Direct-photon production in heavy-ion collisions from SPS to RHIC energies

Direct photons are an important tool for the detection of the quark-gluon plasma in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. Direct-photon measurements were made in Pb + Pb collisions at GeV and in Au + Au collisions at GeV. These results are reviewed and compared with model calculations.Arrival of the final proofs: 9 May 2005PACS: 25.75.DwThis revised version was published online in July 2005 with a correction to the article category and incorporation of the revised date.     

Collective flows in high-energy heavy-ion collisions at AGS and SPS energies

Proton collective flows in heavy-ion collisions from AGS ((2–11) A GeV) to SPS ((40,158) A GeV) energies are investigated in a nonequilibrium transport model with nuclear mean-field (MF). Sideward (p _x), directedv ₁, and ellipticv ₂ flows are systematically studied with different assumptions on the nuclear equation of state (EoS). We find that momentum dependence in the nuclear MF is important for understanding the proton collective flows at AGS and SPS energies. Calculated results with momentum-dependent MF qualitatively reproduce the experimental data of proton sideward, directed, and elliptic flows in an incident energy range of (2–158) A GeV This talk is based on ref. [1]     

Antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions at subthreshold energies

Within the framework of the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics model,the deep subthreshold antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions has been investigated thoroughly.The elastic scattering,annihilation and charge exchange reactions associated with antiproton channels are implemented in the model.The attractive antiproton potential extracted from the G-parity transformation of nucleon selfenergies reduces the threshold energies in meson-baryon and baryon-baryon collisions,and consequently enhances the antiproton yields to some extent.The calculated invariant spectra are consistent with the available experimental data.The primordial antiproton yields increase with the mass number of the colliding system.However,annihilation reactions reduce the antiproton production which becomes independent of the colliding partners.Anti-flow phenomena of antiprotons correlated with the mean field potential and annihilation mechanism is found by comparing them with the proton flows.Possible experiments at the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility(HIAF) in China are discussed.     

Coherent photon production in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

We have studied photon production in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies in the Molecular Dynamics approach, where the radiation amplitudes have been derived from the many-body dynamics in the classical bremsstrahlung formalism. This concept allows for a comparison of cross sections obtained by coherent and incoherent summation of amplitudes. The numerical results show a significant enhancement of the coherent cross section for photon energies below 40 MeV due to the dynamical influence of the nuclear mean field.     

Dilepton production in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS energies

Dilepton production in proton- and nucleus-induced reactions is studied in the relativistic transport model using initial conditions determined by the string dynamics from RQMD. It is found that both the CERES and HELIOS-3 data for dilepton spectra in proton-nucleus reactions can be well described by the ‘conventional’ mechanism of Dalitz decay and direct vector meson decay. However, to provide a quantitative explanation of the observed dilepton spectra in central S+Au and S+W collisions requires contributions other than these direct decays. Introducing a decrease of vector meson masses in hot and dense medium, we find that these heavy-ion data can also be satisfactorily explained. This agrees with our earlier conclusions based on a fire-cylinder model. We also give predictions for Pb+Au collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon using current CERES mass resolution and acceptance.     

Photon physics at ultrarelativistic-energy heavy-ion collisions

Photons are discussed as potential probes of the dynamics of nucleus-nucleus reactions at ultrarelativistic energies. The signals conveyed by photons produced in the early partonic phase of the collision are explored. The discussion is illustrated by presently existing calculations which include photon production during the entire duration of the collision.     

Photon production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at 200 GeV/u

A calculation of sources of inclusive photons in ultrarelativistic O-W and Pb-Pb collisions at 200 GeV/u is presented. The production of thermal photons in a quark-gluon plasma, a deconfined state of nuclear matter at high energy density, is addressed. In events with a large amount of energy deposited in the target the thermal contribution to the inclusive spectrum is found to be ～5%, quadratically increasing with particle multiplicity, but only weakly dependent on the size of the projectile nucleus. These photons are predominantly produced in a coexistence phase of plasma and hadronic matter. Hadronic bremsstrahlung is investigated including the spatial and temporal coherence due to the large space-time extension of heavy-ion systems. For small photon momenta there is a coherent signal in the fragmentation regions proportional to the squared number of participant protons.     

Pion-production in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies

We investigate the production of pions in heavyion collisions in the energy range of 1–2 GeV/A. The dynamics of the nucleus-nucleus collisions is described by a set of coupled transport equations of the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck type for baryons and mesons. Besides theN(938) and theΔ(1232) we also take into account nucleon resonances up to masses of 1.95 GeV/c² as well asπ-,η- andρ-mesons. We study in detail the influence of the higher baryonic resonances and the 2π-production channels (NN→NNππ) on the pion spectra in comparison toπ ^? data fromAr+KCl collisions at 1.8 GeV/A andπ ⁰-data forAu+Au at 1.0GeV/A. We, furthermore, present a detailed comparison of differential pion angular distributions with the BEVALAC data forAr+KCl at 1.8 GeV/A. The general agreement obtained indicates that the overall reaction dynamics is well described by our novel transport approach.     

A first look at open charm production in Indium-Indium collisions at SPS energies

NA60 is an experiment at the CERN-SPS devoted to the study of dimuon production in heavy-ion and proton-nucleus collisions. The main topics under study are low mass vector meson production, J/ production and suppression, and the sources of the dimuon continuum in the mass range 1.2-2.7 GeV/c ². In 2003, NA60 collected million dimuon events from Indium-Indium collisions. We present preliminary results of the analysis of this data sample in view of measuring the open charm contribution to the dimuon spectrum. Although we are still working on the final background subtraction procedure, we can already demonstrate that the detector performance is good enough to allow the separation of prompt dimuons from muon pairs originating in distant D decays. Arrival of the final proofs: 1 July 2005 PACS: 25.75.Dw, 25.75.Nq     

Kaon interferometry in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN SPS

K⁺K⁺ and K^–K^– correlations from S+Pb collisions at 200 GeV/c per nucleon and K⁺K⁺ correlations from p+Pb collisions at 450 GeV/c per nucleon, are presented as measured by the focusing spectrometer of the NA44 experiment at CERN. Multidimensional fits are performed in order to characterize the kaon-emission volume, which is found to be smaller than the pion-emission volume.     

Relativistic effects in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies

The covariant and non-covariant Quantum Molecular Dynamics models are applied to investigate possible relativistic effects in heavy ion collisions at SIS energies. These relativistic effects which arise due to the full covariant treatment of the dynamics are studied at bombarding energiesE _lab=50, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500, 1750 and 2000 MeV/nucl. A wide range of the impact parameter fromb=0 fm tob=10 fm is also considsered. In the present study, five systems¹²C-¹²C,¹⁶O-¹⁶O,²⁰Ne-²⁰Ne,²⁸Si-²⁸Si and⁴⁰Ca-⁴⁰Ca are investigated. The full covariant treatment at low energies shows quite good agreement with the corresponding non-covariant whereas at higher energies it shows less stopping and hence less thermal equilibrium as compared to the non-covariant approach. The collisions dynamics is less affected. The density using RQMD rises and drops faster than with QMD. The relativistic effects show some influence on the resonance matter production. Overall, the relativistic effects at SIS energies (≦2000 MeV/nucl.) are less significant.     

Non-equilibrium processes in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies

We use transport theory to describe the inclusive cross sections for protons and pions produced in collisions between two identical heavy ions at an energy of 800 MeV per particle. In addition to the nucleonic we take the Δ-degree of freedom into account. Thus we consider a two-component system whose distributions in transverse momentum and rapidity we describe by two coupled Fokker-Planck equations. These transport equations contain the one-nucleon knock-out process as initial condition. In the limit of large interaction times they lead to thermal equilibrium (fireball) distributions. For light nuclei the interaction time is not large enough for equilibrium to be reached. A recent experiment for two colliding carbon nuclei at 800 MeV per nucleon shows evidence of nonequilibrium effects. We compare our calculations with experimental data for ¹²C on ¹²C and Ne on NaF at 800 MeV/N.     

Nuclear shadowing and heavy-ion collisions at high energies

Nuclear shadowing effects for quarks and gluons are calculated using information on diffractive deep inelastic scattering on a nucleon. Role of these effects in interactions of hadrons and nuclei with nuclei at high energies is investigated. A decrease in particle densities for heavy-ion collisions in comparison with the Glauber model is predicted and nuclear modification factors are calculated. Distributions of gluons in nuclei are used to predict suppression of heavy quarkonia. The parameter-free calculation of J/ψ in DAu and AuAu collisions is in a good agreement with recent RHIC data. Predictions for heavy quarkonia suppression in heavy-ion collisions at LHC are formulated.     

Isospin effect in peripheral heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies

The isospin effect in peripheral heavy-ion collisions was thoroughly investigated within the framework of the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model. A coalescence approach was used to recognize the primary fragments formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The secondary decay process of these fragments was described using the statistical code GEMINI. The production mechanism and isospin effect of the projectile-like and target-like fragments were analyzed using the combined approach. It was found that the isospin migration from the high-isospin density to the low-density matter occurred in the neutron-rich nuclear reactions, i.e., ⁴⁸Ca+²⁰⁸Pb, ⁸⁶Kr+⁴⁸Ca/²⁰⁸Pb/¹²⁴Sn, ¹³⁶Xe+²⁰⁸Pb, ¹²⁴Sn+¹²⁴Sn, and ¹³⁶Xe+¹³⁶Xe. A hard symmetry energy was available for creating the neutron-rich fragments, particularly in the medium-mass region. The isospin effect of the neutron-to-proton (n/p) ratio of the complex fragments was reduced when the secondary decay process was included. However, a soft symmetry energy enhanced the n/p ratio of the light particles, particularly at kinetic energies greater than 15 MeV/nucleon.     

On energy densities reached in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN SPS

We present a few estimates of energy densities reached in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN SPS. The estimates are based on data and models of proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions. In all of these estimates the maximum energy density in central Pb+Pb interactions is larger than the critical energy density GeV/fm³ following from lattice gauge theory computations. In estimates which we consider as realistic the maximum energy density is about . In this way our analysis gives some support to claims that deconfined matter has been produced at the CERN SPS. Any definite statement requires a deeper understanding of formation times of partons and hadrons in nuclear collisions. We also compare our results with implicit energy estimates contained in earlier models of anomalous suppression in nuclear collisions. Received: 3 February 2003 / Revised version: 5 March 2003 / Published online: 5 May 2003     

Stochastic time-dependent hartree-fock for heavy-ion collisions at fermi energies

We present the first application of Stochastic Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock for describing realistic heavy-ion collisions in the Fermi energy domain. We discuss the robustness of the collision scheme and show some examples of application. Presented by E. Suraud at the International Conference on “Atomic Nuclei and Metallic Clusters”, Prague, September 1–5, 1997.     

Transverse mass distributions in central heavy-ion collisions at high energies

The transverse mass spectra of protons, pions, kaons, Lambda and Antilambda produced in cen- tral nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energies are described by using one-temperature and two-temperature emission pictures. The calculated results are compared and found to be in good agreement with the experimen- tal data of the E895, E866 and E917 Collaborations measured in central Au-Au collisions at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) energies and the NA49 Collaboration measured in central Pb-Pb collisions at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) energies. It is demonstrated that the transverse mass distributions of protons, kaons, Lambda and Antilambda, except for Lambda hyperons produced in central Pb-Pb collisions at 158 A GeV, can be described by using the one-temperature emission picture, and for pions, we need to use the two-temperature emission picture.