22 research outputs found
Uranium on uranium collisions at relativistic energies
Deformation and orientation effects on compression, elliptic flow and
particle production in uranium on uranium collisions (UU) at relativistic
energies are studied within the transport model ART. The density compression in
tip-tip UU collisions is found to be about 30% higher and lasts approximately
50% longer than in body-body or spherical UU reactions. The body-body UU
collisions have the unique feature that the nucleon elliptic flow is the
highest in the most central collisions and remain a constant throughout the
reaction. We point out that the tip-tip UU collisions are more probable to
create the QGP at AGS and SPS energies while the body-body UU collisions are
more useful for studying properties of the QGP at higher energies.Comment: 8 pages + 4 figure
Excitation functions in central Au+Au collisions from SIS/GSI to AGS/Brookhaven
Using the relativistic transport model (ART), we predict the energy
dependence of the stopping power, maximum baryon and energy densities, the
population of resonance matter as well as the strength of the transverse and
radial flow for central Au+Au reactions at beam momentum from 2 to 12 GeV/c
available at Brookhaven's AGS. The maximum baryon and energy densities are
further compared to the predictions of relativistic hydrodynamics assuming the
formation of shock waves. We also discuss the Fermi-Landau scaling of the pion
multiplicity in these reactions.Comment: 20 pages, latex, 10 figures available upon request from the authors,
Nucl. Phys. A in pres
The directed flow maximum near c_s=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(Lab)=40AGeV 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(Lab)=10AGeV. A substantial decrease of the
isentropic velocity of sound, however, requires higher energies, E(Lab)=40AGeV.
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(Lab)=40AGeV 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.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; plot of p(e) at various specific entropies shows
why mixed phase is not soft at AGS energ
Antiflow of kaons in relativistic heavy ion collisions
We compare relativistic transport model calculations to recent data on the
sideward flow of neutral strange K^0_s mesons for Au+Au collisions at 6 AGeV. A
soft nuclear equation of state is found to describe very well the positive
proton flow data measured in the same experiment. In the absence of kaon
potential, the K^0 flow pattern is similar to that of protons. The kaon flow
becomes negative if a repulsive kaon potential determined from the impulse
approximation is introduced. However, this potential underestimates the data
which exhibits larger antiflow. An excellent agreement with the data is
obtained when a relativistic scalar-vector kaon potential, that has stronger
density dependence, is used. We further find that the transverse momentum
dependence of directed and elliptic flow is quite sensitive to the kaon
potential in dense matter.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 figure
Formation of superdense hadronic matter in high energy heavy-ion collisions
We present the detail of a newly developed relativistic transport model (ART
1.0) for high energy heavy-ion collisions. Using this model, we first study the
general collision dynamics between heavy ions at the AGS energies. We then show
that in central collisions there exists a large volume of sufficiently
long-lived superdense hadronic matter whose local baryon and energy densities
exceed the critical densities for the hadronic matter to quark-gluon plasma
transition. The size and lifetime of this matter are found to depend strongly
on the equation of state. We also investigate the degree and time scale of
thermalization as well as the radial flow during the expansion of the
superdense hadronic matter. The flow velocity profile and the temperature of
the hadronic matter at freeze-out are extracted. The transverse momentum and
rapidity distributions of protons, pions and kaons calculated with and without
the mean field are compared with each other and also with the preliminary data
from the E866/E802 collaboration to search for experimental observables that
are sensitive to the equation of state. It is found that these inclusive,
single particle observables depend weakly on the equation of state. The
difference between results obtained with and without the nuclear mean field is
only about 20\%. The baryon transverse collective flow in the reaction plane is
also analyzed. It is shown that both the flow parameter and the strength of the
``bounce-off'' effect are very sensitive to the equation of state. In
particular, a soft equation of state with a compressibility of 200 MeV results
in an increase of the flow parameter by a factor of 2.5 compared to the cascade
case without the mean field. This large effect makes it possible to distinguish
the predictions from different theoretical models and to detect the signaturesComment: 55 pages, latex, + 39 figures available upon reques
Hadronic observables from SIS to SPS energies - anything strange with strangeness ?
We calculate and (+) rapidity
distributions and compare to experimental data from SIS to SPS energies within
the UrQMD and HSD transport approaches that are both based on string, quark,
diquark () and hadronic degrees of freedom. The
two transport models do not include any explicit phase transition to a
quark-gluon plasma (QGP). It is found that both approaches agree rather well
with each other and with the experimental rapidity distributions for protons,
's, and . Inspite of this apparent agreement both
transport models fail to reproduce the maximum in the excitation function for
the ratio found experimentally between 11 and 40 AGeV. A
comparison to the various experimental data shows that this 'failure' is
dominantly due to an insufficient description of pion rapidity distributions
rather than missing 'strangeness'. The modest differences in the transport
model results -- on the other hand -- can be attributed to different
implementations of string formation and fragmentation, that are not
sufficiently controlled by experimental data for the 'elementary' reactions in
vacuum.Comment: 46 pages, including 15 eps figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Highly deformed Ca configurations in Si + C
The possible occurrence of highly deformed configurations in the Ca
di-nuclear system formed in the Si + C reaction is investigated
by analyzing the spectra of emitted light charged particles. Both inclusive and
exclusive measurements of the heavy fragments (A 10) and their
associated light charged particles (protons and particles) have been
made at the IReS Strasbourg {\sc VIVITRON} Tandem facility at bombarding
energies of Si) = 112 MeV and 180 MeV by using the {\sc ICARE}
charged particle multidetector array. The energy spectra, velocity
distributions, and both in-plane and out-of-plane angular correlations of light
charged particles are compared to statistical-model calculations using a
consistent set of parameters with spin-dependent level densities. The analysis
suggests the onset of large nuclear deformation in Ca at high spin.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figure
Parton coalescence at RHIC
Using a covariant coalescence model, we study hadron production in
relativistic heavy ion collisions from both soft partons in the quark-gluon
plasma and hard partons in minijets. Including transverse flow of soft partons
and independent fragmentation of minijet partons, the model is able to describe
available experimental data on pion, kaon, and antiproton spectra. The
resulting antiproton to pion ratio is seen to increase at low transverse
momenta and reaches a value of about one at intermediate transverse momenta, as
observed in experimental data at RHIC. A similar dependence of the antikaon to
pion ratio on transverse momentum is obtained, but it reaches a smaller value
at intermediate transverse momenta. At high transverse momenta, the model
predicts that both the antiproton to pion and the antikaon to pion ratio
decrease and approach those given by the perturbative QCD. Both collective flow
effect and coalescence of minijet partons with partons in the quark-gluon
plasma affect significantly the spectra of hadrons with intermediate transverse
momenta. Elliptic flows of protons, Lambdas, and Omegas have also been
evaluated from partons with elliptic flows extracted from fitting measured pion
and kaon elliptic flows, and they are found to be consistent with available
experimental data.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure