38 research outputs found
Elliptic flow at collider energies and cascade string models: The role of hard processes and multi-Pomeron exchanges
Centrality, rapidity, and transverse momentum dependence of hadron elliptic
flow is studied in Au+Au collisions at BNL RHIC energies within the microscopic
quark-gluon string model. The QGSM predictions coincide well with the
experimental data at AGeV. Further investigations reveal that
multi-Pomeron exchanges and hard gluon-gluon scattering in primary collisions,
accompanied by the rescattering of hadrons in spatially anisotropic system, are
the key processes needed for an adequate description of the data. These
processes become essentially important for heavy-ion collisions at full RHIC
energy AGeV.Comment: LATEX, 12 pages incl. 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.
Transition to meson-dominated matter at RHIC. Consequences for kaon flow
Anisotropic flow of kaons and antikaons is studied in heavy-ion collisions at
CERN SPS and BNL RHIC energies within the microscopic quark-gluon string model.
In the midrapidity range the directed flow of kaons v_1 differs considerably
from that of antikaons at SPS energy (E_{lab} = 160 AGeV), while at RHIC energy
(\sqrt{s} = 130 AGeV) the excitation functions of both, kaon and antikaon,
flows coincide within the statistical error bars. The change is attributed to
formation of dense meson-dominated matter at RHIC, where the differences in
interaction cross-sections of kaons and antikaons become unimportant. The time
evolution of the kaon anisotropic flow is also investigated. The elliptic flow
of these hadrons is found to develop at midrapidity at times 3 < t < 10 fm/c,
which is much larger than the nuclear passing time t^{pass} = 0.12 fm/c. As a
function of transverse momentum the elliptic flow increases almost linearly
with rising p_t. It stops to rise at p_t > 1.5 GeV/c reaching the saturation
value .Comment: REVTEX, 14 pages, 4 figure
Elliptic flow at RHIC: where and when does it formed?
Evolution of the elliptic flow of hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC
energies is studied within the microscopic quark-gluon string model. The
elliptic flow is shown to have a multi-component structure caused by (i)
rescattering and (ii) absorption processes in spatially asymmetric medium.
Together with different freeze-out dynamics of mesons and baryons, these
processes lead to the following trend in the flow formation: the later the
mesons are frozen, the weaker their elliptic flow, whereas baryon fraction
develops stronger elliptic flow during the late stages of the fireball
evolution. Comparison with the PHOBOS data demonstrates the model ability to
reproduce the v2(eta) signal in different centrality bins.Comment: 11 pages incl. 5 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
Single Spin Asymmetry in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at GeV
We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin
asymmetry at the center of mass energy GeV in elastic
proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The was measured
in the four-momentum transfer squared range \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the
electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of
and its -dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip
amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single
spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated
by the Pomeron amplitude at this , we conclude that this measurement
addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the
Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Kaon Production and Kaon to Pion Ratio in Au+Au Collisions at \snn=130 GeV
Mid-rapidity transverse mass spectra and multiplicity densities of charged
and neutral kaons are reported for Au+Au collisions at \snn=130 GeV at RHIC.
The spectra are exponential in transverse mass, with an inverse slope of about
280 MeV in central collisions. The multiplicity densities for these particles
scale with the negative hadron pseudo-rapidity density. The charged kaon to
pion ratios are and
for the most central collisions. The ratio is lower than the same
ratio observed at the SPS while the is higher than the SPS result.
Both ratios are enhanced by about 50% relative to p+p and +p
collision data at similar energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Energy and system size dependence of \phi meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions
We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production
(using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from
Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4
and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from
mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the
transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in
yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average
numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus
collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are
found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different
trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed
to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations
for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision
energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the
formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller
systems.Comment: 20 pages and 5 figure
Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
We review the most important experimental results from the first three years
of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the
STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory.
The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC
produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy
densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment
of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by
constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most
probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many
of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in
the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic
framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish
unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The
theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes,
invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as
yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open
questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should
be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively
that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.Comment: 101 pages, 37 figures; revised version to Nucl. Phys.
Recent results from parton cascade and microscopic transport
Parton cascade is a microscopic transport approach for 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,
, is shown to be expected in the central cell in central
collisions. This provides information on viscous corrections to the ideal
hydrodynamical approach.Comment: Presented at Hot Quarks 2008, Estes Park, Colorado, USA, 18-23 August
200
Early collective expansion: Relativistic hydrodynamics and the transport properties of QCD matter
Relativistic hydrodynamics for ideal and viscous fluids is discussed as a
tool to describe relativistic heavy-ion collisions and to extract transport
properties of the quark-gluon plasma from experimentally measured hadron
momentum spectra.Comment: Review article, 54 pages, 25 figure