Constraining baryon annihilation in the hadronic phase of heavy-ion collisions via event-by-event fluctuations

We point out that the variance of net-baryon distribution normalized by Skellam baseline, $\kappa_2[B-\bar{B}]/\langle B+\bar{B}\rangle$, is sensitive to possible modification (anti)baryon yields due $B\bar{B}$ annihilation in hadronic phase. The corresponding measurements can thus place stringent limits on magnitude and its inverse reaction. perform Monte Carlo simulations phase Pb-Pb collisions at LHC via recently developed subensemble sampler + UrQMD afterburner show effect survives net-proton fluctuations, which are directly accessible experimentally. available experimental data ALICE Collaboration fluctuations disfavors a notable suppression annihilations predicted present version if only global baryon conservation incorporated. On other hand, improve description when local imposed. two effects be disentangled measuring $\kappa_2[B+\bar{B}]/\langle notably suppressed but virtually unaffected number conservation.