Energy dependence of transverse quark flow in heavy ion collisions

Energy dependence of quark transverse flow carries information about dynamical properties (equation of state, initial conditions) of deconfined matter produced in heavy ion collisions. We assume quark-antiquark matter formation in Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS and Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies and determine quark transverse flow at the critical temperature of the quark-hadron phase transition. Coalescence of massive quarks is calculated in the MICOR hadronization model and hadronic final state effects are considered using the GROMIT cascade program. Comparing theoretical results to data, transverse flow values are determined and energy dependence is discussed.     

Energy Dependence of String Fragmentation Function and φ Meson Production

The φ meson productions in Au+Au and/or Pb+Pb collisions at AGS, SPS, RHIC, and LHC energies have been studied systematically with a hadron and string cascade model LUCIAE. After considering the energy dependence of the model parameter α in string fragmentation function and adjusting it to the experimental data of charged multiplicity to a certain extent, the model predictions for φ meson yield, rapidity, and transverse mass distributions are compatible with the experimental data at AGS, SPS and RHIC energies. A calculation for Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energy is given as well. The obtained fractional variable in string fragmentation function shows a saturation in energy dependence. It is discussed that the saturation of fractional variable in string fragmentation function might be a qualitative representation of the energy dependence of nuclear transparency.     

Hydrodynamic description of spectra at high transverse mass in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

Transverse mass spectra of pions and protons measured in central collisions of heavy ions at the SPS and at RHIC are compared to a hydrodynamic parameterization. While the chemical temperature needed at RHIC is significantly higher compared to SPS, the spectra may be described using kinetic freeze-out parameters which are similar for both beam energies. At RHIC either the temperature or the flow velocity is higher, but the data provide no unambiguous proof for much stronger transverse flow. The contribution of such hydrodynamic emission at high transverse momenta is investigated in detail. It is shown that hydrodynamics may be relevant up to relatively high transverse momenta. The importance of the velocity profile used in this context is highlighted. Received: 4 July 2002 / Revised version: 6 November 2002 / Published online: 20 December 2002     

高能重离子碰撞中正负荷电粒子比单事例起伏研究

用强子和弦级联模型,JPCIAE及相应的Monte Carlo事例产生器,研究相对论性核–核碰撞中有限快度区间内正负荷电粒子比单事例起伏与能量、中心度、共振态衰变及快度间隔的关系.JPCIAE模型能够较好地符合CERN/SPS能区Pb+Pb碰撞的实验结果.本文还用此模型预言了RHIC能区Au+Au碰撞和ALICE能区Pb+Pb碰撞中的正负荷电粒子比单事例起伏.可以看出碰撞能量、中心度、共振态衰变及快度间隔对正负荷电粒子比单事例起伏的影响都不大.     

What can we learn from the energy dependence of strangeness production at RHIC?

Measurements of strange and multi-strange particles with the STAR detector at center of mass energies per nucleon pair () of 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV in ultra-relativistic Au+Au collisions at RHIC are presented. The results are discussed in order to get insight into chemical and dynamical properties of the created medium. The former are obtained by comparison of transverse momentum (p_T) integrated observables such as yields and particle ratios to statistical models, while the latter use p_T dependent quantities such as single particle spectra and elliptic flow measurements to challenge hydrodynamical model calculations and parameterizations. The discussion is orientated towards the energy dependence of these properties by confronting the results at the different RHIC energies but also with the lower SPS energies.     

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.     

Systematics of elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions

We analyze elliptic flow from SIS to RHIC energies systematically in a realistic dynamical cascade model. We compare our results with the recent data from STAR and PHOBOS collaborations on elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity in Au+ Au collisions at RHIC. In the analysis of elliptic flow at RHIC energy, we find a good fitting with data at 1.5 times a scaling factor to our model, which characterizes that the model is required to have extra pressure generated from the subsequent parton scattering after the initial minijet production. In energy dependence of elliptic flow, we notice re-hardening nature at RHIC energies. Both these two observations would probably imply the possible formation of quark-gluon plasma.     

Strange particle production in relativistic collisions of heavy ions

This review examines data on strange particle production in Pb + Pb collisions obtained in heavy ion experiments at CERN SPS. The yields of K, Λ, Ξ and Ω are considered, as well as their rapidity and transverse mass distributions, depending on the centrality of Pb + Pb collisions at SPS energies. Experimental results are compared with predictions of the statistical nuclear fireball and microscopic parton -string models. We discuss in detail the experimentally observed effect of strangeness enhancement in nucleus-nucleus collisions as compared to nucleon-nuclear interactions and its interpretation within the framework of various theoretical models. Also, we analyze the behavior of hyperon yields and nuclear modification factors in passing from SPS to RHIC energies.     

Spectra,elliptic flow and azimuthally sensitive HBT radii from the Buda-Lund model for $ \sqrt{{s_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV Au + Au collisions

We present calculations of elliptic flow and azimuthal dependence of correlation radii in the ellipsoidally symmetric generalization of the Buda-Lund hydrodynamic model of hadron production in high-energy nuclear collisions. We compare them to data from RHIC by simultaneous fits to azimuthally integrated invariant spectra of pions, kaons and protons-antiprotons measured by PHENIX in Au + Au reactions at center-of-mass energy of 200 AGeV. STAR data were used for azimuthally sensitive two-particle correlation function radii and for the transverse momentum dependence of the elliptic flow parameter v ₂. We have found that the transverse flow is faster in the reaction plane than out of plane, which results in a reaction zone that gets slightly more elongated in-plane than out of plane. The model parameters extracted from the fits are shown and discussed.     

Universal scaling of the elliptic flow data at RHIC

Recent PHOBOS measurements of the excitation function for the pseudo-rapidity dependence of the elliptic flow in Au + Au collisions at RHIC have posed a significant theoretical challenge. Here we show that these differential measurements, as well as the RHIC measurements on transverse momentum satisfy a universal scaling relation predicted by the Buda-Lund model, based on exact solutions of perfect fluid hydrodynamics. We also show that the recently found transverse kinetic energy scaling of the elliptic flow is a special case of this universal scaling.     

Φ Meson Production in Heavy Ion Collisions at RHIC

We present Φ meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC.The hadronic decay mode Φ→K~+K~- is used in the analysis.The yields for Φ meson in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at a given beam energy are scaled by the number of participant.The N_(part) normalized Φ meson yields in heavy ion collisions over those from p+p collisions are larger than 1 and increase with collision energy.These results suggest that the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the formation of a dense medium in high energy heavy ion collisions and can not be only due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller systems.We also present STAR results on the Φ meson elliptic flow υ_2 from 2~(1/SNN)=200 GeV Cu+Cu at RHIC.The elliptic flow in Cu+Cu system that has the similar relative magnitude and qualitative features as that in Au+Au system.The observations imply the hot and dense matter with partonic collectivity has been formed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC.However,eccentrality normalized υ_2,υ_2/(n_qε_(part)) is lower for Cu+Cu than for Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV.So this might indicate thermalization has not been reached in 200 GeV Cu+Cu collisions.     

Scaling of charged particle multiplicity in Pb–Pb collisions at SPS energies

The charged particle multiplicity distribution dN_ch/dη has been measured by the NA50 experiment in Pb–Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. Measurements were done at incident energies of 40 and 158 GeV per nucleon over a broad impact parameter range. The multiplicity distributions are studied as a function of centrality using the number of participating nucleons (N_part), or the number of binary nucleon–nucleon collisions (N_coll). Their values at midrapidity exhibit a power law scaling behaviour given by N_part^1.00 and N_coll^0.75 at 158 GeV. Compatible results are found for the scaling behaviour at 40 GeV. The width of the dN_ch/dη distributions is larger at 158 than at 40 GeV/nucleon and decreases slightly with centrality at both energies. Our results are compared to similar studies performed by other experiments both at the CERN SPS and at RHIC.     

Rapidity distribution of protons from the potential version of Ur QMD model and the traditional coalescence afterburner

Rapidity distributions of both E895 proton data at AGS energies and NA49 net proton data at SPS energies can be described reasonably well with a potential version of the Ur QMD in which mean-field potentials for both pre-formed hadrons and confined baryons are considered, with the help of a traditional coalescence afterburner in which one parameter set for both relative distance R_0 and relative momentum P_0,(3.8 fm, 0.3 Ge V/c), is used. Because of the large cancellation between the expansion in R_0 and the shrinkage in P_0 through the Lorentz transformation, the relativistic effect in clusters has little effect on the rapidity distribution of free(net) protons. Using a Woods-Saxon-like function instead of a pure logarithmic function as seen by FOPI collaboration at SIS energies, one can fit well both the data at SIS energies and the Ur QMD calculation results at AGS and SPS energies. Further, it is found that for central Au+Au or Pb+Pb collisions at top SIS, SPS and RHIC energies, the proton fractions in clusters are about33%, 10%, and 0.7%, respectively.     

Production of secondaries in high-energy <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>+Au collisions

In the framework of the quark–gluon string model we calculate the inclusive spectra of secondaries produced in d+Au collisions at intermediate (CERN SPS) and at much higher (RHIC) energies. The results of numerical calculations at intermediate energies are in reasonable agreement with the data. At RHIC energies numerically large inelastic screening corrections (percolation effects) should be accounted for in the calculations. We extract these effects from the existing experimental data of RHIC on minimum-bias and central d+Au collisions. The predictions for p+Au interactions at LHC energy are also given.     

Net-Baryon and Net-Kaon Rapidity Distributions in Ultrarelativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

In this paper, the gluon distribution is extracted from the KLR-AdS/CFT saturation model and used to investigate net-baryon and net-kaon rapidity distributions in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. With the same parameters of the saturation model fitting to HERA data and an χ² analysis of the overall constant C, the theoretical results are in good agreement with RHIC data in Au+Au collisions at √s=0.2 TeV. Then, we present the predictive results for net-baryon rapidity distributions in central Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energies of √s=2.76, 3.94, and 5.52 TeV, and give the corresponding values of d N/d y for net-baryon at y=0.     

Elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions at square root(S)NN = 130 GeV

Elliptic flow from nuclear collisions is a hadronic observable sensitive to the early stages of system evolution. We report first results on elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at square root(S)NN = 130 GeV using the STAR Time Projection Chamber at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The elliptic flow signal, v2, averaged over transverse momentum, reaches values of about 6% for relatively peripheral collisions and decreases for the more central collisions. This can be interpreted as the observation of a higher degree of thermalization than at lower collision energies. Pseudorapidity and transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow are also presented.     

Elliptic and triangular flow in event-by-event D=3+1 viscous hydrodynamics

We present results for the elliptic and triangular flow coefficients v(2) and v(3) in Au+Au collisions at √s=200 AGeV using event-by-event D=3+1 viscous hydrodynamic simulations. We study the effect of initial state fluctuations and finite viscosities on the flow coefficients v(2) and v(3) as functions of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity. Fluctuations are essential to reproduce the measured centrality dependence of elliptic flow. We argue that simultaneous measurements of v(2) and v(3) can determine η/s more precisely.     

Partonic Flow and phi-Meson production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt radical sNN = 200 GeV

We present first measurements of the phi-meson elliptic flow (v2(pT)) and high-statistics pT distributions for different centralities from radical sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. In minimum bias collisions the v2 of the phi meson is consistent with the trend observed for mesons. The ratio of the yields of the Omega to those of the phi as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with a model based on the recombination of thermal s quarks up to pT approximately 4 GeV/c, but disagrees at higher momenta. The nuclear modification factor (R CP) of phi follows the trend observed in the K S 0 mesons rather than in Lambda baryons, supporting baryon-meson scaling. These data are consistent with phi mesons in central Au+Au collisions being created via coalescence of thermalized s quarks and the formation of a hot and dense matter with partonic collectivity at RHIC.     

Open charm production from d + Au collisions in STAR

Charmed hadrons are interesting observables in heavy ion collisions. They are becoming more accessible to experimental scrutiny at RHIC energies due to the increased production cross-section of charm with the larger centre-of-mass energy available at RHIC compared to SPS. One source of interest in charm production is due to the fact that gluon fusion dominates the charm production cross-section at high energy. Hence, a measurement of charm hadrons is directly sensitive to the gluon distributions of the colliding particles. In addition, any measurement of production at RHIC, and more importantly any observed suppression, must be compared to the overall production of pairs. A systematic study of charmed hadrons in all collision systems available at RHIC is therefore an invaluable experimental tool in the characterization of the matter produced at RHIC. In particular, d + Au collisions are a necessary step for the comparison of any possible modification of charm production in Au + Au collisions. We present preliminary results on D meson production from d + Au collisions in STAR at = 200 . Arrival of the final proofs: 26 July 2005 PACS: 13.20.Fc, 13.25.Ft, 25.75.-q, 24.85. + p     

NeXSPheRIO results on elliptic flow and directed flow for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at RHIC

Hydrodynamics has been rather successful at describing results obtained in relativistic nuclear collisions at RHIC. Here we show results obtained with NeXSPheRIO on Au+Au collisions and the less studied Cu+Cu collisions. We study elliptic flow and its connection with eccentricity suggested by PHOBOS, as well as present elliptic flow fluctuations. We also show results for directed flow and compare with PHOBOS and STAR data.