J. Phys. G23 (1997) 1953-1960

STRANGENESS IN CHIRAL QCD PHASE TRANSITION.

N.G. Antoniou, Y.F. Contoyiannis, F.K. Diakonos, C.N. Ktorides, M. Lahanas

The role of strange quark mass (m_s) in chiral QCD phase transition is examined, in the environment of relativistic nuclear collisions. The (f²)³ term in the effective potential of the O(4) universality class satisfies the stability requirement for a tricritical behaviour and can be used in order to study critical fluctuations in either side of the tricritical point m_s = m*. Comparing the corresponding patterns of density fluctuations in rapidity, one may distinguish the effects due to first- or second-order phase transition in A+A collisions.

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