One of the main objectives of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS is to study properties of strongly interacting matter. This paper presents new results on observables relevant for this part of the NA61/SHINE programme. These include the first ever measurements of ϕ meson production in p+p collisions at 40 and 80 GeV, and most detailed ever experimental data at 158 GeV. This contribution demonstrates the superior accuracy of the present dataset with respect to existing measurements. The comparison of p+p to Pb+Pb collisions shows a non-trivial system size dependence of the longitudinal evolution of hidden strangeness production, contrasting with that of other mesons. Furthermore, proton density fluctuations are investigated as a possible order parameter of the second order phase transition in the neighbourhood of the critical point (CP) of strongly interacting matter. An intermittency analysis is performed of the proton second scaled factorial moments in transverse momentum space. A previous analysis of this sort revealed significant power-law fluctuations for the “Si”+Si system at 158A GeV measured by the NA49 experiment. The fitted power-law exponent was consistent within errors with the theoretically expected critical value, a result suggesting a baryochemical potential in the vicinity of the CP of about 250MeV [24]. The analysis will now be extended to NA61/SHINE systems of similar size, Be+Be and Ar+Sc, at 150A GeV. Finally, spectator-induced electromagnetic (EM) effects on charged meson production are being studied and bring information on the space-time position of the pion formation zone, which appears to be much closer to the spectator system for faster pions than for slower ones. On that basis, we demonstrate that the longitudinal evolution of the system at CERN SPS energies may be interpreted as a pure consequence of local energymomentum conservation.
Search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter through power-law fluctuations of the proton density in NA61/SHINE
