Dynamical Correlation Length near the Chiral Critical Point

Abstract

The dynamical evolution of small systems undergoing a chiral symmetry breaking transition in the course of rapid expansion is discussed. The time evolution of the dynamical correlation length for trajectories passing through a second-order critical point is extracted. It is shown that while the maximum value of the correlation length is bound from above by dynamical effects, the time interval during which it is near its maximum grows steadily with the system size and with decreasing expansion rate.