Photons from Quark and Hadron Phases in Au + Au Collisions

Based on a relativistic hydrodynamic model describing the evolution of the chemically equilibrating quark-gluon plasma system with finite baryon density in a 3＋1-dimensional spacetime, we compute photons from the quark phase, hadronic phase and initial non-thermal contributions. It is found that due to the effects of the initial quark chemical potential, chemical equilibration and rapid expansion of the system, the photon yield of the quark-gluon plasma is strongly suppressed, and photons from hadronic matter and initial non-thermal contributions almost reproduce experimental data.     

Recent results from parton-cascade/microscopic transport

The parton-cascade model is a microscopic transport approach in the study of the space-time evolution of the quark–gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and its experimental manifestations. In the following, parton-cascade calculations on elliptic flow and thermalization will be discussed. Dynamical evolution is shown to be important for the production of elliptic flow including the scaling and the breaking of the scaling of elliptic flow. The degree of thermalization is estimated using both an elastic parton-cascade and a radiative transport model. A longitudinal to transverse pressure ratio of P _L /P _T ≈0.8 is shown to be expected in the central cell in central collisions. This provides information on viscous corrections to the ideal hydrodynamical approach.     

A Non-Zero Hadronic Elliptic Flow with a Vanished Partonic Elliptic Flow in a Coalescence Scenario

The elliptic flow of a hadron is calculated using a quark coalescence model based on the quark phase space distribution produced by a free streaming locally thermalized quark in a two-dimensional transverse plane at initial time. Without assuming the quark＇s elliptic flow, it is shown that the hadron obtains a non-zero elliptic flow in this model. The elliptic flow of the hadron is shown to be sensitive to both space momentum correlation and the hadron＇s internal structure. Quark number scaling is obtained only for some special cases.     

Kaon and antikaon optical potentials in isospin asymmetric hyperonic matter

The medium modifications of the energies of kaons and antikaons in isospin asymmetric hyperonic matter are investigated using a chiral SU(3) model. The isospin-dependent medium effects are important for asymmetric heavy-ion collision experiments, as well as relevant for the neutron star phenomenology as the bulk matter in the interior of the neutron star is highly isospin asymmetric. The effects of hyperons on the medium modifications of the kaons and antikaons in the strange hadronic matter are investigated in the present work and are seen to be appreciable for hadronic matter with large strangeness fractions. The study of the K -mesons in the asymmetric strange hadronic matter can be especially relevant for the compressed strange baryonic matter which can result from asymmetric heavy-ion collision experiments in the future accelerator facility FAIR at GSI.     

Directed and elliptic flows in 40Ca + 40Ca and 112Sn + 112Sn collisions

The directed and elliptic flows for different light particles and fragments in collisions of ⁴⁰Ca + ⁴⁰Ca and ¹¹²Sn + ¹¹²Sn at energies from 30MeV/nucleon to 100MeV/nucleon were studied in the isospin-dependent quantum molecule dynamics model (IQMD). With increasing incident energy, the directed flow rises from negative to positive, while the elliptic flow decreases with increasing the incident energies. The directed flow for the ⁴⁰Ca + ⁴⁰Ca system is not sensitive to the nuclear equation of states (EOS), but the directed flow for the ¹¹²Sn + ¹¹²Sn system is sensitive to the EOS. However, the elliptic flows for both ⁴⁰Ca + ⁴⁰Ca and ¹¹²Sn + ¹¹²Sn systems are not sensitive to EOS. A study of the dependence of directed and elliptic flows on the fragment charge (mass) is also performed. Received: 15 March 2002 / Accepted: 14 June 2002 / Published online: 19 November 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: Zhanghy@sinr.ac.cn; Permanent address: Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-204(2), Shanghai 201800, China. Communicated by W. Henning     

The thermal model and the transition from baryonic to mesonic freeze-out

The present status of the thermal model is reviewed and the recently discovered sharp peak in the K ⁺/π⁺ ratio is discussed in this framework. It is shown that the rapid change is related to a transition from a baryon-dominated hadronic gas to a meson-dominated one. Further experimental tests to clarify the nature of the transition are discussed. In the thermal model the corresponding maxima in the Ξ/π and Ω/π ratios occur at slightly different beam energies.     

Effects of mean-field and softening of equation of state on elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions at (~SNN)~(1/2)=5 GeV from the JAM model

We perform a systematic study of elliptic flow(v_2) in Au+Au collisions at(~SNN)~(1/2) = 5 GeV by using a microscopic transport model, JAM. The centrality, pseudorapidity, transverse momentum and beam energy dependence of v_2 for charged as well as identified hadrons are studied. We investigate the effects of both the hadronic mean-field and the softening of equation of state(EoS) on elliptic flow. The softening of the EoS is realized by imposing attractive orbits in two body scattering, which can reduce the pressure of the system. We found that the softening of the EoS leads to the enhancement of v_2, while the hadronic mean-field suppresses v_2 relative to the cascade mode. It indicates that elliptic flow at high baryon density regions is highly sensitive to the EoS and the enhancement of v_2 may probe the signature of a first-order phase transition in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies of a strong baryon stopping region.     

Momentum spectra,anisotropic flow,and ideal fluids

If the matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions reaches thermal equilibrium, its subsequent evolution follows the laws of ideal fluid dynamics. We show that general predictions can be made on this basis alone, irrespective of the details of the hydrodynamical model. We derive several scaling rules for momentum spectra and anisotropic flow (in particular the elliptic flow, v₂$v_2$, and the hexadecupole flow, v₄$v_4$) of identified particles. Comparison with existing data is briefly discussed, and qualitative predictions are made for LHC.     

Protons flow in Pb+Pb collisions at 40 <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis> GeV energy

For Pb+Pb collisions at 40 A GeV energy, we calculate the side-ward and elliptic differential flow of protons in the microscopic relativistic transport simulation model. We compare our results with the recent data from the NA49 Collaboration as a function of transverse momenta, rapidity and centrality. We find that the side-ward and elliptic flow agree reasonably well with the experimental data with and without momentum-dependent potentials in the simulation model.     

Space-time evolution of bulk QCD matter at RHIC

We introduce a combined fully three-dimensional macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic 3D-hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is being created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. In particular, we perform a detailed analysis of the reaction dynamics, hadronic freeze-out, transverse flow and elliptic flow. PACS 25.75.-q; 24.10.Nz; 24.10.Lx     

Hydrodynamic radial and elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions from AGS to LHC energies

Using ideal relativistic hydrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions, we study the collision-energy dependence of radial and elliptic flow, of the emitted hadron spectra, and of the transverse momentum dependence of several hadronic particle ratios, covering the range from Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) to Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies. These calculations establish an ideal-fluid dynamic baseline that can be used to assess non-equilibrium features manifest in future LHC heavy-ion experiments. Contrary to earlier suggestions we find that a saturation and even decrease of the differential elliptic flow v ₂(p _T) with increasing collision energy cannot be unambiguously associated with the QCD phase transition.     

The directed flow maximum near cs = 0

We investigate the excitation function of quark-gluon plasma formation and of directed in-plane flow of nucleons in the energy range of the BNL-AGS and for the E ^kin _Lab = 40A GeV Pb + Pb collisions performed recently at the CERN-SPS. We employ the three-fluid model with dynamical unification of kinetically equilibrated fluid elements. Within our model with first-order phase transition at high density, droplets of QGP coexisting with hadronic matter are produced already at BNL-AGS energies, E ^kin _Lab≃ 10A GeV. A substantial decrease of the isentropic velocity of sound, however, requires higher energies, E ^kin _Lab≃ 40A GeV. We show the effect on the flow of nucleons in the reaction plane. According to our model calculations, kinematic requirements and EoS effects work hand-in-hand at E ^kin _Lab = 40A GeV to allow the observation of the dropping velocity of sound via an increase of the directed flow around midrapidity as compared to top BNL-AGS energy. Received: 7 May 2000 / Accepted: 2 August 2000     

Testing Dirac-Brueckner models in collective flow of heavy-ion collisions

We investigate differential in-plane and out-of-plane flow observables in heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies from 0.2-2 AGeV within the framework of relativistic BUU transport calculations. The mean field is based on microscopic Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (DB) calculations. We apply two different sets of DB predictions, those of ter Haar and Malfliet and more recent ones from the Tübingen group, which are similar in general but differ in details. The latter DB calculations exclude spurious contributions from the negative-energy sector to the mean field which results in a slightly softer equation of state and a less repulsive momentum dependence of the nucleon-nucleus potential at high densities and high momenta. For the application to heavy-ion collisions in both cases non-equilibrium features of the phase space are taken into account on the level of the effective interaction. The systematic comparison to experimental data favours the less repulsive and softer model. Relative to non-relativistic approaches one obtains larger values of the effective nucleon mass. This produces a sufficient amount of repulsion to describe the differential flow data reasonably well. Received: 8 January 2001 / Accepted: 12 November 2001     

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.     

Isospin Effects of Threshold Energy of Radial Flow in Heavy Ion Collisions

The threshold energies of radial flow in reactions of ^40 Ca-^40Ca and ^48Ca＋ ^48Ca in central collisions are investigated within an isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics model by using three different forms of symmetry energy. It is found that the neutron-rich system has smaller threshold energy of radial flow and this quantity depends on the form of symmetry potential. It is indicated that the threshold energy of radial flow can provide a new method to determine the symmetry energy of asymmetric nuclear matter.     

Strange-quark collectivity of the φ-meson at RHIC

Based on A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model, the elliptic flow v₂ of φ-mesons which is reconstructed from K ⁺ K ^- at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) energy has been studied. The results show that the reconstructed v₂ of the φ-meson can keep the earlier information before φ decays and it seems to obey the number of constituent-quark scaling as other mesons and baryons. This result indicates that the φ v₂ mostly reflects the parton level collectivity developed during the early stage of the collisions and the strange and light up/down quarks have similar collectivity properties before the hadronization.