  We investigate finite-size effects on the chiral phase diagram of strong
interactions within the linear sigma model coupled to quarks. We estimate the
modification of the pseudocritical transition line and isentropic trajectories
for sizes that are representative of the systems created in relativistic heavy
ion collision experiments. The corrections are clearly non-negligible and might
significantly affect signatures of the chiral critical endpoint based on
estimates for an infinite system. We argue that a finite-size scaling analysis
should be tested in the process of data analysis of the Beam Energy Scan
program at RHIC and in future experiments at FAIR-GSI, through the use of full
scaling plots and a chi-squared method as tools for searching the critical
endpoint.
