Baryon number conservation and the cumulants of the net proton distribution

Abstract

We discuss the modification of the cumulants of the net baryon and net proton distributions due to the global conservation of baryon number in heavy-ion collisions. Corresponding probability distributions and their cumulants are derived analytically. We show that the conservation of baryon number results in a substantial decrease of higher order cumulants. Based on our studies, we propose an observable that is insensitive to the modifications due to baryon number conservation.