Dynamics Of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions Research Articles

Viscosities of the Baryon-Rich Quark-Gluon Plasma from Beam Energy Scan Data.

This work presents the first Bayesian inference study of the (3+1)D dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and quark-gluon plasma viscosities using an event-by-event (3+1)D hydrodynamics+hadronic transport theoretical framework and data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Beam energy scan program. Robust constraints on initial state nuclear stopping and the baryon chemical potential-dependent shear viscosity of the produced quantum chromodynamic (QCD) matter are obtained. The specific bulk viscosity of the QCD matter is found to exhibit a preferred maximum around sqrt[s_{NN}]=19.6 GeV. This result allows for the alternative interpretation of a reduction (and/or increase) of the speed of sound relative to that of the employed lattice-QCD based equation of state for net baryon chemical potential μ_{B}∼0.2(0.4) GeV.

Statistical analysis of initial-state and final-state response in heavy-ion collisions

High-energy nuclear collisions are analyzed theoretically using multistage models assembled to simulate the different stages of the reaction. This paper presents a new method for systematically characterizing the early-time density of a heavy-ion collision system. It is then used to analyze events from different models as well as the system response to these initial conditions. This method will help distinguish between different approaches to describing the dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at very early times.

Azimuthal dependence of two-particle transverse momentum current correlations

Two-particle transverse momentum correlation functions are a powerful technique for understanding the dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Among these, the transverse momentum correlator G_{2}left( varDelta eta ,varDelta varphi right) is of particular interest for its potential sensitivity to the shear viscosity per unit of entropy density eta /s of the quark-gluon plasma formed in heavy-ion collisions. We use the UrQMD, AMPT, and EPOS models for Au–Au at sqrt{s_mathrm{NN}} = 200 GeV and Pb–Pb at sqrt{s_mathrm{NN}} = 2760 GeV to investigate the long range azimuthal dependence of G_{2}left( varDelta eta ,varDelta varphi right) , and explore its utility to constrain eta /s based on charged particle correlations. We find that the three models yield quantitatively distinct transverse momentum Fourier harmonics coefficients a^{p_mathrm{T}}_{n}. We also observe these coefficients exhibit a significant dependence on eta /s in the context of the AMPT model. These observations suggest that exhaustive measurements of the dependence of G_{2}left( varDelta varphi right) with collision energy, system size, collision centrality, in particular, offer the potential to distinguish between different theoretical models and their underlying assumptions. Exhaustive analyses of G_{2}left( varDelta varphi right) obtained in large and small systems should also be instrumental in establishing new constraints for precise extraction of eta /s.

Net-baryon diffusion in fluid-dynamic simulations of relativistic heavy-ion collisions

A hybrid (hydrodynamics + hadronic transport) theoretical framework is assembled to model the bulk dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at energies accessible in the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN. The system's energy-momentum tensor and net baryon current are evolved according to relativistic hydrodynamics with finite shear viscosity and non-zero net baryon diffusion. Our hydrodynamic description is matched to a hadronic transport model in the dilute region. With this fully integrated theoretical framework, we present a pilot study of the hadronic chemistry, particle spectra, and anisotropic flow. Phenomenological effects of a non-zero net-baryon current and its diffusion on hadronic observables are presented for the first time. The importance of the hadronic transport phase is also investigated.

Baryon-antibaryon dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The dynamics of baryon-antibaryon annihilation and reproduction ($B{\bar B} \leftrightarrow 3 M$) is studied within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach for Pb+Pb and Au+Au collisions as a function of centrality from lower Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) up to Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies on the basis of the quark rearrangement model (QRM). At Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) energies we find a small net reduction of baryon-antibaryon ($B {\bar B}$) pairs while for the LHC energy of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 GeV a small net enhancement is found relative to calculations without annihilation (and reproduction) channels. Accordingly, the sizeable difference between data and statistical calculations in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 2.76 TeV for proton and antiproton yields \cite{53}, where a deviation of 2.7 $\sigma$ was claimed by the ALICE Collaboration, should not be attributed to a net antiproton annihilation. This is in line with the observation that no substantial deviation between the data and statistical hadronization model (SHM) calculations is seen for antihyperons, since according to the PHSD analysis the antihyperons should be modified by the same amount as antiprotons. As the PHSD results for particle ratios are in line with the ALICE data (within error bars) this might point towards a deviation from statistical equilibrium in the hadronization (at least for protons/antiprotons). Furthermore, we find that the $B {\bar B} \leftrightarrow 3 M$ reactions are more effective at lower SPS energies where a net suppression for antiprotons and antihyperons up to a factor of 2 -- 2.5 can be extracted from the PHSD calculations for central Au+Au collisions.

Traces of nonequilibrium dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The impact of non-equilibrium effects on the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions is investigated by comparing a non-equilibrium transport approach, the Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics (PHSD), to a 2D+1 viscous hydrodynamical model, which is based on the assumption of local equilibrium and conservation laws. Starting the hydrodynamical model from the same non-equilibrium initial condition as in the PHSD, using an equivalent lQCD Equation-of-State (EoS), the same transport coefficients, i.e. shear viscosity $\eta$ and the bulk viscosity $\zeta$ in the hydrodynamical model, we compare the time evolution of the system in terms of energy density, Fourier transformed energy density, spatial and momentum eccentricities and ellipticity in order to quantify the traces of non-equilibrium phenomena. In addition, we also investigate the role of initial pre-equilibrium flow on the hydrodynamical evolution and demonstrate its importance for final state observables. We find that due to non-equilibrium effects, the event-by-event transport calculations show large fluctuations in the collective properties, while ensemble averaged observables are close to the hydrodynamical results.

K* vector meson resonance dynamics in heavy-ion collisions

We study the strange vector meson ($K^*, \bar K^*$) dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions based on the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which incorporates partonic and hadronic degrees-of-freedom, a phase transition from hadronic to partonic matter - Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) - and a dynamical hadronization of quarks and antiquarks as well as final hadronic interactions. We investigate the role of in-medium effects on the $K^*, \bar K^*$ meson dynamics by employing Breit-Wigner spectral functions for the $K^*$'s with self-energies obtained from a self-consistent coupled-channel G-matrix approach. Furthermore, we confront the PHSD calculations with experimental data for p+p, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at energies up to $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}} = 200$~GeV. Our analysis shows that at relativistic energies most of the final $K^*$s (observed experimentally) are produced during the late hadronic phase, dominantly by the $K+ \pi \to K^*$ channel, such that the fraction of the $K^*$s from the QGP is small and can hardly be reconstructed from the final observables. The influence of the in-medium effects on the $K^*$ dynamics at RHIC energies is rather modest due to their dominant production at low baryon densities (but high meson densities), however, it increases with decreasing beam energy. Moreover, we find that the additional cut on the invariant mass region of the $K^*$ further influences the shape and the height of the final spectra. This imposes severe constraints on the interpretation of the experimental results.

Probing the early-time dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions with electromagnetic radiation

Using 3+1D viscous relativistic fluid dynamics, we show that electromagnetic probes are sensitive to the initial conditions and to the out-of-equilibrium features of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Within the same approach, we find that hadronic observables show a much lesser sensitivity to these aspects. We conclude that electromagnetic observables allow access to dynamical regions that are beyond the reach of soft hadronic probes.

Event-by-event direct photon anisotropic flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We consider directly emitted and hadronic decay photons from event-by-event hydrodynamic simulations. We compute the direct photon anisotropic flow coefficients and compare with recent experimental measurements. We find that it is crucial to include the photon multiplicity as a weighting factor in the definition of $v^\gamma_n$. We also investigate the sensitivity of the direct photon spectrum and elliptic flow to the theoretical uncertainty of the photon emission rate in the quark-hadron transition region and to the pre-equilibrium dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Turbulent pattern formation and diffusion in the early-time dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We propose a picture of turbulent pattern formation in the relativistic heavy-ion collision, which follows an efficient process to break color strings and dispose energy in the whole phase space. We perform numerical simulations using the SU(2) pure Yang-Mills theory in a non-expanding box to observe a dynamical phenomenon in the transverse plane akin to the domain growth in time-dependent spin systems.

Emissivity and conductivity of parton-hadron matter

We investigate the properties of the QCD matter across the deconfinement phase transition. In the scope of the parton-hadron string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach, we study the strongly interacting matter in equilibrium as well as the out-of equilibrium dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We present here in particular the results on the electromagnetic radiation, i.e. photon and dilepton production, in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and the relevant correlator in equilibrium, i.e. the electric conductivity. By comparing our calculations for the heavy-ion collisions to the available data, we determine the relative importance of the various production sources and address the possible origin of the observed strong elliptic flow $v_2$ of direct photons.

The QGP dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The dynamics of partons and hadrons in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed within the novel Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach, which is based on a dynamical quasiparticle model for the partonic phase (DQPM) including a dynamical hadronization scheme. The PHSD model reproduces a large variety of observables from SPS to LHC energies, e.g. the quark-number scaling of elliptic flow, transverse mass and rapidity spectra of charged hadrons, dilepton spectra, open and hidden charm production, collective flow coefficients etc., which are associated with the observation of a sQGP. The ‘highlights’ of the latest results on collective flow are presented and open questions/perspectives are discussed.

Dilepton production in schematic causal viscous hydrodynamics

Assuming that in the hot dense matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the energy density, entropy density, and pressure as well as the azimuthal and space-time rapidity components of the shear tensor are uniform in the direction transversal to the reaction plane, we derive a set of schematic equations from the Isreal-Stewart causal viscous hydrodynamics. These equations are then used to describe the evolution dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions by taking the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of $1/4\ensuremath{\pi}$ for the initial quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase and of 10 times this value for the later hadron-gas (HG) phase. Using the production rate evaluated with particle distributions that take into account the viscous effect, we study dilepton production in central heavy-ion collisions. Compared with results from the ideal hydrodynamics, we find that although the dilepton invariant mass spectra from the two approaches are similar, the transverse momentum spectra are significantly enhanced at high transverse momenta by the viscous effect. We also study the transverse momentum dependence of dileptons produced from QGP for a fixed transverse mass, which is essentially absent in the ideal hydrodynamics, and find that this so-called transverse mass scaling is violated in the viscous hydrodynamics, particularly at high transverse momenta.

Translation of collision geometry fluctuations into momentum anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We develop a systematic framework for the study of the initial collision geometry fluctuations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and investigate how they evolve through different stages of the fireball history and translate into final particle momentum anisotropies. We find in our event-by-event analysis that only the few lowest momentum anisotropy parameters survive after the hydrodynamical evolution of the system. The geometry of the produced medium is found to be affected by the pre-equilibrium evolution of the medium and the thermal smearing of the discretized event-by-event initial conditions, both of which tend to smear out the spatial anisotropies. We find such effects to be more prominent for higher moments than for lower moments. The correlations between odd and even spatial anisotropy parameters during the pre-equilibrium expansion are quantitatively studied and found to be small. Our study provides a theoretical foundation for the understanding of initial state fluctuations and the collective expansion dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

DIVERGENCE-TYPE THEORY OF CONFORMAL FIELDS

We present a nonlinear hydrodynamical description of a conformal plasma within the framework of divergence-type theories (DTTs), which are not based on a gradient expansion. We compare the equations of the DTT and the second-order theory (based on conformal invariants), for the case of Bjorken flow. The approach to ideal hydrodynamics is faster in the DTT, indicating that our results can be useful in the study of early-time dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Free-streaming approximation in early dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate an approximation to early dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where after formation the partons are free streaming and around the proper time of 1 fm/$c$ undergo a sudden equilibration described in terms of the Landau matching condition. We discuss physical and formal aspects of this approach. In particular, we show that initial azimuthally asymmetric transverse flow develops for noncentral collisions as a consequence of the sudden equilibration. Moreover, the energy-momentum tensor from the free-streaming stage matches very smoothly to the form used in the transverse hydrodynamics, whereas matching to isotropic hydrodynamics requires a more pronounced change in the energy-momentum tensor. After the hydrodynamic phase statistical hadronization is carried out with the help of THERMINATOR. The physical results for the transverse-momentum spectra, the elliptic-flow, and the Hanbury-Brown--Twiss correlation radii, including the ratio ${R}_{\mathrm{out}}/{R}_{\mathrm{side}}$ as well as the dependence of the radii on the azimuthal angle (azHBT), are properly described within our approach. The agreement is equally good for a purely hydrodynamic evolution started at an early proper time of 0.25 fm/$c$, or for the free streaming started at that time, followed by the sudden equilibration at $\ensuremath{\tau}~1$ fm/$c$ and then by perfect hydrodynamics. Thus, the inclusion of free streaming allows us to delay the start of hydrodynamics to more realistic times of the order of 1 fm/$c$.

Fluid Turbulence and Eddy Viscosity in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

The eddy viscosity for a turbulent compressible fluid with a relativistic equation of state is derived. Compressibility allows for sound modes, but the eddy viscosity in the shear mode is found to be the same as for incompressible fluids. For two space dimensions (which is the relevant case for the dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions) the eddy viscosity in the shear mode is negative, reducing the effective viscosity below its microscopic value. This could explain the tiny viscosity found at RHIC. Implications for the experimentally accessible elliptic flow coefficient at the LHC are speculated on.

IDENTICAL MESON INTERFEROMETRY IN STAR EXPERIMENT

The influence of Bose–Einstein statistics on multi-particle production characterized for various systems and energies by the STAR collaboration provides interesting information about the space-time dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. We present the centrality and transverse mass dependence measurements of the two-pion interferometry in Au + Au collisions at [Formula: see text] and Cu + Cu collisions at [Formula: see text] and 200 GeV. We compare the new data with previous STAR measurements from p + p , d + Au and Au + Au collisions at [Formula: see text]. In all systems and centralities, HBT radii decrease with transverse mass in a similar manner, which is qualitatively consistent with collective flow. The scaling of the apparent freeze-out volume with the number of participants and charged particle multiplicity is studied. Measurements of Au + Au collisions at same centralities and different energies yield different freeze-out volumes, which mean that N part is not a suitable scaling variable. The multiplicity scaling of the measured HBT radii is found to be independent of colliding system and collision energy.

Photonic measurements of the longitudinal expansion dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Owing to the smallness of the electromagnetic coupling, photons escape from the hot and dense matter created in a heavy-ion collision at all times, in contrast to hadrons, which are predominantly emitted in the final freeze-out phase of the evolving system. Thus, the thermal photon yield carries an imprint from the early evolution. We suggest how this fact can be used to gain information on where the actual evolution can be found between the two limiting cases of Bj\o{}rken (boost-invariant expansion) and Landau (complete initial stopping and re-expansion) hydrodynamics. We argue that both the rapidity dependence of the photon yield and photonic two-particle correlation radii are capable of answering this question.

Strangeness and charm in QCD matter

Strangeness and charm degrees of freedom in strongly interacting matter are discussed with a quasi-particle model adjusted to lattice QCD data. The model allows us to extrapolate lattice QCD data to large baryo-chemical potential. We outline the thermal evolution of matter in the early universe at and slightly after confinement and comment briefly on charm dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.