Determination of the quark content of scalar mesons using hydrodynamical flow in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

We study the possibility of determining the quark content of the scalar mesons ${a}^{0}(980)$ and ${f}^{0}(980)$ through their hydrodynamical flow signature in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Utilizing the constituent quark scaling of hydrodynamic flow, we find that the tetraquark ${a}^{0}(980)$ or ${f}^{0}(980)$ mesons will have a ${v}_{2}$ of 0.38 at a transverse momentum of 6 GeV$/c$ in 20--60$%$ central Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV. The feasibility of measuring ${a}^{0}(980)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}\ensuremath{\eta}$ and ${f}^{0}(980)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ with the PHENIX and STAR detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is also discussed. Even though the mid-rapidity cross sections for these mesons at high ${p}_{T}$ are non-negligible, their broad mass range will make them difficult to detect in both $p+p$ and $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions.