Baryon number fluctuation and the quark-gluon plasma

Journals published by the American Physical Society can be found at http://publish.aps.org/We show that omega (B) or omega ((B) over bar), the squared baryon or antibaryon number fluctuation per baryon or antibaryon, is a possible signature for the quark-gluon plasma that is expected to be created in relativistic heavy 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 kinetic equations with exact baryon number conservation, we find that their values in an equilibrated matter are half of those expected from a Poisson distribution. Effects due to finite acceptance and nonzero net baryon number are also studied