High-energy Heavy-ion Collisions Research Articles

Application of the momentum kick model to pbpb collisions at $$\sqrt {{s_{NN}}} $$ s N N = 2.76 TeV at the LHC

The “ridge structure” in the Δφ-Δη correlation has been observed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions in AuAu collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is known that hydrodynamic models are the most successful in explaining the phenomenon. However, there has been some doubt as to whether hydrodynamic flows could be produced in small systems, such as pp collisions, enough to generate the ridge structure. This question leads us to introduce a dynamical process between particles involved in a collision event. In this process, a near-side jet, arising close to the surface, collides with medium partons and the collided particles obtain a momentum transfer along the jet direction to be the ridge particles. Now that there exist several analysis results, based on this approach, in regard to AuAu collisions at the STAR and PHENIX and pp collisions at the LHC, we extend the application to high-energy PbPb collisions at the LHC. We conclude that the kinematic description can explain the ridge behavior formed in high-energy collisions at the LHC, independent of a scale of a collision system.

Event-shape-engineering study of charge separation in heavy-ion collisions**Supported by a grant (DE-FG02-88ER40424) from U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics

Recent measurements of charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in high-energy heavy-ion collisions have indicated charge-separation signals perpendicular to the reaction plane, and have been related to the chiral magnetic effect (CME). However, the correlation signal is contaminated with the background caused by the collective motion (flow) of the collision system, and an effective approach is needed to remove the flow background from the correlation. We present a method study with simplified Monte Carlo simulations and a multi-phase transport model, and develop a scheme to reveal the true CME signal via event-shape engineering with the flow vector of the particles of interest.

Color screening and regeneration of bottomonia in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

The production of ground-state and excited bottomonia in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is investigated within a kinetic-rate equation approach including regeneration. We augment our previous calculations by an improved treatment of medium effects, with temperature-dependent binding energies and pertinent reaction rates, $B$-meson resonance states in the equilibrium limit near the hadronization temperature, and a lattice-QCD based equation of state for the bulk medium. In addition to the centrality dependence of the bottomonium yields we compute their transverse-momentum ($p_T$) spectra and elliptic flow with momentum-dependent reaction rates and a regeneration component based on $b$-quark spectra from a nonperturbative transport model of heavy-quark diffusion. The latter has noticeable consequences for the shape of the bottomonium $p_T$ spectra. We quantify how uncertainties in the various modeling components affect the predictions for observables. Based on this we argue that the $\Upsilon(1S)$ suppression is a promising observable for mapping out the in-medium properties of the QCD force, while $\Upsilon(2S)$ production can help to quantify the role of regeneration from partially thermalized $b$ quarks.

Multifractal analysis of multiparticle emission data in the framework of visibility graph and sandbox algorithm

Multiparticle emission data in nucleus–nucleus collisions are studied in a graph theoretical approach. The sandbox algorithm used to analyze complex networks is employed to characterize the multifractal properties of the visibility graphs associated with the pseudorapidity distribution of charged particles produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Experimental data on 28Si+Ag/Br interaction at laboratory energy Elab=14.5A GeV, and 16O+Ag/Br and 32S+Ag/Br interactions both at Elab=200A GeV, are used in this analysis. We observe a scale free nature of the degree distributions of the visibility and horizontal visibility graphs associated with the event-wise pseudorapidity distributions. Equivalent event samples simulated by ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics, produce degree distributions that are almost identical to the respective experiment. However, the multifractal variables obtained by using sandbox algorithm for the experiment to some extent differ from the respective simulated results.

Elastic scattering of a quark from a color field: Longitudinal momentum exchange

Perturbative QCD in the small Bjorken $x$ limit can be formulated as an effective theory known as the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism. The CGC formalism takes into account the dynamics of large gluon densities at small $x$ and has been successfully applied to Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) and particle production in high energy hadronic and nuclear collisions in the small $x$ kinematic region. The effective degrees of of freedom in CGC are Wilson lines which enter in the effective quark (and gluon) propagators and re-sum multiple soft scatterings from the small $x$ gluon field of the target. It is however known that the CGC effective theory breaks down when one probes the moderately large $x$ (high $p_t$) kinematics where collinear factorization and DGLAP evolution of parton distribution functions should be the right framework. Here we propose a general framework which may allow one to eventually unify the two approaches and to calculate pQCD cross sections in both small and large Bjorken $x$ regions. We take the first step towards this goal by deriving an expression for the quark propagator in a background field which includes scatterings from both small and large $x$ modes of the gluon field of the target. We describe how this quark propagator can be used to calculate QCD structure functions $F_2$ and $F_L$ at all $x$ and thus generalize the dipole model of DIS. We outline this approach can also be used to extend the so-called hybrid approach to particle production in the forward rapidity region of high energy hadronic and nuclear collisions to all $x$ and $p_t$ regions and speculate on how one may apply the same techniques to extend the McLerran-Venugopalan effective action used in high energy heavy ion collisions to include high $p_t$ physics.

The ALICE experiment upgrades for LHC Run 3 and beyond: contributions from mexican groups

The ALICE experiment at the LHC was designed and built to study the Quark-Gluon Plasma, a state of matter where quarks and gluons are not confined to hadrons and that can be recreated using high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The plans for ALICE after 2020 include the collection of more than 10 nb−1 of heavy-ion collisions at luminosities up to 6×1027 cm−2 s−1, corresponding to collision rates of 500 kHz. Such scenario imposes stringent constraints to the detector performances, forcing a major upgrade of the experiment. In this proceeding the main characteristics of the detector upgrades are presented, in particular the contributions from mexican groups are highlighted.

Revealing long-range multiparticle collectivity in small collision systems via subevent cumulants

Multi-particle azimuthal cumulants, often used to study collective flow in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, have recently been applied in small collision systems such as $pp$ and $p$+A to extract the second-order azimuthal harmonic flow $v_2$. Recent observation of four-, six- and eight-particle cumulants with "correct sign" $c_2\{4\}<0, c_2\{6\}>0, c_2\{8\}<0$ and approximate equality of the inferred single-particle harmonic flow, $v_2\{4\}\approx v_2\{6\}\approx v_2\{8\}$, have been used as strong evidence for a collective emission of all soft particles produced in the collisions. We show that these relations in principle could be violated due to the non-Gaussianity in the event-by-event fluctuation of flow and/or non-flow. Furthermore, we show, using $pp$ events generated with the PYTHIA model, that $c_2\{2k\}$ obtained with standard cumulant method are dominated by non-flow from dijets. An alternative cumulant method based on two or more $\eta$-separated subevents is proposed to suppress the dijet contribution. The new method is shown to be able to recover a flow signal as low as 4\% imposed on the PYTHIA events, independently of how the event activity class is defined. Therefore the subevent cumulant method offers a more robust way of studying collectivity based on the existence of long-range azimuthal correlations between multiple distinct $\eta$ ranges. The prospect of using the subevent cumulants to study collective flow in A+A collisions, in particular its longitudinal dynamics, is discussed.

Local and global Λ polarization in a vortical fluid

We compute the fermion spin distribution in the vortical fluid created in off-central high energy heavy-ion collisions. We employ the event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model. The spin polarization density is proportional to the local fluid vorticity in quantum kinetic theory. As a result of strong collectivity, the spatial distribution of the local vorticity on the freeze-out hyper-surface strongly correlates to the rapidity and azimuthal angle distribution of fermion spins. We investigate the sensitivity of the local polarization to the initial fluid velocity in the hydrodynamic model and compute the global polarization of Λ hyperons by the AMPT model. The energy dependence of the global polarization agrees with the STAR data.

Effect of medium recoil and pT broadening on single inclusive jet suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions in the high-twist approach

Jet energy loss and single inclusive jet suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are studied within a pQCD parton model that includes both elastic and radiative interactions between jet shower and medium partons as they propagate through the quark-gluon plasma. The collisional energy loss of jets with a given cone-size is found to be relatively small comparing with the radiative energy loss. However the effect of transverse momentum broadening due to elastic scattering is significant in the calculation of radiative energy loss within the higher-twist formalism. The nuclear modification factors for single inclusive jets with different cone-sizes are calculated and compared to experimental data as measured by ALICE and ATLAS experiments in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV. Results on jet suppression in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV are also presented.

High Energy Particle Physics Workshop 2017

PrefaceThe motivation for this workshop began with the discovery of the Higgs boson four years ago, and the realisation that many problems remain in particle physics, such as why there is more matter than anti-matter, better determining the still poorly measured parameters of the strong force, explaining possible sources for dark matter, naturalness etc. While the newly discovered Higgs boson seems to be compatible with the Standard Model, current experimental accuracy is far from providing a definitive statement with regards to the nature of this new particle. There is a lot of room for physics beyond the Standard Model to emerge in the exploration of the Higgs boson. Recent measurements in high-energy heavy ion collisions at the LHC have shed light on the complex dynamics that govern high-density quark-gluon interactions. An array of results from the ALICE collaboration has been highlighted in a recent issue of CERN courier. The physics program of high-energy heavy ion collisions promises to further unveil the intricacies of high-density quark-gluon plasma physics.The great topicality of high energy physics research has also seen a rapid increase in the number of researchers in South Africa pursuing such studies, both experimentally through the ATLAS and ALICE colliders at CERN, and theoretically. Young researchers and graduate students largely populate these research groups, with little experience in presenting their work, and few support structures (to their knowledge) to share experiences with. Whilst many schools and workshops have sought to educate these students on the theories and tools they will need to pursue their research, few have provided them with a platform to present their work. As such, this workshop discussed the various projects being pursued by graduate students and young researchers in South Africa, enabling them to develop networks for future collaboration and discussion.

Azimuthal anisotropy in particle distribution in a multiphase transport model

Anisotropic flow of hadronic matter is considered as a sensitive tool to detect the early stage dynamics of high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Taking the event by event fluctuations of the collision geometry into account, the elliptic flow parameter and the triangular flow parameter derived from the azimuthal distribution of produced hadrons, are investigated within the framework of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model, at a collision energy that in near future will typically be available at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research. The dependence of elliptic and triangular flow parameters on initial fluctuations, on parton scattering cross-sections, their mass ordering on different hadron species and on the constituent quark number scaling are examined. The AMPT simulation can not exactly match the elliptic flow results on Pb + Pb collision at 40A GeV of the NA49 experiment. The simulation results presented in this work are expected to provide us with an insight to study flow properties at high baryonic density but moderate temperature, and also with an opportunity to compare similar results available from RHIC and LHC experiments.

First Results with HIJING++ in High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

First calculated results with the new HIJING++ are presented for identified hadron production in high-energy heavy ion collisions. The recently developed HIJING++ version is based on the latest version of PYTHIA8 and contains all the nuclear effects has been included in the HIJING2.552, which will be improved by a new version of the shadowing parametrization and jet quenching module. Here, we summarize the major changes of the new program code beside the comparison between experimental data for some specific high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.

Reconstructed jets in a multi-phase transport model

With a framework of a multiphase transport model, we studied various of properties of fully reconstructed jets, including dijet asymmetry, jet shape, jet fragmentation function, jet azimuthal anisotropy, and overall momentum balance of dijet events. Our studies concentrate on the stage evolution of these full jet observables in heavy-ion collisions. We demonstrate that the medium modification effect on these observables mainly arises from strong interactions between jet and partonic matter, with further slight modifications from hadronization and hadronic rescatterings. Our model results provide a dynamical understanding of jet transport process in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

Extracting jet quenching parameters from large pT hadron suppression at RHIC/LHC

The large pT hadron suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions at RHIC/LHC is studied in a NLO pQCD parton model in which the fragmentation function is modified due to jet quenching. The energy loss of the energetic parton jets is incorporated in the modified fragmentation functions which utilize two important parameters to characterize the jet transport properties, the jet transport parameter qˆ0 and the mean free path λ0, both at the initial time τ0 in the center of the fireball created in central AA collisions. We performed a phenomenological study of simultaneous χ2/d.o.f fits to RHIC as well as LHC data to constrain the two parameters for energetic quarks, qˆ0≈1.1±0.2 GeV2/fm and λ0≈0.4±0.03 fm in central Au+ Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, while qˆ0≈1.7±0.3 GeV2/fm, and λ0≈0.5±0.05 fm in central Pb + Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV. Numerical results for the best fit give a multiple scattering picture for the hard jets with a moderate averaged number of gluon emissions. Based on the best constraints for λ0 and τ0, the estimated value for the mean-squared transverse momentum broadening is moderate which implies that the hard jets go through the medium with small reflection.

Measurements of the suppression and anisotropy of heavy-flavour particles in Pb–Pb collisions at [formula omitted] with ALICE

Heavy quarks, i.e. charm and beauty, are produced on a shorter time scale with respect to the strongly-interacting matter produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Therefore, they are unique probes to study the mechanisms of parton energy loss, hadronisation and thermalization in the hot and dense state of matter. The nuclear modification factor (RAA) and the elliptic flow (v2) are two of the main experimental observables that allow us to investigate the interaction strength of heavy quarks with the medium. The most recent results on heavy-flavour production and elliptic flow measured by the ALICE collaboration in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV will be discussed.

Improved quark coalescence for a multi-phase transport model

The string melting version of a multi-phase transport model is often applied to high-energy heavy-ion collisions since the dense matter thus formed is expected to be in parton degrees of freedom. In this work we improve its quark coalescence component, which describes the hadronization of the partonic matter to a hadronic matter. We removed the previous constraint that forced the numbers of mesons, baryons, and antibaryons in an event to be separately conserved through the quark coalescence process. A quark now could form either a meson or a baryon depending on the distance to its coalescence partner(s). We then compare results from the improved model with the experimental data on hadron $dN/dy$, $p_{_{\rm T}}$ spectra, and $v_2$ in heavy-ion collisions from $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}=62.4$ GeV to $5.02$ TeV. We show that, besides being able to describe these observables for low-$p_{_{\rm T}}$ pions and kaons, the improved model also better describes the low-$p_{_{\rm T}}$ baryon observables in general, especially the baryon $p_{_{\rm T}}$ spectra and antibaryon-to-baryon ratios for multistrange baryons.

Concluding Remarks: Connecting Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions and Neutron Star Mergers by the Equation of State of Dense Hadron- and Quark Matter as signalled by Gravitational Waves

The underlying open questions in the fields of general relativistic astrophysics and elementary particle and nuclear physics are strongly connected and their results are interdependent. Although the physical systems are quite different, the 4D-simulation of a merger of a binary system of two neutron stars and the properties of the hot and dense matter created in high energy heavy ion collisions, strongly depend on the equation of state of fundamental elementary matter. Neutron star mergers represent optimal astrophysical laboratories to investigate the QCD phase structure using a spectrogram of the post-merger phase of the emitted gravitational waves. These studies can be supplemented by observations from heavy ion collisions to possibly reach a conclusive picture on the QCD phase structure at high density and temperature. As gravitational waves (GWs) emitted from merging neutron star binaries are on the verge of their first detection, it is important to understand the main characteristics of the underlying merging system in order to predict the expected GW signal. Based on numerical-relativity simulations of merging neutron star binaries, the emitted GW and the interior structure of the generated hypermassive neutron stars (HMNS) have been analyzed in detail. This article will focus on the internal and rotational HMNS properties and their connection with the emitted GW signal. Especially, the appearance of the hadon-quark phase transition in the interior region of the HMNS and its conjunction with the spectral properties of the emitted GW will be addressed and confronted with the simulation results of high energy heavy ion collisions.

A hydrodynamic model including phase transition and the thermal motion-induced transverse momentum distributions in high energy heavy ion collisions

By taking into account the effects of thermal motion, the transverse momentum distributions of identified charged particles produced in nucleus collisions are discussed in the context of a hydrodynamic model including phase transition. A comparison is made between the theoretical predictions and experimental measurements. The theoretical model gives a good description to the data collected in Au–Au collisions at RHIC energy of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]GeV. For Pb–Pb collisions at LHC energy of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]TeV, the model works well up to the transverse momentum of about [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]GeV/c.

A new relativistic viscous hydrodynamics code and its application to the Kelvin\u2013Helmholtz instability in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

We construct a new relativistic viscous hydrodynamics code optimized in the Milne coordinates. We split the conservation equations into an ideal part and a viscous part, using the Strang spitting method. In the code a Riemann solver based on the two-shock approximation is utilized for the ideal part and the Piecewise Exact Solution (PES) method is applied for the viscous part. We check the validity of our numerical calculations by comparing analytical solutions, the viscous Bjorken’s flow and the Israel–Stewart theory in Gubser flow regime. Using the code, we discuss possible development of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

Conserved charge fluctuations using the D measure in heavy-ion collisions

We study the net-charge fluctuations, $D$-measure variable, in high energy heavy-ion collisions in heavy-ion jet interaction generator (HIJING), ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) and hadron resonance gas (HRG) models for various center-of-mass energies (\sqsn). The effect of kinematic acceptance and resonance decay, in the pseudorapidity acceptance interval ($\Delta\eta$) and lower transverse momentum ($p_{T}^{min}$) threshold, on fluctuation measures are discussed. A strong dependence of $D$ with the $\Delta\eta$ in HIJING and UrQMD models is observed as opposed to results obtained from the HRG model. The dissipation of fluctuation signal is estimated by fitting the $D$-measure as a function of the $\Delta\eta$. An extrapolated function for higher $\Delta\eta$ values at lower \sqsn is different from the results obtained from models. Particle species dependence of $D$ and the effect of the $p_T^{min}$ selection threshold are discussed in HIJING and HRG models. The comparison of $D$, at midrapidity, of net-charge fluctuations at various \sqsn obtained from the models with the data from the ALICE experiment is discussed. The results from the present work as a function of $\Delta\eta$ and \sqsn will provide a baseline for comparison to experimental measurements.