Transport properties of the fluid produced at relativistic heavy-ion collider

It is by now well known that the relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC, BNL have produced a strongly interacting fluid with remarkable properties, among them the lowest ever observed ratio of the coefficient of shear viscosity to entropy density. Arguments based on ideas from the string theory, in particular the AdS/CFT correspondence, led to the conjecture — now known to be violated — that there is an absolute lower limit 1/4π on the value of this ratio. Causal viscous hydrodynamics calculations together with the RHIC data have put an upper limit on this ratio, a small multiple of 1/4π, in the relevant temperature regime. Less well-determined is the ratio of the coefficient of bulk viscosity to entropy density. These transport coefficients have also been studied non-perturbatively in the lattice QCD framework, and perturbatively in the limit of high-temperature QCD. Another interesting transport coefficient is the coefficient of diffusion which is also being studied in this context. In this paper some of these recent developments are reviewed and then the opportunities presented by the anticipated LHC data are discussed, for the general nuclear physics audience.     

From leading hadron suppression to jet quenching at RHIC and at the LHC

In nucleus-nucleus collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), one generically observes a strong medium-induced suppression of high- p_T hadron production. This suppression is accounted for in models which assume a significant medium-induced radiative energy loss of high- p_T parent partons produced in the collision. How can we further test the microscopic dynamics conjectured to underlie this abundant high- p_T phenomenon? What can we learn about the dynamics of parton fragmentation, and what can we learn about the properties of the medium which modifies it? Given that inelastic parton scattering is expected to be the dominant source of partonic equilibration processes, can we use hard processes as an experimentally well-controlled window into QCD non-equilibrium dynamics? Here I review what has been achieved so far, and which novel opportunities open up with higher luminosity at RHIC, and with the wider kinematical range accessible soon at the LHC.Received: 15 February 2005, Published online: 3 June 2005PACS: 12.38.Mh, 24.85. + p     

Correlation and fluctuations in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

Correlation and fluctuations are now well accepted analysis techniques in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies. At the current stage of RHIC exploration, matter in bulk and many of the physics questions about the final stage of collisions are addressed with the help of correlation techniques. In the present work after a general introduction to the underlying formalism to the exotic phenomena of correlation and fluctuations, discussion on various parameters disentangling dynamical fluctuations is presented. Analysis to investigate dynamical fluctuations and correlation is carried out in terms of F _q - and G _q -moments. A study of various other parameters involving multiplicity and pseudorapidity of relativistic charged particles produced in high energy nuclear interactions reveals the presence of correlation and fluctuations in particle production in these collisions. The experimental data on 14.5A GeV/c ²⁸Si-nucleus interactions has been analyzed. A parallel analysis of correlation free data generated using MC-RAND Monte Carlo code, UrQMD data and for the HIJING generated events has also been carried out.     

How to make sense of the jet correlations results at RHIC?

We review the di-hadron correlation results from RHIC. A consistent physical picture was constructed based on the correlation landscape in p _T , Δφ, Δη and particle species. We show that the data are consistent with competition between fragmentation of survived jets and response of the medium to quenched jets. At intermediate p _T where the medium response are important, a large fraction of trigger hadrons do not come from jet fragmentation. We argue that these hadrons can strongly influence the interpretation of the low p _T correlation data. We demonstrate this point through a simple geometrical jet absorption model simulation. The model shows that the correlation between medium response hadrons dominates the pair yield and mimics the double hump structure of the away-side Δφ distribution at low p _T . This correlation was also shown to lead to complications in interpreting the results on reaction plane dependence and three particle correlations. Finally, we briefly discuss several related experimental issues which are important for proper interpretations of the experimental data.     

Viscosity of hadron matter within relativistic mean-field-based model with scaled hadron masses and couplings

The shear (η) and bulk (ζ) viscosities are calculated in a quasiparticle relaxation-time approximation for a hadron matter described within the relativistic mean-field-based model with scaled hadron masses and couplings. Comparison with results of other models is presented. We demonstrate that a small value of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio required for explaining a large elliptic flow observed at RHIC may be reached in the hadron phase. Relatively large values of the bulk viscosity are noted in the case of a baryon-enriched matter.     

Viscosity and thermodynamic properties of QGP in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We study the viscosity and thermodynamic properties of QGP at RHIC by employing the recently extracted equilibrium distribution functions from two hot QCD equations of state of O(g ⁵) and O(g ⁶ln (1/g)), respectively. After obtaining the temperature dependence of the energy density and the entropy density, we focus our attention on the determination of the shear viscosity for a rapidly expanding interacting plasma, as a function of temperature. We find that the interactions significantly decrease the shear viscosity. They decrease the viscosity to entropy density ratio, as well.     

Azimuthal correlations with high-pT multi-hadron cluster triggers in Au+Au collisions at ?{sNN } \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 200 GeV from STAR

Di-hadron correlation measurements have been used to probe di-jet production in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. A strong suppression of the away-side high-p _T yield in these measurements is direct evidence that high-p _T partons lose energy as they traverse the strongly interacting medium. However, since the momentum of the trigger particle is not a good measure of the jet energy, azimuthal di-hadron correlations have limited sensitivity to the shape of the fragmentation function. We explore the possibility to better constrain the initial parton energy by using clusters of multiple high-p _T hadrons in a narrow cone as the ‘trigger particle’ in the azimuthal correlation analysis. We present first results from this analysis of multi-hadron triggered correlated yields in Au+Au collisions at $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 200 GeV from STAR. The results are compared with measurements in d + Au collisions and Pythia calculations, and the implications for energy loss and jet fragmentation are discussed.     

Heavy ion physics withthe ATLAS detector

Soon after the LHC is commissioned with proton beams the ATLAS experiment will begin studies of Pb-Pb collisions with a center of mass energy of $\sqrt {s_{NN} } = 5.5$ TeV. The ATLAS program is a natural extension of measurements at RHIC in a direction that exploits the higher LHC energies and the superb ATLAS calorimeter and tracking coverage. At LHC energies, collisions will be produced with even higher energy density than observed at RHIC. The properties of the resulting hot medium can be studied with higher energy probes, which are more directly interpreted through modification of jet properties emerging from these collisions, for example. Other topics which are enabled by the 30-fold increase in center of mass energy include probing the partonic structure of nuclei with deep inelastic photoproduction (in UltraPeripheral Collisions) and in p-Pb collisions. Here we report on evaluation of ATLAS capabilities for Heavy Ion Physics.     

T-matrix approach to heavy quark diffusion in the QGP

We assess transport properties of heavy quarks in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) using static heavy-quark (HQ) potentials from lattice-QCD calculations in a Brueckner many-body T-matrix approach to evaluate elastic heavy-quark–light-quark scattering amplitudes. In the attractive meson and diquark channels, resonance states are formed for temperatures up to ∼1.5T _c, increasing pertinent drag and diffusion coefficients for heavy-quark rescattering in the QGP beyond the expectations from perturbative-QCD calculations. We use these transport coefficients, complemented with perturbative elastic HQ gluon scattering, in a relativistic Langevin simulation to obtain HQ p _t distributions and elliptic flow (v ₂) under conditions relevant for the hot and dense medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The heavy quarks are hadronized to open-charm and -bottom mesons within a combined quark-coalescence fragmentation scheme. The resulting single-electron spectra from their semileptonic decays are confronted with recent data on “non-photonic electrons” in 200 A GeV Au–Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC).     

Extracting hadronic viscosity from microscopic transport models

Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) are thought to have created a Quark–Gluon Plasma, characterized by a very small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio η/s, close to the lower bound predicted for that quantity by string theory. However, due to the dynamics of the collision, the produced matter passes through a phase characterized by an expanding and rapidly cooling hadron gas with strongly increasing η/s. Such a rise in η/s would not be compatible with the success of (viscous) hydrodynamics, which requires a very small value of η/s throughout the full evolution of the reaction in order to successfully describe the collective flow seen in the experiments. Here we show that the inclusion of a pion-chemical potential, which is bound to arise due to the separation of chemical and kinetic freeze-out during the collision evolution, will reduce the value of η/s, and argue that introduction of other chemical potentials could ensure the successful application of (viscous) hydrodynamics to collisions at RHIC.     

Collective effects in the interactions of small systems on the RHIC

It has long been believed that small colliding systems (p+Au, d+Au, ³He + Au) are can only be used to study the collective effects of cold nuclear matter. However, recent studies on the RHIC and LHC accelerators indicate there are flowlike collective effects characterized by the high multiplicity of charged particles produced in these collisions. Whether these effects result from the hydrodynamic expansion of a dense and hot thermalized medium or are caused by the initial state remains an open question. This work reports the results from measuring flow characteristics in d + Au and ³He + Au collisions at an energy of 200 GeV in the PHENIX experiment on the RHIC collider. Attempts to describe the results theoretically are discussed.     

First measurement of J/ψ anisotropy by PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Understanding the J/ψ suppression and possible recombination mechanisms at RHIC is one of the outstanding challenges for theorists and experimentalists. Recent results provided by PHENIX showed a stronger suppression at forward rapidity, while at mid-rapidity the suppression is similar to lower energy collision experiments. A large sample of Au + Au collisions at $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 200 GeV was collected in 2007 with the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Using this sample, J/ψs were identified in the di-electron decay channel. In order to probe the charm coalescence as an additional J/ψ production mechanism at RHIC, we studied the first determination of its v ₂ elliptic flow parameter at mid-rapidity.     

Variation of jet quenching from RHIC to LHC and thermal suppression of the QCD coupling constant

We perform a joint jet tomographic analysis of the data on the nuclear modification factor R _AA from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant. Our results show that the observed slow variation of R _AA from RHIC to LHC indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.     

Low- x QCD physics from RHIC and HERA to the LHC

We present a summary of the physics of gluon saturation and non-linear QCD evolution at small values of the parton momentum fraction x in the proton and nucleus in the context of recent experimental results at HERA and RHIC. The rich physics potential of low-x studies at the LHC, especially in the forward region, is discussed and some benchmark measurements in pp, pA and AA collisions are introduced.     

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.     

Summary on high <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis></Subscript> probes

Results on high-p _T probes shown at the Hard Probes 2008 Conference are summarized, with an appreciation of the improvements in precision of the measurements and experimental techniques since the beginning of RHIC operation. Particular attention is given to the latest measurements of the nuclear modification factor of identified particles, photon-hadron correlation measurements, and full jet reconstruction.     

Is there a hadron spin-flip contribution to the Coulomb-hadron interference at small momentum transfer and high energies?

The analysing power A_N is examined in the range of the Coulomb-hadron interference on the basis of the experimental data from p_L = 6 GeV/c up to 200 GeV/c taking account of a phenomenological analysis at p_L = 6 GeV/c and a dynamic high-energy spin model. The results are compared with the new RHIC data at p_L = 100 GeV/c. The new experimental data obtained at RHIC indicate small contributions of the hadron spin-flip amplitude.     

Conical emission: pT and system dependences and the first result with identified particles from STAR

We present the analysis of three-particle correlation with respect to reaction system, transverse momentum (p _T ) of associated and trigger particles measured by STAR experiment at RHIC. Our preliminary results indicate presence of conical emission of charge particles correlated with high p _T trigger particles in central A+A collisions. The measured conical emission angle is independent of p _T of associate hadrons, possibly consistent with Mach cone shock wave mechanism. The first result on PID three-particle correlation with identified associated particles is also reported.     

High-p t and jet physics from RHIC to LHC

The observation of the strong suppression of high-p t hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL has motivated a large experimental program using hard probes to characterize the deconfined medium created. However, what can be denoted as “leading particle” physics accessible at RHIC presents some limitations which motivate at higher energy the study of much more penetrating objects: jets. The gain in center-of-mass energy expected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will definitively improve our understanding on how the energy is lost in the system, opening a major new window of study: the physics of jets on an event-by-event basis. We will concentrate on the expected performance for jet reconstruction in ALICE using the EMCal calorimeter. (for the ALICE Collaboration) The text was submitted by the author in English.