Microscopic Hadronic Transport Research Articles

Running the gamut of high energy nuclear collisions

We present calculations of bulk properties and multiparticle correlations in a large variety of collision systems within a hybrid formalism consisting of IP-Glasma initial conditions, MUSIC viscous relativistic hydrodynamics, and UrQMD microscopic hadronic transport. In particular, we study heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including Pb+Pb, Xe+Xe, and O+O collisions, and Au+Au, U+U, Ru+Ru, Zr+Zr, and O+O collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We further study asymmetric systems, including p+Au, d+Au, $^3$He+Au, and p+Pb collisions at various energies as well as p+p collisions at 0.5 and 13 TeV. We describe experimental observables in all heavy ion systems well with one fixed set of parameters, validating the energy and system dependence of the framework. Many observables in the smaller systems are also well described, although they test the limits of the model. Calculations of O+O collisions provide predictions for potential future runs at RHIC and LHC.

Effects of resonance weak decay and hadronic rescattering on the proton number fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at sNN=5GeV from a microscopic hadronic transport (JAM) model

Proton number fluctuation is sensitive observable to search for the QCD critical point in heavy-ion collisions. In this paper, we studied rapidity acceptance dependence of the proton cumulants and correlation functions in most central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5$ GeV from a microscopic hadronic transport model (JAM). At mid-rapidity, we found the effects of resonance weak decays and hadronic re-scattering on the proton cumulants and correlation functions are small, but those effects get larger when further increasing the rapidity acceptance. On the other hand, we found the baryon number conservation is a dominant background effect on the rapidity acceptance dependence of proton number fluctuations. It leads to a strong suppression of cumulants and cumulant ratios, as well as the negative proton correlation functions. We also studied those two effects on the energy dependence of cumulant ratios of net-proton distributions in most central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5-200$ GeV from JAM model. This work can serve as a non-critical baseline for future QCD critical point search in heavy-ion collisions at high baryon density region.

Hybrid Color Glass Condensate and hydrodynamic description of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider small system scan

Multi-particle correlation observables in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider small system scan are computed in a framework that contains both initial state momentum anisotropies from the Color Glass Condensate effective theory and final state hydrodynamic evolution. The initial state is computed using the IP-Glasma model and coupled to viscous relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, which are followed by microscopic hadronic transport. All parameters of the calculation were previously constrained using experimental data on Au+Au collisions at the same center of mass energy. We find that the qualitative features of the experimental data, such as the system and centrality dependence of the charged hadron momentum anisotropy, can only be reproduced when final state interactions are present. On the other hand, we also demonstrate that the details of the initial state are crucially important for the quantitative description of observables in the studied small systems, as neglecting the initial transverse flow profile or the initial shear stress tensor, which contain information on the momentum anisotropy from the Color Glass Condensate, has dramatic effects on the produced final state anisotropy. We further show that the initial state momentum anisotropy is correlated with the observed elliptic flow in all small systems, with the effect increasing with decreasing multiplicity. We identify the precise measurement of v2 in d+Au and Au+Au collisions at RHIC energy at the same multiplicity as a means to reveal effects of the initial state momentum anisotropy.

Effects of nuclear potential on the cumulants of net-proton and net-baryon multiplicity distributions in Au+Au collisions atsNN=5GeV

We analyze the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence for the cumulants of the net-proton and net-baryon distributions in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}} = 5\,\text{GeV}$ with a microscopic hadronic transport (JAM) model. To study the effects of mean field potential and softening of equation of state (EoS) on the fluctuations of net-proton (baryon) in heavy-ion collisions, the calculations are performed with two different modes. The softening of EoS is realized in the model by implementing the attractive orbit in the two-body scattering to introduce a reduction pressure of the system. By comparing the results from the two modes with the results from default cascade, we find the mean field potential and softening of EoS have strong impacts on the rapidity distributions ($\text{d}N/\text{d}y$) and the shape of the net-proton (baryon) multiplicity distributions. The net-proton (baryon) cumulants and their ratios calculated from all of the three modes are with similar trends and show significant suppression with respect to unity, which can be explained by the presence of baryon number conservations. It indicates that the effects of mean field potential and softening of EoS might be not the ingredients that are responsible to the observed strong enhancement in the most central Au+Au collisions at 7.7 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC.

Spectra and elliptic flow for identified hadrons in2.76ATeV Pb + Pb collisions

Using the VISHNU hybrid model that couples (2+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics to a microscopic hadronic transport model, we calculate the multiplicity, p_T spectra and elliptic flow for pions, kaons, and protons in 2.76 A TeV Pb+Pb collisions, using MC-KLN initializations with smoothed initial conditions, obtained by averaging over a large number of events. The results from our calculations are compared to data from the ALICE collaboration, showing nice agreement over several centrality bins. Using the same inputs, we predict the p_T spectra and elliptic flow for phi mesons and explore its flow development in the strong and weak coupling limits through hydrodynamic calculations with different decoupling temperatures. In addition we study the influence of baryon and anti-baryon annihilation processes on common observables and demonstrate that by including annihilation processes below a switching temperature of 165 MeV, VISHNU provides a good description of the multiplicity and p_T spectra for pions, kaons and protons measured by PHENIX and ALICE at both RHIC and the LHC.

Collective effects in microscopic transport models

We give a reminder on the major inputs of microscopic hadronic transport models and on the physics aims when describing various aspects of relativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS energies. We then first stress that the situation of particle ratios being reproduced by a statistical description does not necessarily mean a clear hint for the existence of a fully isotropic momentum distribution at hydrochemical freeze-out. Second, a short discussion on the status of strangeness production is given. Third we demonstrate the importance of a new collective mechanism for producing (strange) antibaryons within a hardonic description, which guarantees sufficiently fast chemical equilibration.

Strangeness in strongly interacting matter

This paper is devoted to a review of the field of strangeness production in (ultra-)relativistic heavy ion collisions within our present theoretical understanding. Historically, there have been (at least) three major ideas for the interest in the production of strange hadronic particles: (1) mass modification of the kaons in a (baryon-)dense environment; (2) (early) K+-production probes the nuclear equation of state; (3) enhanced strangeness production especially in the (multi-)strange (anti)baryon channels as a signal of quark gluon plasma formation. As a guideline for the discussion, I employ the extensive experience with microscopic hadronic transport models. In addition, I elaborate on the recent idea of antihyperon production solely by means of multi-mesonic fusion-type reactions.

Do Chemically Saturated Antihyperon Abundancies Signal the Quark Gluon Plasma?

We first review the production and the possible chemical equilibration of strange particles at CERN-SPS energies within a microscopic hadronic transport calculation. It is shown in particular that the strange quarks are produced initially via string excitations in the primary, secondary and ternary interactions. We then further elaborate on a recent idea of antihyperon production by multi-mesonic reactions like $n_1\pi + n_2 K \to \bar{Y}+p $ corresponding to the inverse of the strong binary baryon-antibaryon annihilation process. It is argued that by these reactions the (rare) antihyperons are driven towards local chemical equilibrium with pions, nucleons and kaons on a timescale of 1--3 fm/c in the still moderately baryon-dense initial hadronic environment after the termination of the prehadronic string phase. Accordingly this mechanism can provide a convenient explanation for the antihyperon yields at CERN-SPS energies without any need of a deconfined quark gluon plasma phase.

Analysis of reaction dynamics at ultrarelativistic energies in a combined parton-hadron transport approach

We introduce a transport approach which combines partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom on an equal footing and discuss the resulting reaction dynamics. The initial parton dynamics is modeled in the framework of the parton cascade model, hadronization is performed via a cluster hadronization model and configuration space coalescence, and the hadronic phase is described by a microscopic hadronic transport approach. The resulting reaction dynamics indicate a strong influence of hadronic rescattering on the space-time pattern of hadronic freeze-out and on the shape of transverse mass spectra. Freeze-out times and transverse radii increase by factors of 2--3 depending on the hadron species.