Multi-strange-quark states at ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We examine the possibility of producing and evidencing exotic strange matter (strangelets and metastable multi-hypernuclear objects, MEMO’s), including also pure hyperonic bound states ((ΛΛ)_b, (ξΛ)_b), at RHIC and LHC. Simulations are presented to estimate the sensitivity of the STAR and ALICE experiments to the detection of these objects, focusing mainly on metastable short-lived (weak decaying) strange dibaryons, with a particular emphasis on theH-dibaryon, a six quark-bag bound state (uuddss).     

Low-mass dileptons at high momenta in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We calculate the emission rate of low-mass dileptons at high momenta from a quark-gluon plasma. We find a large enhancement compared with the naive Born rate. Numerical estimates for relativistic heavy ions collisions at RHIC and LHC suggest, however, that the thermal signal is dominated by the background coming from meson decays and from hadronic bremsstrahlung.     

Two-fluid model with energy leak-out applied to asymmetric ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Nuclear transparency is described within a model of two interpenetrating fluids. The formation of the midrapidity region is included by the energy leak-out from the fragmentation regions. The space-time picture of the collision, the baryon multiplicity distribution and maximum temperatures as well as the effects of target size and deconfinement time scale are discussed.     

Different production sources of light nuclei in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We systematically study different production sources of light nuclei in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions with a new method, an exclusive quark combination model + an inclusive hadron recombination model. We take deuterons and ~3 He produced in Pb-Pb collisions at ■= 2.76 TeV as examples to show the contribution of different production sources by studying their rapidity densities dN/dy, yield ratios and transverse momentum(PT)spectra just after hadronization and at the final kinetic freeze-out. We find that about a half of d and a fourth of ~3 He created just after hadronization can survive after the hadronic evolution process. Nucleons from A resonance decays make a much larger contribution to the regeneration of light nuclei at the hadronic phase stage, and this contribution is about 77% and 90% for d and ~3 He, respectively, calculated at the final kinetic freeze-out. In addition, we give an explanation for the constant behaviors of yield ratios d/p and ~3 He/p as a function of the averaged charged multiplicity in Pb-Pb collisions and also provide a possible explanation for the observation that d/p in Pb-Pb collisions is larger by a factor of about two than in pp collisions at LHC energies.     

Transverse energy distributions in participant number model for ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The transverse energy distribution in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions has been obtained as a convolution over the number of projectile and target participants. The latter is computed using the geometrical overlap model as a function of impact parameter. The data from 10 A GeV to 200 A GeV heavy ion beams on various targets in different pseudo-rapidity domains have been successfully described.     

Some aspects of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, complex forms of strangeness

The capabilities of the detectors STAR at RHIC and ALICE at LHC for measuring complex forms of strangeness, in the mid rapidity region, are examined as a function of the lifetime of these objects. The simulations are run on the basis of instrumental performances of these detectors as well as on recent theoretical speculations. Particular emphasis is put on the case of the H ⁰ (a 2u2d2s quark bag or alternately two coupled A⁰).     

Erratum to: Synthesis of exotic nuclei in heavy-ion collisions at higher energies

The charge equilibration upper energy-limit formula is proposed. It shows not only the basic mechanism of charge equilibration but also does imply the possibility of controlling the exotic nuclear synthesis. To understand the mechanism of charge equilibration, charge and mass distributions of final fragments of the heavy-ion collisions are studied based on three-dimensional time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations with a Skyrme interaction.     

Multiplicity fluctuation and correlation of mesons and baryons in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

We study the multiplicity fluctuation and correlation of identified mesons and baryons formed at hadronization by the quark combination mechanism in the context of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Based on the statistical method of free quark combination, we derive the two-hadron multiplicity correlations, including meson-meson and meson-baryon correlations, and take the effects of quark number fluctuation at hadronization into account by a Taylor expansion method. After including the decay contributions, we calculate the dynamical fluctuation observable ν_(dyn) for Kπ, pπ and Kp pairs and discuss what underlying physics can be obtained by comparing with data from Pb-Pb collisions at sNN~(1/2)=2.76 Te V and simulations from the HIJING and AMPT event generators.     

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.     

Phase-space analysis of fragments formed in heavy-ion collisions

We study the effect of momentum-dependent interactions and a broader Gaussian on multifragmentation. We also look into the details of the fragment structure for a broader Gaussian and momentum-dependent interactions. We find that nucleons forming the fragments belong to the same region of the phase space.     

Extended transverse-momentum analysis for intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

An extension of the transverse-momentum analysis of Danielewicz and Odyniec is proposed. This extension involves a consideration of baryonic p_T-distribution widths in and out of the reaction plane. Calculations within one- and two-fluid mean-field models show that such an analysis allows us to extract more information on the nuclear equation of state and stopping power than the conventional one does. Different criteria for selecting collision events (i.e. sorting them out according to impact parameters) are also examined. Selections according to the baryonic multiplicity in the midrapidity region and the transversal-to-longitudinal energy ratio are found to be suitable for this purpose.     

Bremsstrahlung in heavy-ion collisions

The bremsstrahlung background emission of γ-rays in equal-mass heavy-ion collisions is calculated. The cross section is found to be about an order of magnitude smaller than preliminary upper limits of ¹²C-¹²C experiments in progress.     

Phase transition dynamics in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions

We investigate various problems related to the dynamics of a first-order phase transition from quarkgluon plasma to hadronic matter in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. These include nucleation, growth and fusion of hadronic bubbles in either the Bjorken longitudinal hydrodynamic expansion model or the Cooper-Frye-Schönberg spherical hydrodynamic expansion model. With reasonable input parameters the conversion of one phase into the other is relatively close to the idealized adiabatic Maxwell construction, although one can choose parameters such that the conversion is strongly out of equilibrium.     

Model for describing the production of Centauro events and strangelets in heavy-ion collisions

A phenomenological model for describing the production of Centauro events in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed. The model provides quantitative predictions for kinematical variables, for the baryon number, and for the masses of a Centauro fireball and of its decay products. A Centauro fireball decays predominantly into nucleons, strange hyperons, and possibly strangelets. Centauro events in Pb + Pb collisions at the LHC energy are simulated for the CASTOR detector. The signatures of these events are discussed in detail.     

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.     

Seeing jets in heavy-ion collisions

In these proceedings, we briefly review how jets can be reconstructed in heavy-ion collisions. The main point we address is the subtraction of the large contamination from the underlying event background. We first present the main ingredients needed to define the jets and perform the background subtraction and then discuss the efficiency of the subtraction for different jet algorithms and background-estimation methods.