Density matrix expansion for the MDI interaction

By assuming that the isospin- and momentum-dependent MDI interaction has a form similar to the Gogny-like effective two-body interaction with a Yukawa finite-range term and the momentum dependence only originates from the finite-range exchange interaction, we determine its parameters by comparing the predicted potential energy density functional in uniform nuclear matter with what has been usually given and used extensively in transport models for studying isospin effects in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions as well as in investigating the properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter and neutron star matter. We then use the density matrix expansion to derive from the resulting finite-range exchange interaction an effective Skyrme-like zero-range interaction with density-dependent parameters. As an application, we study the transition density and pressure at the inner edge of neutron star crusts using the stability conditions derived from the linearized Vlasov equation for the neutron star matter.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Triangular flow in heavy ion collisions in a multiphase transport model

We have obtained a new set of parameters in a multiphase transport (AMPT) model that are able to describe both the charged particle multiplicity density and elliptic flow measured in Au+Au collisions at center of mass energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), although they still give somewhat softer transverse momentum spectra. We then use the model to predict the triangular flow due to fluctuations in the initial collision geometry and study its effect relative to those from other harmonic components of anisotropic flows on the di-hadron azimuthal correlations in both central and mid-central collisions.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, small changes made to the figures and the text, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Spinodal Instabilities of Baryon-Rich Quark-gluon Plasma in the PNJL Model

Using the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinia (PNJL) model, we study the spinodal instability of a baryon-rich quark-gluon plasma in the linear response theory. We find that the spinodal unstable region in the temperature and density plane shrinks with increasing wave number of the unstable mode and is also reduced if the effect of Polyakov loop is not included. In the small wave number or long wavelength limit, the spinodal boundaries in both cases of with and without the Polyakov loop coincide with those determined from the isothermal spinodal instability in the thermodynamic approach. Also, the vector interactions among quarks is found to suppress unstable modes of all wave numbers. Moreover, the growth rate of unstable modes initially increases with the wave number but is reduced when the wave number becomes large. Including the collisional effect from quark scattering via the linearized Boltzmann equation, we further find that it decreases the growth rate of unstable modes of all wave numbers. Relevance of these results to relativistic heavy ion collisions is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Higher-order anisotropic flows and dihadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76 TeV in a multiphase transport model

Using a multiphase transport model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic scatterings, we have studied higher-order anisotropic flows as well as dihadron correlations as functions of pseudorapidity and azimuthal angular differences between trigger and associated particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. With parameters in the model determined previously from fitting the measured multiplicity density of mid-pseudorapidity charged particles in central collisions and their elliptic flow in mid-central collisions, the calculated higher-order anisotropic flows from the two-particle cumulant method reproduce approximately those measured by the ALICE Collaboration, except at small centralities where they are slightly overestimated. Similar to experimental results, the two-dimensional dihadron correlations at most central collisions show a ridge structure at the near side and a broad structure at the away side. The short- and long-range dihadron azimuthal correlations, corresponding to small and large pseudorapidity differences, respectively, are studied for triggering particles with different transverse momenta and are found to be qualitatively consistent with experimental results from the CMS Collaboration. The relation between the short-range and long-range dihadron correlations with that induced by back-to-back jet pairs produced from initial hard collisions is also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Probing the topological charge in QCD matter via multiplicity up-down asymmetry

Relativistic heavy ion collisions provide the possibility to study the topological charge in QCD matter through the event-by-event fluctuating net axial charge or nonequal numbers of left- and right-handed quarks they generate in the produced quark-gluon plasma. Based on the chiral kinetic approach for nearly massless quarks and antiquarks in the strong vorticity field produced along the normal direction of the reaction plane of non-central heavy ion collisions, we show that a unique signal for the topological charge in QCD matter can be identified from the asymmetric distribution of particles with momenta pointing in the upper and lower hemispheres of the reaction plane as a result of the fluctuating net axial charge.Comment: 6 pages and 4 figure

Chemical freeze-out in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

One surprising result in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is that the abundance of various particles measured in experiments is consistent with the picture that they reach chemical equilibrium at a temperature much higher than the temperature they freeze out kinetically. Using a multiphase transport model to study particle production in these collisions, we find that the above result is due to the constancy of the entropy per particle during the evolution of the hadronic matter from the chemical to the kinetic freeze-out. We further use a hadron resonance gas model to illustrate the result from the transport model study.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Elliptic flow of deuterons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Using a dynamical model based on the $NN \to d\pi$, $NNN \to dN$, and $NN\pi \to d\pi$ reactions and measured proton and pion transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flows, we study the production of deuterons and their elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. The results are compared with those from the coalescence model. The deviation of deuteron elliptic flow from the constituent nucleon number scaling expected from the coalescence model and the comparison with the experimental data are discussed in connection to the allowed nucleon phase space in these reactions.Comment: 18 pages, REVTeX, 8 figures, structure of the article was changed, to be published in Phys. Rev.