Non-central Heavy-ion Collisions Research Articles

Hanbury-Brown–Twiss signature for clustered substructures probing primordial inhomogeneity in hot and dense QCD matter

We propose a novel approach to probe primordial inhomogeneity in hot and dense matter which could be realized in noncentral heavy-ion collisions. Although the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry is commonly used to infer the system size, the cluster size should be detected if substructures emerge in space. We demonstrate that a signal peak in the HBT two-particle correlation stands at the relative momentum corresponding to the spatial scale of pseudo one-dimensional modulation. We assess detectability using the data prepared by an event generator (AMPT model) with clustering implemented in the particle distribution. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Non-perturbative suppression of chiral vortical effect in hot (s)QGP for hyperons spin polarization in heavy ion collisions

With the field correlator method (FCM) for QCD, we show that the chiral vortical effect (CVE) in hot (strongly-interacting) quark-gluon plasma ((s)QGP) is modified by non-perturbative interactions – by color-magnetic confinement, and by remnant color-electric interaction, which is encoded in the Polyakov line. The obtained result demonstrates numerical suppression of CVE comparable to the phenomenological suppression used for numerical simulations of RHIC-STAR data on hyperons spin polarization in non-central heavy ion collision (HIC). The parameters range in the temperature – quark chemical potential plane is expected to cover ALICE and RHIC data. The chiral current is calculated for the rigidly rotating model of (s)QGP in the linear order in angular velocity at the rotation axis with account of non-perturbative interactions.

Inhomogeneity of a rotating quark-gluon plasma from holography

Rotation affects the transition temperature between confined (hadronic) and deconfined (quark-gluon plasma) phases of the strongly interacting matter produced in non-central heavy ion collisions. A holographic description of this effect was presented recently, considering an AdS black hole with cylindrical symmetry in rotation. Here we extend this approach in order to analyse the more realistic case of strongly interacting matter that, rather than living in a cylindrical shell, spreads over a region around the rotational axis. In this case, the confined and deconfined phases may coexist. The holographic description of the plasma behaviour under rotation is shown to be consistent with the concept of local temperature for rotating frames developed by Tolman and Ehrenfest.

First measurement of prompt and non-prompt D⁎+ vector meson spin alignment in pp collisions at [formula omitted] TeV

This letter reports the first measurement of spin alignment, with respect to the helicity axis, for D⁎+ vector mesons and their charge conjugates from charm-quark hadronisation (prompt) and from beauty-meson decays (non-prompt) in hadron collisions. The measurements were performed at midrapidity (|y|<0.8) as a function of transverse momentum (pT) in proton–proton (pp) collisions collected by ALICE at the centre-of-mass energy s=13TeV. The diagonal spin density matrix element ρ00 of D⁎+ mesons was measured from the angular distribution of the D⁎+→D0(→K−π+)π+ decay products, in the D⁎+ rest frame, with respect to the D⁎+ momentum direction in the pp centre of mass frame. The ρ00 value for prompt D⁎+ mesons is consistent with 1/3, which implies no spin alignment. However, for non-prompt D⁎+ mesons an evidence of ρ00 larger than 1/3 is found. The measured value of the spin density element is ρ00=0.455±0.022(stat.)±0.035(syst.) in the 5<pT<20GeV/c interval, which is consistent with a Pythia 8 Monte Carlo simulation coupled with the EvtGen package, which implements the helicity conservation in the decay of D⁎+ meson from beauty mesons. In non-central heavy-ion collisions, the spin of the D⁎+ mesons may be globally aligned with the direction of the initial angular momentum and magnetic field. Based on the results for pp collisions reported in this letter it is shown that alignment of non-prompt D⁎+ mesons due to the helicity conservation coupled to the collective anisotropic expansion may mimic the signal of global spin alignment in heavy-ion collisions.

Hadron gas in the presence of a magnetic field using non-extensive statistics: a transition from diamagnetic to paramagnetic system

Non-central heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies are unique in producing magnetic fields of the largest strength in the laboratory. Such fields being produced at the early stages of the collision could affect the properties of Quantum Chromodynamics matter formed in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The transient magnetic field leaves its reminiscence, which in principle, can affect the thermodynamic and transport properties of the final state dynamics of the system. In this work, we study the thermodynamic properties of a hadron gas in the presence of an external static magnetic field using a thermodynamically consistent non-extensive Tsallis distribution function. Various thermodynamical observables such as energy density (ϵ), entropy density (s), pressure (P) and speed of sound (c s) are studied. Investigation of magnetization (M) is also performed and this analysis reveals an interplay of diamagnetic and paramagnetic nature of the system in the presence of a magnetic field of varying strength. Further, to understand the system dynamics under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions, the effect of the non-extensive parameter (q) on the above observables is also studied.

Production of magnetic field due to heavy ion collisions around transition energy

Isospin quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model is a reliable computational tool for the study of various phenomena (multi fragmentation, anisotropic flow, nuclear stopping) from low to intermediate heavy ion collisions (HICs). Here, simulation has been carried out for the magnetic field generated during non-central HICs using the IQMD model. The effect of various parameters, such as centrality, angular momentum, rapidity and incident energy has been thoroughly investigated on the magnetic field with the evolution of time and space. It has been observed that the rapidity bin significantly impacts the magnitude of the magnetic field in different directions. Furthermore, the magnetic field produced during HIC leads to a notable impact on the in-plane momentum of the proton and neutron.

Evolution of global polarization in relativistic heavy-ion collisions within a perturbative approach

Extremely large angular orbital momentum can be produced in non-central heavy-ion collisions, leading to a strong transverse polarization of partons that scatter through the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) due to spin-orbital coupling. We develop a perturbative approach to describe the formation and spacetime evolution of quark polarization inside the QGP. Polarization from both the initial hard scatterings and interactions with the QGP have been consistently described using the quark-potential scattering approach, which has been coupled to realistic initial condition calculation and the subsequent (3+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamic simulation of the QGP for the first time. Within this improved approach, we have found that different spacetime-rapidity-dependent initial energy density distributions generate different time evolution profiles of the longitudinal flow velocity gradient of the QGP, which further lead to an approximately 15% difference in the final polarization of quarks collected on the hadronization hypersurface of the QGP. Therefore, in addition to the collective flow coefficients, the hyperon polarization may serve as a novel tool to help constrain the initial condition of the hot nuclear matter created in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Spin-orbital coupling in strong interaction and global spin polarization

In non-central relativistic heavy ion collisions, the colliding nuclear system possesses a huge global orbital angular momentum in the direction opposite to the normal of the reaction plane. Due to the spin-orbit coupling in strong interaction, such a huge orbital angular momentum leads to a global spin polarization of the quark matter system produced in the collision process. The global polarization effect in high energy heavy ion collisions was first predicted theoretically and confirmed by STAR experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory. The discovery has attracted much attention to the study of spin effects in heavy ion collision and leads to a new direction in high energy heavy ion physics—Spin Physics in Heavy Ion Collisions. In this paper, we briefly review the original ideas, the calculation methods, the main results and recent theoretical developments in last years. First, we present a short discussion of the spin-orbit coupling which is an intrinsic property for a relativistic fermionic quantum system. Then we review how the global orbital angular momentum can be generated in non-central heavy ion collisions and how the global orbital angular momentum can be transferred to the local orbital angular momentum distribution in two limit model---Landan fireball model and Bjorken scaling model. After that, we review how we can describe the scattering process with initial local orbital angular momentum in the formalism of scattering cross section in impact parameter space and how we calculate the polarization of the quarks and antiquarks in quark gluon plasma produced in non-central heavy ion collisions after single or multiple scattering. We also give a brief review on how the global polarization can be predicted from the formalism of relativistic hydrodynamics with the generalized Cooper-Frye formula with spin. Finally, we discuss how the quark's polarization can be transferred to the final hadron's polarization. We focus on the hyperon's polarization and vector meson's spin alignment produced in heavy-ion collisions.

Measurements of quarkonium production and polarization in Pb–Pb collisions with ALICE

Quarkonia are excellent probes of deconfinement in heavy-ion collisions. For J/ψ, a bound state of cc¯ quarks, the (re-)generation is found to be the dominant production mechanism at the LHC energies. Production measurements of non-prompt J/ψ, originating from beauty-hadron decays, allow one to access the interaction of beauty-quarks with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Polarization and spin alignment measurements can be used to investigate the characteristics of the formed medium. Moreover, it has been hypothesized that quarkonium states can be polarized by the strong magnetic field generated in the initial state of the collision and by the large angular momentum of the medium in non-central heavy-ion collisions. In these proceedings, the measurements of the inclusive, prompt, and non-prompt J/ψ nuclear modification factor RAA in Pb–Pb collisions at √SNN = 5.02 TeV are shown. The measured non-prompt J/ψ fraction extends down to very low pT with a significantly improved precision compared to previous publications. The results from the first publication on the J/ψ polarization with respect to the event-plane in Pb–Pb collisions at √SNN = 5.02 TeV at forward rapidity are presented as well. The results are compared with available calculations.

The direct flow of charged particles and the global polarization of hyperons in 200 AGeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

In non-central relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the non-colliding nucleons drag the colliding nucleons along the longitudinal direction asymmetrically, producing a longitudinally tilted quark-gluon plasma (QGP) fireball. Meanwhile, these colliding nuclei deposit a huge initial orbital angular momentum into the system, leading to the polarization of partons inside the QGP along the direction of the total angular momentum. Based on the optical Glauber model, we develop a 3-dimensional initial condition of the tilted QGP. By combining it with the (3+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamic model CLVisc, we investigate the directed flow of charged hadrons and the global polarization of &lt;inline-formula&gt;&lt;tex-math id="M2"&gt;\begin{document}$ \Lambda/\bar{\Lambda} $\end{document}&lt;/tex-math&gt;&lt;alternatives&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222391_M2.jpg"/&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20222391_M2.png"/&gt;&lt;/alternatives&gt;&lt;/inline-formula&gt; hyperons in heavy-ion collisions. Our calculation indicates that the combination of a tilted initial condition of the QGP and the hydrodynamic model can provide a satisfactory description of the directed flow and global polarization observed at RHIC-STAR. This offers a theoretical baseline for using these observables to further constrain the initial geometry and kinematic properties of the nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions.

Rescattering effect on the measurement of K*0 spin alignment in heavy-ion collisions

Spin alignment of vector mesons in noncentral relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides a novel probe of the global quark polarization and hadronization mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the spin alignment of a short-lived vector meson, namely ${K}^{*0}$, arising from the hadronic rescattering process using the UrQMD model. This spin alignment is not related to global quark polarization but cannot be distinguished from those arising from global quark polarization in experiment. The spin alignment parameter ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{00}$ is found to deviate from 1/3 by up to $\ensuremath{-}0.008$ (0.03) with respect to the reaction (production) plane. These deviations are much larger than the expected signal from all the theoretical models implementing the conventional global quark polarization mechanism as well as the current experimental precision, and should be considered seriously when comparing measurements with theoretical calculations.

Production of twisted particles in heavy-ion collisions

A prevalence of production of twisted (vortex) particles in noncentral heavy-ion collisions is shown. In such collisions, photons emitted due to the rotation of charges are highly twisted. Charged particles are produced in nonspreading multiwave states and have significant orbital angular momenta. It can be expected that an emission of any twisted particles manifesting themselves in specific effects is rather ubiquitous.

Anisotropic Flows of Charmonium in the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

We review recent studies about anisotropic flows (v1,v2,v3) of charmonium in the quark-gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Collective flows of the bulk medium are developed due to the anisotropic pressure gradient of the medium. Strongly coupled with the bulk medium, charm quarks carry collective flows from the expanding medium, which will be inherited by the regenerated charmonium via the coalescence process. In event-by-event collisions where nucleon positions fluctuate from the smooth distribution, there is triangularity in the medium initial energy density. Triangular flows of the bulk medium and heavy flavor particles can be developed due to the initial fluctuations. In the longitudinal direction, the rapidity-odd distribution of the initial energy density is induced by the rotation of the medium in non-central heavy-ion collisions. Charmonium suffers biased dissociation along positive and negative x-directions in forward (backward) rapidity. The directed flow of charmonium becomes non-zero. The directed, elliptic and triangular flows (v1,v2,v3) of charmonium come from the anisotropic initial distributions of the medium energy density in the transverse and longitudinal directions.

Event-by-event jet anisotropy and hard-soft tomography of the quark-gluon plasma

Suppression of jet spectra or jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions is caused by jet energy loss in the dense medium. The azimuthal anisotropy of jet energy loss in noncentral heavy-ion collisions can lead to finite values of jet anisotropic flow coefficients. This is investigated within the linear Boltzmann transport model, which simulates both elastic scattering and medium-induced gluon radiation based on perturbative quantum chromodynamics for jet shower and medium recoil partons as well as radiated gluons as they propagate through the quark-gluon plasma. The dynamical evolution of the quark-gluon plasma in each event of heavy-ion collisions is provided by the $(3+1)$-dimensional CLVisc hydrodynamic model with fully fluctuating initial conditions. This framework has been shown to well describe the suppression of single inclusive jet spectra. We calculate in this study the elliptic $({v}_{2}^{\mathrm{jet}})$ and triangular $({v}_{3}^{\mathrm{jet}})$ anisotropy coefficients of the single inclusive jet spectra in $\text{Pb}+\text{Pb}$ collisions at the Large Hadron Collider energies. We investigate the colliding energy, centrality, jet transverse momentum dependence of the jet anisotropy, as well as their event-by-event correlation with the flow coefficients of the soft bulk hadrons. An approximate linear correlation between jet and bulk ${v}_{2}$ is found. The effect of the bulk ${v}_{n}$ fluctuation on ${v}_{n}^{\mathrm{jet}}$ is found negligible. We also investigate the effect of jet-induced medium excitation, which is influenced by radial flow, on jet ${v}_{2}^{\mathrm{jet}}$. The sensitivity of jet elliptic anisotropy ${v}_{2}^{\mathrm{jet}}$ to the shear viscosity of the bulk medium is also studied.

Confinement-deconfinement temperature for a rotating quark-gluon plasma

Non-central heavy ion collisions lead to the production of a quark gluon plasma with angular momentum. We investigate, using holographic AdS/QCD models, how does rotation of the medium affects the confinement/deconfinement transition temperature $T_c$. In holographic models, this transition is represented by a Hawking-Page process involving two asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces. The plasma is represented here by extending the holographic approach to anti-de Sitter spaces with cylindrical symmetry. Then, the rotation of the medium is introduced through a Lorentz boost. We consider hard and soft wall AdS/QCD models. In both cases we find it out that, as the rotational velocity $v$ increases, $T_c$ decreases, following the expression $T_c(v) = T_c(0)/\gamma(v)$, where $\gamma(v)$ is the Lorentz factor.

Practical considerations for the effect of finite coverage on the azimuthal dependence of global spin alignment

The global spin alignment of vector mesons is a powerful probe to study the vorticity field of the system produced in non-central relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Since the experimental observables of global spin alignment are sensitive to many factors, proper corrections are need to be taken care of when measuring the global spin alignment of vector mesons. In this paper, we propose a method to correct the effect of finite pseudo-rapidity coverage when extract the azimuthal dependence of spin alignment parameter $\rho_{00}$. The effects of the finite pseudo-rapidity coverage on the azimuthal dependence of $\phi$ meson spin alignment and the potentially exist intrinsic spin alignment effects are taken into consideration. The method presented in this paper is verified in a Monte-Carlo simulation, it allows the measurements of azimuthal dependence of global spin alignment to be conducted properly and accurately.

Quantized vortices in pionic superfluid

The interplay between classical vorticity being the main undisputed source of polarization in heavy-ion collisions (HIC) and quantized vortices is considered. The vortex tubes emerging in the rotating pionic (super) fluid polarize the baryons in their cores and explain the emerging global polarization. The appearance of vortices in the region separating participants and spectators in non-central HIC is similar to that for sliding layers of liquid helium. From the other side, it is also the region where the classical vorticity was earlier found to be large forming the vortex sheets. The formation of tubes manifests a threshold at certain critical vorticity implying the vanishing polarization at lower energies. For central HIC the compact jet-like flows may lead to formation of vortex rings related to local polarization. The P-odd momentum correlations for their experimental investigation are suggested. The role of shear and viscosity in the emergence of polarization is discussed.

Hyperon\u2013anti-hyperon polarization asymmetry in relativistic heavy-ion collisions as an interplay between chiral and helical vortical effects

We argue that the enhancement in the spin polarization of anti-hyperons compared to the polarization of the hyperons in noncentral relativistic heavy-ion collisions arises as a result of an interplay between the chiral and helical vortical effects. The chiral vortical effect generates the axial current of quarks along the vorticity axis while the recently found helical vortical effect generates the helicity flow – the projection of the quark’s polarization vector onto its momentum – along the same axis. For massless fermions, the helical charge corresponds to a difference in the contributions of particles and anti-particles to the axial charge. Assuming that the spin of light quarks transfers to the strange quarks via the vector kaon states (“the spin-vector dominance”), we are able to describe the ratio of the (anti)hyperon spin polarizations, obtained by the STAR group, without fitting parameters. We also argue that the helical vortical effect dominates over the chiral vortical effect and the chiral magnetic effect in the generation of the electric current.

Spin alignment measurement of vector mesons produced in high energy collisions

This paper covers the recent experimental development on spin alignment measurements of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] vector mesons in heavy-ion and [Formula: see text] collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. Measurements in [Formula: see text] collisions at LEP energies are also discussed. Spin alignment of vector mesons is studied by measuring the second diagonal element [Formula: see text] of spin density matrix. The spin density matrix element [Formula: see text] is obtained by measuring the angular distribution of vector meson decay daughter with respect to the quantization axis in vector meson rest frame. Measured [Formula: see text] values for vector mesons are found to be larger than [Formula: see text] at high momentum in [Formula: see text] collisions at LEP energies, suggesting the preferential production of vector meson with helicity zero state from the fragmentation process. The [Formula: see text] values are found to be smaller than [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] implies no spin alignment) for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] vector mesons at low transverse momentum in Pb–Pb collisions at [Formula: see text] TeV. These observations are qualitatively consistent with the expectation from models which attribute the spin alignment effect due to polarization of quarks in the presence of large initial angular momentum in noncentral heavy-ion collisions and its subsequent hadronization by the process of recombination. No significant spin alignment effect is observed for [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] in mid-central Pb–Pb collisions and for vector mesons in [Formula: see text] collisions. However, the preliminary results of [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] mesons are larger than [Formula: see text] at intermediate [Formula: see text] in Au–Au collisions at RHIC energies and can be attributed to the presence of [Formula: see text] meson field. Although there is evidence of spin alignment effect of vector mesons in heavy-ion collisions but the measured effect is surprisingly larger in context of hyperon polarization. Therefore, these results will trigger further theoretical study.

Flavor-dependent photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions

Strong electromagnetic fields produced in the non-central heavy-ion collisions can induce vector meson photoproduction. In this paper, we study the photoproduction J/ψ and ϕ mesons in the relativistic heavy-ion collision from ultra-peripheral nuclear collisions to peripheral hadronic heavy ion collisions. And then include both initial hadronic production and thermal production in quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We find, for the charm anti-charm bound state J/ψ, the photoproduced J/ψs are mainly in the very low momentum region and clearly exceed the hadronic production. However, considering the thermal production of strange quark anti-quark pairs in QGP produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the photoproduced ϕ is usually smaller than the thermal production and only evident at very peripheral collisions as even their photoproduction is much larger than J/ψ.