulants of the order parameter is studied. It is found that the values of the normalized cumulants are independent of the external magnetic field at the critical temperature, which results in a fixed point in the temperature dependence of the normalized cumulants. In finite-size systems simulated using the Monte Carlo method, this fixed point behavior still exists at temperatures near the critical. This fixed point behavior has also appeared in the temperature dependence of normalized factorial cumulants from at least the fourth order. With a mapping from the Ising model to QCD, the fixed point behavior is also found in the energy dependence of the normalized cumulants (or fourth-order factorial cumulants) along different freeze-out curves.     

Structural investigations on an amorphous Se90Te10 alloy produced by mechanical alloying using EXAFS, cumulant expansion and RMC simulations

We investigated an amorphous Se(90)Te(10) alloy produced by mechanical alloying using two different approaches. First, we used extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy and the cumulant expansion method using the Einstein model for the temperature dependence of the cumulants to obtain the cumulants C(*)(1), C(*)(2), and C(*)(3). From these, we found information about the structure of the alloy as well as the thermal and structural disorder, anharmonicity of the effective interatomic pair potentials, thermal expansion of the Se-Se and Se-Te bonds and asymmetry of the partial distribution functions g(Se-Se)(r) and g(Se-Te)(r). The cumulants C(*)(1), C(*)(2), and C(*)(3) also allowed us to reconstruct the g(EXAFS)(ij)(r,T) functions from EXAFS. Then, we made reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) simulations using the total structure factor S(K) obtained from synchrotron x-ray diffraction and the EXAFS oscillations χ(k) on the Se K edge as input data to obtain the g(RMC)(ij)(r) functions. Both methods furnished very similar g(ij)(r) functions, and the structural data obtained from them were also very similar. The results obtained from both methods showed the presence of Se-Te pairs indicating that there is alloying at the atomic level. In addition, we could not find any evidence of the presence of Te clusters in the alloy.     

Traffic Flow Models Considering an Internal Degree of Freedom

We solve numerically the integrodifferential equation for the equilibrium case of Paveri–Fontana's Boltzmann-like traffic equation. Beside space and actual velocity, Paveri–Fontana used an additional phase space variable, the desired velocity, to distinguish between the various driver characters. We refine his kinetic equation by introducing a modified cross section in order to incorporate finite vehicle length. We then calculate from the equilibrium solution the mean-velocity–density relation and investigate its dependence on the imposed desired velocity distribution. A further modification is made by modeling the interaction as an imperfect showing-down process. We find that the velocity cumulants of the stationary homogeneous solution essentially only depend on the first two cumulants, but not on the exact shape of the imposed desired velocity distribution. The equilibrium solution can therefore be approximated by a bivariate Gaussian distribution which is in agreement with empirical velocity distributions. From the improved kinetic equation we then derive a macroscopic model by neglecting third and higher order cumulants. The equilibrium solution of the macroscopic model is compared with the cumulants of the kinetic equilibrium solution and shows good agreement, thus justifying the closure assumption.     

Effect of dephasing on the current statistics of mesoscopic devices

We investigate the effects of dephasing on the current statistics of mesoscopic conductors with a recently developed statistical model, focusing, in particular, on mesoscopic cavities and Aharonov-Bohm rings. For such devices, we analyze the influence of an arbitrary degree of decoherence on the cumulants of the current. We recover known results for the limiting cases of fully coherent and totally incoherent transport and are able to obtain detailed information on the intermediate regime of partial coherence for a varying number of open channels. We show that dephasing affects the average current, shot noise, and higher order cumulants in a quantitatively and qualitatively similar way, and that consequently shot noise or higher order cumulants of the current do not provide information on decoherence additional or complementary to what can be already obtained from the average current.     

利用累积量理论量化双模压缩贝尔态的非高斯特性

根据相空间函数的累积量理论,提出了玻色量子态非高斯性的量化工具.利用该量具研究了四个压缩贝尔纠缠态的非高斯特性.结果表明:高斯操作能显著的改变这些态的非高斯特性.此外,也研究了这些量子态二阶关联函数的四阶累积量.     

Quantum Polarization Characteristic Function and Cumulant Analysis of Stokes Parameters

We derive the unitary polarization operator for the so-called lowering and raising operators in the factorized form and, based on this operator, determine characteristic functions and calculate cumulants for the single-mode coherent radiation, two-mode entangled states, and polarization-squeezed light. Higher-order cumulants clearly show the non-Gaussian statistics of the Stokes parameter fluctuations and the connection between them.

     

Effect of non-uniform efficiency on higher-order cumulants in heavy-ion collisions

We perform a systematic study on the effect of non-uniform track efficiency correction in higher-order cumulant analysis in heavy-ion collisions. Through analytical derivation, we find that the true values of cumulants can be successfully reproduced by the efficiency correction with an average of the realistic detector efficiency for particles with the same charges within each single phase space. The theoretical conclusions are supported by a toy model simulation by tuning the non-uniformity of the efficiency employed in the track-by-track efficiency correction method. The valid averaged efficiency is found to suppress the statistical uncertainties of the reproduced cumulants dramatically. Thus, usage of the averaged efficiency requires a careful study of phase space dependence. This study is important for carrying out precision measurements of higher-order cumulants in heavy-ion collision experiments at present and in future.