Baryon number fluctuation and the quark-gluon plasma - art. no. 041901

We show that omega (B) or omega ((B) over bar), the squared baryon or antib aryon number fluctuation per baryon or antibaryon, is a possible signature for the quark-gluon plasma that is expected to be created in relativistic h eavy ion collisions, as it is a factor of 3 smaller than in an equilibrated hadronic matter due to the fractional baryon number of quarks. Using kinet ic equations with exact baryon number conservation, we find that their valu es in an equilibrated matter are half of those expected from a Poisson dist ribution. Effects due to finite acceptance and nonzero net baryon number ar e also studied.