Exploiting the universality between the QCD critical point and the three-dimensional Ising model, closed form expressions derived for nonequilibrium critical cumulants on the crossover side of the critical point reveal that they can differ in both magnitude and sign from equilibrium expectations. We demonstrate here that key elements of the Kibble-Zurek framework of nonequilibrium phase transitions can be employed to describe the dynamics of these critical cumulants. Our results suggest that observables sensitive to critical dynamics in heavy-ion collisions should be expressible as universal scaling functions, thereby providing powerful model-independent guidance in searches for the QCD critical point.

• Received 20 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.222301