Causal Diffusion and the Survival of Charge Fluctuations in Nuclear Collisions

Abstract

Diffusion may obliterate fluctuation signals of the QCD phase transition in nuclear collisions at SPS and RHIC energies. We propose a hyperbolic diffusion equation to study the dissipation of net charge fluctuations. This equation is needed in a relativistic context, because the classic parabolic diffusion equation violates causality. We find that causality substantially limits the extent to which diffusion can dissipate these fluctuations.