Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics Research Articles

Collision energy dependence of elliptic flow of identified hadrons in heavy-ion collisions using the PHSD model

We report the first predictions of elliptic flow (v2) of identified hadrons at mid-rapidity (|y|< 1.0) in Au+Au collisions at Elab=6.7,8,11,and 25 A GeV using the Parton Hadron String Dynamics (PHSD) model. The transverse momentum (pT) dependence of identified hadron v2 in different centrality intervals (0-10%, 10-40%, and 40-80%) is shown. A clear centrality dependence of v2(pT) is observed for particles at Elab=6.7,8,11,and 25 A GeV. Within the PHSD model, the number of constituent quark (NCQ) scaling of v2 approximately follows in Au+Au collisions at all beam energies. A collision energy (sNN) dependence of π, K, and pv2 is studied in comparison with available published experimental data in the beam energy range of 6-25 A GeV. These predictions will help in interpreting the data from the forthcoming Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) and Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) at the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility (NICA).

Elliptic flow of inclusive charged hadrons in Au+Au collisions at E lab = 35 A GeV using the PHSD model

Elliptic flow (v 2) of inclusive charged hadrons at mid-rapidity (∣η∣ < 1.0) in Au+Au collisions at E lab = 35 A GeV using the parton hadron string dynamics (PHSD) model are presented as a function of centrality, transverse momentum (p T) and pseudo-rapidity (η). The v 2 results are obtained using the η-sub event plane method with respect to the event plane angle (ψ 2) and participant plane angle (). p T-integrated charged hadron v 2 shows a strong centrality dependence in Au+Au collisions at E lab = 35 A GeV. The eccentricity-scaled elliptic flow (v 2/ε 2) also shows centrality dependence. The higher values of v 2/ε 2 in central collisions suggest the development of stronger collectivity. The calculations are compared with the results from Au+Au collisions at published by the STAR experiment at RHIC. We also compare the results of HSD and PHSD modes to investigate the contribution of hadronic and partonic phases of the medium on the calculated v 2. The current results serve as a prediction of the collective behavior of the matter produced in baryon-rich and moderate temperature conditions for the upcoming multi-purpose detector at the nuclotron-based Ion collider facility (NICA) and compressed baryonic matter experiment at the facility for antiproton and ion research. These predictions are also useful for interpreting data measured at relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) beam energy scan program.

The photon production and collective flows from magnetic induced gluon fusion and splitting in early stage of high energy nuclear collision

We present an event-by-event study of photon production in early stage of high energy nuclear collisions, where the system is dominant by highly occupied of gluons and initialized by McLerran-Venugopalan model. The photons are produced through the gluon fusion and splitting processes when strong magnetic field is included. We study the spectra and collective flows of the photons and show their dependence on transverse momentum qT. It is found that in our approach the photons from boost invariant evolving glasma provide visible enhancement on spectrum and obvious contribution on v2 of the total direct photons. The results, by weighting on top of parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) model, agree even better with experiment measurements in Au-Au 20%-40% centrality collisions at sNN=200 GeV.

Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Au+Au collisions at E_{lab} = 35~text {A}~text {GeV} using the PHSD model

We present predictions of elliptic flow (v_2) of identified hadrons at mid-rapidity (|y| < 1.0) in Au+Au collisions at E_{lab} = 35~text {A}~text {GeV} using the Parton Hadron String Dynamics (PHSD) model. The transverse momentum (p_{textrm{T}}) dependence of identified hadron v_2 in minimum bias (0–80%) and three different centrality intervals (0–10%, 10–40%, and 40–80%) are presented. A clear centrality dependence of v_2(p_{textrm{T}}) is observed for particles and anti-particles. We also present the p_{textrm{T}} dependence of v_2 difference ({Delta } v_2) between particles and corresponding anti-particles. A significant difference in v_2 values for baryons and anti-baryons is observed. Constituent quark scaling (NCQ) of v_{2} is investigated in Au+Au collisions. We also present a v_2(p_{textrm{T}}) ratio between the HSD and PHSD modes to explore the effect of hadronic and partonic interactions in the medium. These predictions are useful for interpreting the data measured in the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at RHIC. They will also be useful for the future Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) and Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) at the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility (NICA).

Neural-Network-Based Quark–Gluon Plasma Trigger for the CBM Experiment at FAIR

Algorithms optimized for high-performance computing, which ensure both speed and accuracy, are crucial for real-time data analysis in heavy-ion physics experiments. The application of neural networks and other machine learning methodologies, which are fast and have high accuracy, in physics experiments has become increasingly popular over recent years. This paper introduces a fast neural network package named ANN4FLES developed in C++, which has been optimized for use on a high-performance computing cluster for the future Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR, Darmstadt, Germany). The use of neural networks for classifying events during heavy-ion collisions in the CBM experiment is under investigation. This paper provides a detailed description of the application of ANN4FLES in identifying collisions where a quark–gluon plasma (QGP) was produced. The methodology detailed here will be used in the development of a QGP trigger for event selection within the First Level Event Selection (FLES) package for the CBM experiment. Fully-connected and convolutional neural networks have been created for the identification of events containing QGP, which are simulated with the Parton–Hadron–String Dynamics (PHSD) microscopic off-shell transport approach, for central Au + Au collisions at an energy of 31.2 A GeV. The results show that the convolutional neural network outperforms the fully-connected networks and achieves over 95% accuracy on the testing dataset.

Helicity and vorticity in heavy-ion collisions at energies available at the JINR Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility

Heavy-ion collisions at center-of-mass nucleon collision energies 4.5--11.5 GeV are analyzed within the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport model. Spectator nucleons are separated, and the transfer of the initial angular momentum of colliding nuclei to the fireball formed by participants is studied. The maximal angular momentum is carried by the fireball in gold-gold collisions with the impact parameter about 5 fm corresponding to centrality class 10--20%. The obtained participant distributions were fluidized and the energy and baryon number densities, temperature, and velocity fields are obtained in the Landau frame. It is shown that the velocity field has dominantly Hubble-like transversal and longitudinal expansion with the vortical motion being only a small correction on top of it. The vorticity field is calculated and illustrated in detail. The formation of two oppositely rotating vortex rings moving in opposite directions along the $z$ axis is demonstrated. Other characteristics of the vortical motion such as the Lamb vector field and the kinematic vorticity number are considered. The magnitude of the latter one is found to be smaller than that for the Poiseuille flow and close to the pure shear deformation corresponding to just a flattening of fluid cells. The field of hydrodynamic helicity, which is responsible for the axial vortex effect, is calculated. The separation of positive and negative helicities localized in upper and lower semiplanes with respect to the reaction plane is shown. It is proved that the areas with various helicity signs can be probed by the selection of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ hyperons with positive and negative projections of their momenta orthogonal to the reaction plane.

In-medium effects on hidden strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions

We study ϕ meson production in heavy-ion collisions from subthreshold energies of 1.23 A GeV up to RHIC energies within the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach where novel production channels for ϕ mesons based on a coupled channel T-matrix approach are implemented along with the collisional broadening of the ϕ meson spectral width in medium. Since ϕ meson production is closely related to the production of kaons and antikaons, antikaon properties are described via the self-consistent coupled-channel unitarized scheme within a SU(3) chiral Lagrangian (G-matrix) which incorporates explicitly the s− and p− waves of the kaon-nucleon interaction, while the in-medium modifications of kaons are accounted for via a kaon-nuclear potential, which is assumed to be proportional to the local baryon density.

Exploration of the phase diagram within a transport approach

We study equilibrium as well as out-of-equilibrium properties of the strongly interacting QGP medium under extreme conditions of high temperature T and high baryon densities or baryon chemical potentials μB within a kinetic approach. We present the thermodynamic and transport properties of the QGP close to equilibrium in the framework of effective models with Nf=3 active quark flavours such as the Polyakov extended Nambu-Jona Lasinio (PNJL) and dynamical quasiparticle model with the CEP (DQPM-CP). Considering the transport coefficients and the EoS of the QGP phase, we compare our results with various results from the literature. Furthermore, out-of equilibrium properties of the QGP medium and in particular, the effect of a μB- dependence of thermodynamic and transport properties of the QGP are studied within the Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach, which covers the full evolution of the system during HICs. We find that bulk observables and flow coefficients for strange hadrons as well as for antiprotons are more sensitive to the properties of the QGP, in particular to the μB - dependence of the QGP interactions.

Nonequilibrium effects and transverse spherocity in ultrarelativistic proton-nucleus collisions

We investigate the effects of nonequilibrium dynamics in small colliding systems by comparing a nonequilibrium transport approach, Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD), with a $(2+1)$-dimensional viscous hydrodynamic model, VISHNew. Focusing on $p+\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions at energies available at the Large Hadron Collider, we extract the initial conditions for the hydrodynamic model from PHSD, in order to reduce the impact of the early out-of-equilibrium dynamics and focus on the traces of nonequilibrium in the ensuing medium evolution. We find that in the transport approach quantities like energy density and bulk viscous pressure are highly inhomogeneous on the transverse plane during the whole evolution, whereas the hydrodynamic simulations dissolve more efficiently the initial spatial irregularities, still keeping a high degree of inhomogeneity due to the smaller size and lifetime of the medium produced in $p+\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions with respect to heavy-ion reactions. As a first step that will help to identify the impact of these nonequilibrium effects on final observables in proton-nucleus collisions, we perform an analysis of the transverse spherocity, an event-shape observable able to distinguish between jetty and isotropic configurations of transverse momenta. We found that the spherocity distribution in PHSD is slightly shifted towards the isotropic limit with respect to the hydrodynamic result. Even though this dissimilarity is partially due to the difference in the final charged particle production, it mainly comes from the different description within the two frameworks of the medium produced in small colliding systems. This finding supports the idea that multidifferential measurements, such as those based on event categorization according to multiplicity and spherocity, are useful to study final-state observables in ultrarelativistic proton-nucleus collisions.

In-medium effects in ϕ meson production in heavy-ion collisions from subthreshold to relativistic energies

We investigate the hidden strange $\phi$ meson production in heavy-ion collisions from subthreshold ($E_{kin}\approx 1$ A GeV) to relativistic ($E_{kin}\approx 21$ A TeV) energies as well as its coupling to the open strange mesons (kaons, antikaons) and their productions. Our study is based on the off-shell microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which is applicable for the dynamical description of strongly interacting hadronic and partonic degrees-of-freedom created in heavy-ion collisions. Implementing novel meson-baryon and meson-hyperon production channels for $\phi$ mesons, calculated within a T-matrix coupled channel approach based on the extended SU(6) chiral effective Lagrangian model, along with the collisional broadening of the $\phi$-meson in-medium spectral function, we find a substantial enhancement of $\phi$ meson production in heavy-ion collisions, especially at sub- and near-thresholds. This allows to describe the experimentally observed strong enhancement of the $\phi/K^-$ ratio at low energies without including hypothetical decays of heavy baryonic resonances to $\phi$ as in alternative approaches. Moreover, we show that in spite of a stronger contribution from enhanced $\phi$ to $K^-$ production, the majority of the experimental data for different A+A systems at low energies favor the scenario with in-medium modifications of the kaon and antikaon properties in the hot and dense environment. Moreover, we study the influence of the final state interactions of $K, \bar K$ mesons on the reconstruction of $\phi$'s by the by invariant mass method.

Cluster and hypercluster production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions within the parton-hadron-quantum-molecular-dynamics approach

We study cluster and hypernuclei production in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies employing the Parton-Hadron-Quantum-Molecular-Dynamics (PHQMD) approach, a microscopic n-body transport model based on the QMD propagation of the baryonic degrees of freedom with density dependent 2-body potential interactions. All other ingredients of PHQMD, including the collision integral and the treatment of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase, are adopted from the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) approach. In PHQMD the cluster formation occurs dynamically, caused by the interactions. The clusters are recognized by the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) algorithm. We present the PHQMD results for cluster and hypernuclei formation in comparison with the available experimental data at AGS, SPS, RHIC-BES and RHIC fixed target energies. We also provide predictions on cluster production for the upcoming FAIR and NICA experiments. PHQMD allows to study the time evolution of formed clusters and the origin of their production, which helps to understand how such weakly bound objects are formed and survive in the rather dense and hot environment created in heavy-ion collisions. It offers therefore an explanation of the 'ice in the fire' puzzle.

In-medium effects in strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions at (sub-) threshold energies

We study the in-medium effects in strangeness production in heavyion collisions at (sub-)threshold energies based on the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The in-medium modifications of the antikaon properties are described via the self-consistent coupledchannel unitarized scheme based on a SU(3) chiral Lagrangian while the inmedium modification of kaons are accounted via the kaon-nuclear potential, which is assumed to be proportional to the local baryon density. We find that the modifications of (anti)kaon properties in nuclear matter are necessary to explain the experimental data in heavy-ion collisions.

Dynamical cluster and hypernuclei production in heavy-ion collisions

We study light cluster and hypernuclei production in heavy-ion collisions from SIS to RHIC energies based on the n-body dynamical transport approach PHQMD (Parton-Hadron-Quantum-Molecular-Dynamics). In PHQMD clusters are formed dynamically due to the interactions between baryons described on the basis of Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) which allows to propagate the n-body Wigner density and n-body correlations in phase-space, which is essential for the cluster formation. The clusters are identified by the MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) or the SACA (‘Simulated Annealing Cluster Algorithm’) algorithm which finds the most-bound configuration of nucleons and clusters. Collisions among hadrons as well as Quark-Gluon-Plasma formation and parton dynamics in PHQMD are treated in the same way as in the PHSD (Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics) transport approach. We study the time evolution of the cluster formation in the expanding medium and the stability of the clusters. We present a comparison of the PHQMD results for d, 3He as well as for the hypernuclei with experimental data.

Constraints on the kinetic mixing parameter ε2 for the light dark photons from dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy range

The vector $U$-bosons, or so called 'dark photons', are one of the possible candidates for the dark matter mediators. They are supposed to interact with the standard matter via a 'vector portal' due to the $U(1)-U(1)^\prime$ symmetry group mixing which might make them visible in particle and heavy-ion experiments. While there is no confirmed observation of dark photons, the detailed analysis of different experimental data allows to estimate the upper limit for the kinetic mixing parameter $\epsilon^2$ depending on the mass $M_U$ of $U$-bosons which is also unknown. In this study we present theoretical constraints on the upper limit of $\epsilon^2(M_U)$ in the mass range $M_U \le 0.6$ GeV from the comparison of the calculated dilepton spectra with the experimental data from the HADES Collaboration at SIS18 energies where the dark photons are not observed. Our analysis is based on the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which reproduces well the measured dilepton spectra in $p+p$, $p+A$ and $A+A$ collisions. Additionally to the different dilepton channels originating from interactions and decays of ordinary matter particles (mesons and baryons), we incorporate the decay of hypothetical $U$-bosons to dileptons, $U\to e^+e^-$, where the $U$-bosons themselves are produced by the Dalitz decay of pions $\pi^0\to \gamma U$, $\eta$-mesons $\eta \to \gamma U$ and Delta resonances $\Delta \to N U$. Our analysis can help to estimate the requested accuracy for future experimental searches of 'light' dark photons by dilepton experiments.

In-medium effects in strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions at (sub)threshold energies

We study the in-medium effects in strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions at (sub-)\-threshold energies of 1 - 2 A GeV based on the microscopic Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The in-medium modifications of the antikaon $(\bar K = K^-, \bar K^0)$ properties are described via the self-consistent coupled-channel unitarized scheme based on a SU(3) chiral Lagrangian which incorporates explicitly the $s-$ and $p-$ waves of the kaon-nucleon interaction. This scheme provides the antikaon potential, spectral functions and reaction cross sections as well as their dependence on baryon density, temperature and antikaon momentum in the nuclear medium, which are incorporated in the off-shell dynamics of the PHSD. The in-medium modification of kaons $(K = K^+, K^0)$ are accounted via the kaon-nuclear potential, which is assumed to be proportional to the local baryon density. The manifestation of the medium effects in observables is investigated for the $K$ and ${\bar K}$ rapidity distributions, $p_T$-spectra as well as the polar and azimuthal angular distributions, direct ($v_1$) and elliptic ($v_2$) flow in C+C, Ni+Ni, and Au+Au collisions. We find - by comparison to experimental data from the KaoS, FOPI and HADES Collaborations - that the modifications of (anti)kaon properties in nuclear matter are necessary to explain the data in a consistent manner. Moreover, we demonstrate the sensitivity of kaon observables to the equation-of-state of nuclear matter.

Deep learning for quark–gluon plasma detection in the CBM experiment

Classification of processes in heavy-ion collisions in the CBM experiment (FAIR/GSI, Darmstadt) using neural networks is investigated. Fully-connected neural networks and a deep convolutional neural network are built to identify quark–gluon plasma simulated within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) microscopic off-shell transport approach for central Au+Au collision at a fixed energy. The convolutional neural network outperforms fully-connected networks and reaches 93% accuracy on the validation set, while the remaining only 7% of collisions are incorrectly classified.

Influence of the electromagnetic fields on hadronic observables in proton-induced collisions

We investigate proton-gold collisions at top RHIC energy GeV within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) approach, focusing on the influence of the electromagnetic fields on final hadronic observable. We discuss the space-time distribution of the magnetic and electric field components, showing that the electric field Ex along the impact parameter direction is comparable in magnitude to the magnetic field By perpendicular to the reaction plane. We discuss the effect of these fields on the directed flow υ1 of pions and kaons. While there is no visible effect of electromagnetic fields in 5% central collisions, the result for collisions at fixed impact parameter clearly indicates an electromagnetically-induced splitting in the v1 of positively and negatively charged mesons; the effect, driven by the huge Ex component, is larger for kaons than to pions and increases with the impact parameter of the collision.

Exploring the partonic phase at finite chemical potential within a covariant off-shell transport approach

We report on the extended Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach in the partonic sector by explicitly calculating the total and differential partonic scattering cross sections as a function of temperature T and baryon chemical potential μऔ on the basis of the effective propagators and couplings from the Dynamical QuasiParticle Model (DQPM). We calculated the ratio of shear viscosity η over entropy density s, i.e. η/s is evaluated using the collisional widths and compared to lQCD calculations for μB = 0 as well. We find that the ratio η/s does not differ very much from that calculated within the original DQPM on the basis of the Kubo formalism. Furthermore, there is only a very modest change of η/s with the baryon chemical μB as a function of the scaled temperature T/TC(μ B). This also holds for a variety of hadronic observables from central A+A collisions in the energy range 5 GeV GeV when implementing the differential cross sections into the PHSD approach. Accordingly, it will be difficult to extract finite μB-signals from the partonic dynamics based on bulk observables.

PHQMD Model for the Formation of Nuclear Clusters and Hypernuclei in Heavy Ion Collisions

Modeling of the process of the formation of nuclear clusters in the hot nuclear matter is a challenging task. We present the novel n-body dynamical transport approach - PHQMD (Parton-Hadron-Quantum-Molecular Dynamics) [1] for the description of heavy-ion collisions as well as clusters and hpernuclei formation. The PHQMD extends well established PHSD (Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics) approach - which incorporates explicit partonic degrees-of-freedom (quarks and gluons), an equation-of-state from lattice QCD, as well as dynamical hadronization and hadronic elastic and inelastic collisions in the final reaction phase, by n-body quantum molecular dynamic propagation of hadrons which allows choosing of the equation of state with different compression modulus. The formation of clusters, including hypernuclei, is realized by incorporation the Simulated Annealing Clusterization Algorithm (SACA). We present first results from PHQMD on the study of the production rates of strange hadrons, nuclear clusters and hypernuclei in e1elementary and heavy-ion collisions at NICA energies. In particular, sensitivity on the "hard" and "soft" equation of state within the PHQMD model was investigated for "bulk" observables.

Exploring the partonic phase at finite chemical potential in and out-of equilibrium

We study the influence of the baryon chemical potential μB on the properties of the Quark–Gluon–Plasma (QGP) in and out-of equilibrium. The description of the QGP in equilibrium is based on the effective propagators and couplings from the Dynamical QuasiParticle Model (DQPM) that is matched to reproduce the equation-of-state of the partonic system above the deconfinement temperature Tc from lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). We calculate the transport coefficients such as the ratio of shear viscosity ɳ and bulk viscosity ¶ over entropy density s, i.e., η/s and ¶/s in the (T, μB ) plane and compare to other model results available at μB = 0. The out-of equilibrium study of the QGP is performed within the Parton–Hadron–String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach extended in the partonic sector by explicitly calculating the total and differential partonic scattering cross sections (based on the DQPM propagators and couplings) evaluated at the actual temperature T and baryon chemical potential μB in each individual space-time cell of the partonic scattering. The traces of their μB dependences are investigated in different observables for relativistic heavy-ion collisions with a focus on the directed and elliptic flow coefficients in the energy range 7.7 GeV ≤ .