One-body dynamics modified by collective fluctuations

We show how the fluctuating part of the residual coupling between collective and intrinsic motion of a dissipative heavy-ion collision induces correlations in either subspace. They lead in general to a transport equation for the collective motion, and to a new term in the equation for the one-body density which describes collisions with the collective fluctuations. The resulting redistribution of the single-particle occupation numbers ρ_α and the evolution of the fluctuations are coupled with each other due to the dependence of the transition rates in the master equation on the fluctuations, and of the transport coefficients on ρ_α. Considering the special case of a long contact phase, we find the fluctuations to be most effective, with respect to a randomization of ρ_α, within a certain critical region where they pass from stable to unstable behaviour. Estimates are made for the corresponding relaxation times employing a schematic model.     

PARTICLE DENSITIES AT THE CENTER REGION IN HIGH ENERGY HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

Based on the two-chain model by A.Capella et al. the rapidity distributions of the multiplicity in high energy heavy-ion collisions, especially in head-on collisions, are discussed. The energy density at the center region in head-on collisions is estimated for different incident energies and different heavy ions. It is shown that the condition of the phase transition to the quark-gluon plasma can be realized in heavy-ion collisions at several tens of GeV.     

Probing the QCD phase structure with higher order baryon numbersusceptibilities within the NJL model

Conserved charge fluctuations can be used to probe the phase structure of strongly interacting nuclear matter in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. To obtain the characteristic signatures of the conserved charge fluctuations for the quantum chromodynamics(QCD) phase transition, we study the susceptibilities of dense quark matter up to eighth order in detail, using an effective QCD-based model. We studied two cases, one with the QCD critical end point(CEP) and one without owing to an additional vector interaction term. The higher order susceptibilities display rich structures near the CEP and show sign changes as well as large fluctuations. These can provide us information about the presence and location of the CEP. Furthermore, we find that the case without the CEP also shows a similar sign change pattern, but with a relatively smaller magnitude compared with the case with the CEP. Finally, we conclude that higher order susceptibilities of conserved charge can be used to probe the QCD phase structures in heavyion collisions.     

Higher-order ratios of baryon number cumulants

The relevance of higher order cumulants of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy-ion collisions at LHC and RHIC is addressed. The sign structure of the higher order cumulants in the vicinity of the chiral crossover temperature might be a sensitive probe and may allow to elucidate their relation to the QCD phase transition. We calculate ratios of generalized quarknumber susceptibilities to high orders in three flavor QCD-like models and investigate their sign structure close to the chiral crossover line.     

Fluctuations and correlations in STAR

The study of correlations and fluctuations can provide evidence for the production of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Various theories predict that the production of a QGP phase in relativistic heavy-ion collisions could produce significant event-by-event correlations and fluctuations in transverse momentum, multiplicity, etc. Some of the recent results using STAR at RHIC will be presented along with results from other experiments at RHIC. The focus is on forward-backward multiplicity correlations, balance function, charge and transverse-momentum fluctuations, and correlations.     

Event-by-event fluctuation studies in the ALICE experiment

Event-by-event (E-by-E) fluctuations are considered to be one of the possible indications that a phase transition from ordinary hadronic matter to a plasma of quarks and gluons has occurred, as it is expected to happen in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this article, the results of a study concerning the observability of E-by-E fluctuations for the ALICE experiment at the LHC collider at CERN is presented. In particular, an estimate of the E-by-E statistical sensitivity in the measurement of the inverse slope parameter from the transverse momentum spectra of hadrons and of their particle ratios is discussed. The analysis relies on the excellent performance of ALICE in terms of particle identification.     

Quark-hadron phase transition and strangeness conservation constraints

The implications of the strangeness conservation in a hadronic resonance gas (HRG) on the expected phase transition to the quark gluon plasma (QGP) are investigated. It is assumed that under favourable conditions a first order hadron-quark matter phase transition may occur in the hot hadronic matter such as those produced in the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at CERN and BNL. It is however shown that the criteria of strict strangeness conservation in the HRG may not permit the occurrence of a strict first order equilibrium quark-hadron phase transition unlike a previous study. This emerges as a consequence of the application of a realistic equation of state (EOS) for the HRG and QGP phases, which account for the finite-size effect arising from the short range hard-core hadronic repulsion in the HRG phase and the perturbative QCD interactions in the QGP phase. For a first order hadron-quark matter phase transition to occur one will therefore require large fluctuations in the critical thermal parameters, which might arise due to superheating, supercooling or other nonequlibrium effects. We also discuss a scenario proposed earlier, leading to a possible strangeness separation process during hadronization. Received: 25 August 1997 / Revised version: 25 March 1998 / Published online: 26 August 1998     

Field-theoretical treatment of the liquid-vapor phase transition in nuclear systems

The liquid-vapor phase transition in hot nuclear matter is investigated in a field-theoretical approach employing euclidean-space (imaginary time) path-integral techniques. This approach allows us to study the nucleation due to both quantum and thermodynamic fluctuations. The bubbles of the new phase appear as instanton solutions of the euclidean-space field equations. The critical bubble sizes and associated transition probabilities are calculated. We examine the temperature and density values for which a phase transition may develop in hot nuclear matter produced in the course of a heavy-ion reaction.     

Effects of isospin and momentum dependent interactions on liquid–gas phase transition in hot asymmetric nuclear matter

The liquid–gas phase transition in hot neutron-rich nuclear matter is investigated within a self-consistent thermal model using an isospin and momentum dependent interaction (MDI) constrained by the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion collisions, a momentum-independent interaction (MID), and an isoscalar momentum-dependent interaction (eMDYI). The boundary of the phase-coexistence region is shown to be sensitive to the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy with a softer symmetry energy giving a higher critical pressure and a larger area of phase-coexistence region. Compared with the momentum-independent MID interaction, the isospin and momentum-dependent MDI interaction is found to increase the critical pressure and enlarge the area of phase-coexistence region. For the isoscalar momentum-dependent eMDYI interaction, a limiting pressure above which the liquid–gas phase transition cannot take place has been found and it is shown to be sensitive to the stiffness of the symmetry energy.     

Mass spectrum of the dimuons produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The mass spectrum of dimuons produced from the matter in the central region of rapidity in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is calculated in accordance with Bjorken’s recently proposed model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The matter in this central region is assumed to consist of a deconfined quark-gluon plasma phase and a pionized phase. Distinct enhancements of the dimuon mass spectrum below 500 MeV, due to the quark-gluon phase, are predicted for a deconfinement phase-transition temperatureT _c<200 MeV.     

TWO TEMPERATURES EMISSION OF RELATIVISTIC α-PARTICLES IN HIGH-ENERGY HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

We have performed an experimental study of the α-fragments emitted from collisions between emulsion nuclei and heavy-ion projectiles at beam energies beyond 1A GeV. It is shown that the transverse momentum distributions of relativistic α-particles give evidence for two effective temperatures emission in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The data might take on a new signature for the phase transition from hadron matter to quark matter.     

The CBM experiment—a status report

The CBM experiment is being designed to study strongly interacting matter at high densities with nuclear collisions up to 45 A GeV beam energy at the future FAIR centre. With interaction rates unprecedented in heavy-ion collisions, CBM will give access also to extremely rare probes and thus to the early stage of the collisions, in search for the first-order phase transition from confined to deconfinedmatter and the QCD critical point. The conceptual design of the experiment is consolidated, and the project has entered the R&D and technical design phase. We report on the project status, putting enphasis on recent progress and developments.     

Quark-gluon plasma diagnostics in a successive equilibrium scenario

The relativistic Fokker-Planck equation has been used to study the evolution of the quark distribution in the quark-gluon phase expected to be formed in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The effect of thermal masses for quarks and gluons is incorporated to take account of the in-medium properties. We find that the kinetic equilibrium is achieved before the system reaches the critical temperature of quark-hadron phase transition. We find that chemical equilibrium is not achieved during this time. We have evaluated the electromagnetic probes of quark-gluon plasma from the non-equilibrated quark-gluon phase and compared them with those in completely equilibrated scenario. The hard QCD production rates for the electromagnetic ejectiles as well as the heavy quark production rates are also calculated.     

Influence of shear viscosity of quark-gluon plasma on elliptic flow in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the influence of a temperature-dependent shear viscosity over entropy density ratio η/s on the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the elliptic flow in √S(NN)=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC is dominated by the viscosity in the hadronic phase and in the phase transition region, but largely insensitive to the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). At the highest LHC energy, the elliptic flow becomes sensitive to the QGP viscosity and insensitive to the hadronic viscosity.     

Equilibrium between anisotropic normal and pion-condensed nuclear matter

The properties of the pion-condensed phase of nuclear matter are investigated at finite temperatures in the framework of a relativistic field theory. The solution of the field equations and the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor are calculated in the mean-field approximation. It is observed that the self-consistent set of equations for the amplitudes of the mesonic fields obtained directly from the field equations are identical with the conditions of thermodynamical equilibrium. The pressure of the pion-condensed phase is found to be isotropic in thermodynamical equilibrium.

The possibility of phase equilibrium between pion-condensed and anisotropic normal nuclear matter is studied. The nuclear matter produced in heavy-ion collisions is anisotropic and it is far from thermodynamical equilibrium. During the collision process the anisotropy is decreasing and the system approaches thermodynamical equilibrium. It is shown that non-equilibrated pion- condensed nuclear matter may have the same anisotropy as the normal one and they may be in phase equilibrium during the whole collision process. This circumstance allows us to draw the following conclusion: if there is a chance at all for the phase transition from normal to pion- condensed phase then the anisotropy inevitably produced in heavy-ion collisions does not prevent this transition.     

Machine learning phase transitions of the three-dimensional Ising universality class

Exploration of the QCD phase diagram and critical point is one of the main goals in current relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The QCD critical point is expected to belong to a three-dimensional (3D) Ising universality class. Machine learning techniques are found to be powerful in distinguishing different phases of matter and provide a new way to study the phase diagram. We investigate phase transitions in the 3D cubic Ising model using supervised learning methods. It is found that a 3D convolutional neural network can be trained to effectively predict physical quantities in different spin configurations. With a uniform neural network architecture, it can encode phases of matter and identify both second- and first-order phase transitions. The important features that discriminate different phases in the classification processes are investigated. These findings can help study and understand QCD phase transitions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.     

Disoriented chiral condensate: Theory and experiment

It is thought that a region of pseudo-vacuum, where the chiral order parameter is misaligned from its vacuum orientation in isospin space, might occasionally form in high-energy hadronic or nuclear collisions. The possible detection of such disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) would provide useful information about the chiral structure of the QCD vacuum and/or the chiral phase transition of strong interactions at high temperature. We review the theoretical developments concerning the possible DCC formation in high-energy collisions as well as the various experimental searches that have been performed so far. We discuss future prospects for upcoming DCC searches e.g. in high-energy heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and LHC.