Skewness, kurtosis, and the fifth and sixth order cumulants of net baryon-number distributions from lattice QCD confront high-statistics STAR data

We present new results on up to sixth-order cumulants of net baryon-number fluctuations at small values of the baryon chemical potential, ₁, obtained in lattice QCD calculations with physical values of light and strange quark masses. Representing the Taylor expansions of higher-order cumulants in terms of the ratio of the two lowest-order cumulants, M₁/₁^2=₁^B (T, ₁) /₂^B (T, ₁), allows for a parameter-free comparison with data on net proton-number cumulants obtained by the STAR Collaboration in the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC. We show that recent high-statistics data on skewness and kurtosis ratios of net proton-number distributions, obtained at a beam energy s₍₍=54. 4 GeV, agree well with lattice QCD results on cumulants of net baryon-number fluctuations close to the pseudocritical temperature, T₏₂ (₁), for the chiral transition in QCD. We also present first results from a next-to-leading-order expansion of fifth- and sixth-order cumulants on the line of the pseudocritical temperatures.