Kaon fluctuations from lattice QCD

Abstract

We show that it is possible to isolate a set of kaon fluctuations in lattice QCD. By means of the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model, we calculate the actual kaon second-to-first fluctuation ratio, which receives contribution from primordial kaons and resonance decays, and show that it is very close to the one obtained for primordial kaons in the Boltzmann approximation. The latter only involves the strangeness and electric charge chemical potentials, which are functions of $T$ and $\mu_B$ due to the experimental constraint on strangeness and electric charge, and can therefore be calculated on the lattice. This provides an unambiguous method to extract the kaon freeze-out temperature, by comparing the lattice results to the experimental values for the corresponding fluctuations.