Fluctuation of gaps in hadronization at the phase transition

Event-by-event fluctuations of hadronic patterns in heavy-ion collisions are studied in search of signatures of quark-hadron phase transition. Attention is focused on a narrow strip in the azimuthal angle with small Δy. The fluctuations in the gaps between particles are quantified by simple measures. A scaling exponent α is shown to exist around T_c. An index ξ is shown to characterize the critical fluctuation; it is a numerical constant =0.05±0.01. All the measures considered in this gap analysis are experimentally observable. Whether or not the theoretical predictions, based on simulations using a two-dimensional Ising model, are realistic for heavy-ion collisions, analysis of the experimental data suggested here should be carried out, since the existence of a scaling behavior is of interest in its own right.