Low-mass dielectrons from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

The production of the low-mass dielectrons is considered to be a powerful tool to study the properties of the hot and dense matter created in the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We present the preliminary results on the first measurements of the low-mass dielectron continuum in Au + Au collisions and the φ-meson production measured in Au + Au and d + Au collisions at = 200GeV performed by the PHENIX experiment.     

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: A review

I review recent results from the heavy-ion programme at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and their interpretation.     

Elliptic flow at SPS and RHIC: from kinetic transport to hydrodynamics

Anisotropic transverse flow is studied in Pb+Pb and Au+Au collisions at SPS and RHIC energies. The centrality and transverse momentum dependence at midrapidity of the elliptic flow coefficient v₂ is calculated in the hydrodynamic and low density limits. Hydrodynamics is found to agree well with the RHIC data for semicentral collisions up to transverse momenta of 1–1.5 GeV/c, but it considerably overestimates the measured elliptic flow at SPS energies. The low density limit LDL is inconsistent with the measured magnitude of v₂ at RHIC energies and with the shape of its p_t-dependence at both RHIC and SPS energies. The success of the hydrodynamic model points to very rapid thermalization in Au+Au collisions at RHIC and provides a serious challenge for kinetic approaches based on classical scattering of on-shell particles.     

Theoretical view of SPS and RHIC dilepton measurements

In this contribution I present a review on the actual status of dilepton measurements at SPS and RHIC energies and the current theoretical interpretations. Model independent results will be pointed out for both energies. Due to partially conflicting theoretical concepts I will highlight the open questions that may be solved by extended theoretical as well as experimental studies.     

Relativistic heavy-ion physics: Experimental overview

The field of relativistic heavy-ion physics is reviewed with emphasis on new results and highlights from the first run of the relativistic heavy-ion collider at BNL and the 15 year research programme at the super proton synchrotron (SPS) at CERN and the AGS at BNL.     

Results from STAR experiment at RHIC

We present some of the important experimental results from nucleus-nucleus collision studies carried out by the STAR experiment at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The results suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC has produced a dense and rapidly thermalizing matter with initial energy densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP).     

Scaling properties of fluctuation results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has made measurements of event-by-event fluctuations in the charged-particle multiplicity as a function of collision energy, centrality, collision species, and transverse momentum in several heavy-ion collision systems. It is observed that the fluctuations in terms of σ ²/μ ² exhibit a universal power law scaling as a function of N_participants that is independent of the transverse momentum range of the measurement.     

Efficiency corrections for mutually inclusive variables and particle identification effect for mixed-cumulants in heavy-ion collisions

Mix-cumulants of conserved charge distributions are sensitive observables for probing properties of the QCD medium and phase transition in heavy-ion collisions. To perform precise measurements, efficiency correction is one of the most important step. In this study, using the binomial efficiency model, we derive efficiency correction formulas for mutually exclusive and inclusive variables. The UrQMD model is applied to verify the validity of these formulas for different types of correlations. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of the multiplicity loss and contamination emerging from the particle identifications. This study provides important steps toward future measurements of mixed-cumulants in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.     

Re-hardening of hadron transverse mass spectra in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We analyze the spectra of pions and protons in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies from 2 A GeV to 65+65 A GeV by using a jet-implemented hadron-string cascade model. In this energy region, hadron transverse mass spectra first show softening until SPS energies, and re-hardening may emerge at RHIC energies. Since hadronic matter is expected to show only softening at higher energy densities, this re-hardening of spectra can be interpreted as a good signature of the quark-gluon plasma formation     

Monte-Carlo simulation of heavy-ion collisions

We present Monte-Carlo simulations for heavy-ion collisions combining PYTHIA and the McGill-AMY formalism to describe the evolution of hard partons in a soft background, modelled using hydrodynamic simulations. MARTINI generates full event configurations in the high p_T region that take into account thermal QCD and QED effects as well as effects of the evolving medium. This way it is possible to perform detailed quantitative comparisons with experimental observables.     

Physics at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

We present here a brief summary of the presentation given at the Quark-Gluon-Plasma Thermalization Workshop in Vienna, Austria in August 2005, directly following the International Quark Matter Conference in Hungary.     

NeXSPheRIO results on elliptic flow at RHIC and connection with thermalization

Elliptic flow at RHIC is computed event by event with NeXSPheRIO. Reasonable agreement with experimental results on v ₂(η) is obtained. Various effects are studied as well: reconstruction of impact parameter direction, freeze-out temperature, equation of state (with or without crossover), emission mechanism.     

Correlations of neutral and charged particles in 40Ar- 58Ni reaction at 77 MeV/u

The measurement of the two-particle correlation function for different particle species allows to obtain information about the development of the particle emission process: the space-time properties of emitting sources and the emission time sequence of different particles. The single-particle characteristics and two-particle correlation functions for neutral and charged particles registered in forward direction are used to determine that the heavy fragments (deuterons and tritons) are emitted in the first stage of the reaction (pre-equilibrium source) while the majority of neutrons and protons originates from the long-lived quasi-projectile. The emission time sequence of protons, neutrons and deuterons has been obtained from the analysis of non-identical particle correlation functions.     

Latest results on the hot dense partonic matter at RHIC

At the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) collisions of heavy ions at nucleon-nucleon energies of 200GeV appear to have created a new form of matter thought to be a deconfined state of the partons that ordinarily are bound in nucleons. We discuss the evidence that a thermalized partonic medium, usually called a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), has been produced. Then, we discuss the effect of this high-density medium on the production of jets and their pair correlations. Next, we look at direct photons as a clean electro-magnetic probe to constrain the initial hard scatterings. Finally, we review the developing picture for the effect of this medium on the production of open heavy quarks and on the screening by the QGP of heavy-quark bound states.     

Photon multiplicity measurements: From SPS to RHIC and LHC

Results from the photon multiplicity measurements using a fine granularity pre-shower photon multiplicity detector (PMD) at CERN SPS are discussed. These include study of pseudorapidity distributions of photons, scaling of photon multiplicity with number of participating nucléons, centrality dependence of 〈p _T〉 of photons, event-by-event fluctuations in photon multiplicity and localised charged-neutral fluctuations. Basic features of the PMD to be used in STAR experiment at RHIC and in ALICE experiment at LHC are also discussed.     

Effects of the formation time of parton shower on jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions

Jet quenching has successfully served as a hard probe to study the properties of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). As a multi-particle system, jets require time to develop from a highly virtual parton to a group of partons close to mass shells. In this study, we present a systematical analysis on the effects of this formation time on jet quenching in relativistic nuclear collisions. Jets from initial hard scatterings were simulated with Pythia, and their interactions with QGP were described using a Linear Boltzmann Transport (LBT) model that incorporates both elastic and inelastic scatterings between jet partons and the thermal medium. Three different estimations of the jet formation time were implemented and compared, including instantaneous formation, formation from single splitting, and formation from sequential splittings, before which no jet-medium interaction was assumed. We found that deferring the jet-medium interaction with a longer formation time not only affects the overall magnitude of the nuclear modification factor of jets but also its dependence on the jet transverse momentum.     

Investigation of experimental observables in search of the chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions in the STAR experiment

The chiral magnetic effect(CME)is a novel transport phenomenon,arising from the interplay between quantum anomalies and strong magnetic fields in chiral systems.In high-energy nuclear collisions,the CME may survive the expansion of the quark-gluon plasma fireball and be detected in experiments.Over the past two decades,experimental searches for the CME have attracted extensive interest at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider(RHIC)and the Large Hadron Collider(LHC).The main goal of this study is to investigate three pertinent experimental approaches:the$\gamma$correlator,the R correlator,and the signed balance functions.We exploit simple Monte Carlo simulations and a realistic event generator(EBE-AVFD)to verify the equivalence of the core components among these methods and to ascertain their sensitivities to the CME signal and the background contributions for the isobar collisions at the RHIC.     

Thermalization of gluons at RHIC: Dependence on initial conditions

We investigate how thermalization of gluons depends on the initial conditions assumed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. The study is based on simulations employing the pQCD inspired parton cascade solving the Boltzmann equation for gluons. We consider independently produced minijets with p _T > p ₀ = 1.3-2.0GeV and a color glass condensate as possible initial conditions for the freed gluons. It turns out that full kinetic equilibrium is achieved slightly sooner in denser systems and its timescale tends to saturate. Compared with the kinetic equilibration we find a stronger dependence of chemical equilibration on the initial conditions.