Non-equilibrium fluctuations at the QCD phase transition

Abstract

We study the chiral phase transition by the non-equilibrium propagation of the sigma field. A quark fluid acts as a heat bath in local thermal equilibrium and evolves fluid dynamically. We allow for dissipative processes and fluctuations since the sigma field is propagated according to a Langevin-type equation of motion. Non-equilibrium fluctuations at the first order phase transition lead to an increase in the intensity of sigma excitations.

Comments: 4 pages, 4 figures To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2010