DYNAMICS OF FRACTALITY AND PHASE TRANSITION IN MULTIPARTICLE PRODUCTION IN RELATIVISTIC NUCLEUS–NUCLEUS COLLISIONS

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an investigation regarding occurrence of second-order phase transition in 14.5A GeV /c28 Si -nucleus interactions using the method of scaled factorial moments. Incidentally, the value of the universal scaling exponent, ν, for our experimental data is found to be 1.224±0.068, which is quite close to its critical value 1.304. An attempt is also made to search for the evidence of phase transition in terms of Levy index, μ, using scaled factorial moments as well as Takagi moments for both experimental and FRITIOF generated data sets. Average value of μ, calculated from Fq moments, turns out to be more than unity but is less than unity when estimated in terms of Takagi moments for both the data sets. Thus the analyses carried out in terms of Fq and Takagi moments reveal the occurrence of nonthermal and thermal phase transitions, respectively.