68 research outputs found
Flow effects on the freeze-out phase-space density in heavy ion collisions
The strong longitudinal expansion of the reaction zone formed in relativistic
heavy-ion collisions is found to significantly reduce the spatially averaged
pion phase-space density, compared to naive estimates based on thermal
distributions. This has important implications for data interpretation and
leads to larger values for the extracted pion chemical potential at kinetic
freeze-out.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures included via epsfig, added discussion of different
transverse density profiles, 1 new figur
Pion dispersion relation at finite density and temperature
We study the behavior of the pion dispersion relation in a pion medium at
finite density and temperature. We introduce a pion chemical potential to
describe the finite pion number density and argue that such description is
valid during the hadronic phase of a relativistic heavy-ion collision between
chemical and thermal freeze-out. We make use of an effective Lagrangian that
explicitly respects chiral symmetry through the enforcement of the chiral Ward
identities. The pion dispersion relation is computed through the computation of
the pion self-energy in a non-perturbative fashion by giving an approximate
solution to the Schwinger-Dyson equation for this self-energy. The dispersion
relation is described in terms of a density and temperature dependent mass and
an index of refraction which is also temperature, density as well as momentum
dependent. The index of refraction is larger than unity for all values of the
momentum for finite and . We conclude by exploring some of the
possible consequences for the propagation of pions through the boundary between
the medium and vacuum.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 3 new references, published versio
Elliptical flow -- a signature for early pressure in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions
Elliptical energy flow patterns in non-central Au(11.7AGeV) on Au reactions
have been studied employing the RQMD model. The strength of these azimuthal
asymmetries is calculated comparing the results in two different modes of RQMD
(mean field and cascade). It is found that the elliptical flow which is readily
observable with current experimental detectors may help to distinguish
different reasonable expansion scenarios for baryon-dense matter. The final
asymmetries are very sensitive to the pressure at maximum compression, because
they involve a partial cancelation between early squeeze-out and subsequent
flow in the reaction plane. This cancelation can be expected to occur in a
broad energy region covered by the current heavy ion fixed-target programs at
BNL and at CERN.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX including 3 postscript figure
The freeze-out mechanism and phase-space density in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
We explore the consequences of a freeze-out criterion for heavy-ion
collisions, based on pion escape probabilities from the hot and dense but
rapidly expanding collision region. The influence of the expansion and the
scattering rate on the escape probability is studied. The temperature
dependence of this scattering rate favors a low freeze-out temperature of ~100
MeV. In general, our results support freeze-out along finite four-volumes
rather than sharp three-dimensional hypersurfaces, with high-pt particles
decoupling earlier from smaller volumes. We compare our approach to the
proposed universal freeze-out criteria using the pion phase-space density and
its mean free path.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, although conclusions are unchanged, the paper has
been re-written and the title has been changed for the sake of better
presentatio
Transverse flow and hadro-chemistry in Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV
We present a hydrodynamic assessment of preliminary particle spectra observed
in Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV. The hadronic part of the
underlying equation of state is based on explicit conservation of (measured)
particle ratios throughout the resonance gas stage after chemical freezeout by
employing chemical potentials for stable mesons, nucleons and anti-nucleons. We
find that under these conditions the data (in particular the proton spectra)
favor a low freeze-out temperature of around 100 MeV. Furthermore we show that
through inclusion of a moderate pre-hydrodynamic transverse flow field the
shape of the spectra improves with respect to the data. The effect of the
initial transverse boost on elliptic flow and the freeze-out geometry of the
system is also elucidated.Comment: as published: more data included in Fig. 1, discussions throughout
the text improved, 6 pages, 4 figure
Chemical freeze-out temperature in hydrodynamical description of Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
We study the effect of separate chemical and kinetic freeze-outs to the ideal
hydrodynamical flow in Au+Au collisions at RHIC (sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV energy).
Unlike in earlier studies we explore how these effects can be counteracted by
changes in the initial state of the hydrodynamical evolution. We conclude that
the reproduction of pion, proton and antiproton yields necessitates a chemical
freeze-out temperature of T = 150 MeV instead of T = 160 - 170 MeV motivated by
thermal models. Unlike previously reported, this lower temperature makes it
possible to reproduce the p_T-spectra of hadrons if one assumes very small
initial time, tau_0 = 0.2 fm/c. However, the p_T-differential elliptic flow,
v_2(p_T) remains badly reproduced. This points to the need to include
dissipative effects (viscosity) or some other refinement to the model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; Accepted for publication in European Physical
Journal A; Added discussion about the effect of weak decays to chemical
freeze-out temperature and a figure showing isentropic curves in T-mu plan
Hadro-Chemistry and Evolution of (Anti-) Baryon Densities at RHIC
The consequences of hadro-chemical freezeout for the subsequent hadron gas
evolution in central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies are
discussed with special emphasis on effects due to antibaryons. Contrary to
naive expectations, their individual conservation, as implied by experimental
data, has significant impact on the chemical off-equilibrium composition of
hadronic matter at collider energies. This may reflect on a variety of
observables including source sizes and dilepton spectra.Comment: 4 pages ReVTeX incl. 3 ps-figs, submitted to PR
1+1 Dimensional Hydrodynamics for High-energy Heavy-ion Collisions
A 1+1 dimensional hydrodynamical model in the light-cone coordinates is used
to describe central heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic bombarding
energies. Deviations from Bjorken's scaling are taken into account by choosing
finite-size profiles for the initial energy density. The sensitivity of fluid
dynamical evolution to the equation of state and the parameters of initial
state is investigated. Experimental constraints on the total energy of produced
particles are used to reduce the number of model parameters. Spectra of
secondary particles are calculated assuming that the transition from the
hydrodynamical stage to the collisionless expansion of matter occurs at a
certain freeze-out temperature. An important role of resonances in the
formation of observed hadronic spectra is demonstrated. The calculated rapidity
distributions of pions, kaons and antiprotons in central Au+Au collisions at
the c.m. energy 200 GeV per NN pair are compared with experimental data of the
BRAHMS Collaboration. Parameters of the initial state are reconstructed for
different choices of the equation of state. The best fit of these data is
obtained for a soft equation of state and Gaussian-like initial profiles of the
energy density, intermediate between the Landau and Bjorken limits.Comment: 43 pages, 27 figure
Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions and the QCD Critical Point
The event-by-event fluctuations of suitably chosen observables in heavy ion
collisions at SPS, RHIC and LHC can tell us about the thermodynamic properties
of the hadronic system at freeze-out. By studying these fluctuations as a
function of varying control parameters, it is possible to learn much about the
phase diagram of QCD. As a timely example, we stress the methods by which
present experiments at the CERN SPS can locate the second-order critical
endpoint of the first-order transition between quark-gluon plasma and hadron
matter. Those event-by-event signatures which are characteristic of freeze-out
in the vicinity of the critical point will exhibit nonmonotonic dependence on
control parameters. We focus on observables constructed from the multiplicity
and transverse momenta of charged pions. We first consider how the
event-by-event fluctuations of such observables are affected by Bose-Einstein
correlations, by resonances which decay after freeze-out and by fluctuations in
the transverse flow velocity. We compare our thermodynamic predictions for such
noncritical event-by-event fluctuations with NA49 data, finding broad
agreement. We then focus on effects due to thermal contact between the observed
pions and a heat bath with a given (possibly singular) specific heat, and due
to the direct coupling between the critical fluctuations of the sigma field and
the observed pions. We also discuss the effect of the pions produced in the
decay of sigma particles just above threshold after freeze-out on the inclusive
pion spectrum and on multiplicity fluctuations. We estimate the size of these
nonmonotonic effects which appear near the critical point, including
restrictions imposed by finite size and finite time, and conclude that they
should be easily observable.Comment: 58 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.
Observing many body effects on lepton pair production from low mass enhancement and flow at RHIC and LHC energies
The spectral function at finite temperature calculated using the
real-time formalism of thermal field theory is used to evaluate the low mass
dilepton spectra. The analytic structure of the propagator is studied
and contributions to the dilepton yield in the region below the bare
peak from the different cuts in the spectral function are discussed. The
space-time integrated yield shows significant enhancement in the region below
the bare peak in the invariant mass spectra. It is argued that the
variation of the inverse slope of the transverse mass () distribution can
be used as an efficient tool to predict the presence of two different phases of
the matter during the evolution of the system. Sensitivity of the effective
temperature obtained from the slopes of the spectra to the medium effects
are studied
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