Net quark number probability distribution near the chiral crossover transition

Abstract: We investigate properties of the probability distribution of the net quark number near the chiral crossover transition in the quark-meson model. The calculations are performed within the functional renormalization group approach, as well as in the mean-field approximation. We find, that there is a substantial influence of the underlying chiral phase transition on the properties of the probability distribution. In particular, for a physical pion mass, the distribution which includes the effect of mesonic fluctuations, differs considerably from both, the mean-field and Skellam distributions. The latter is considered as a reference for a non-critical behavior. A characteristic feature of the net quark number probability distribution is that, in the vicinity of the chiral crossover transition in the O(4) universality class, it is narrower than the corresponding mean-field and Skellam function. We study the volume dependence of the probability distribution, as well as the resulting cumulants, and discuss their approximate scaling properties.