Directed flow, a signal for the phase transition in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions?

The sign change of the slope of the directed flow of baryons has been predicted as a signal for a first order phase transition within fluid dynamical calculations. Recently, the directed flow of identified particles has been measured by the STAR collaboration in the beam energy scan (BES) program. In this article, we examine the collision energy dependence of directed flow $v_1$ in fluid dynamical model descriptions of heavy ion collisions for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3-20$ GeV. The first step is to reproduce the existing predictions within pure fluid dynamical calculations. As a second step we investigate the influence of the order of the phase transition on the anisotropic flow within a state-of-the-art hybrid approach that describes other global observables reasonably well. We find that, in the hybrid approach, there seems to be no sensitivity of the directed flow on the equation of state and in particular on the existence of a first order phase transition. In addition, we explore more subtle sensitivities like e.g. the Cooper-Frye transition criterion and discuss how momentum conservation and the definition of the event plane affects the results. At this point, none of our calculations matches qualitatively the behavior of the STAR data, the values of the slopes are always larger than in the data.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Chiral Hadronic Mean Field Model including Quark Degrees of Freedom

In an approach inspired by Polyakov loop extended NJL models, we present a nonlinear hadronic SU(3) sigma-omega mean field model augmented by quark degrees of freedom. By introducing the effective Polyakov loop related scalar field \Phi and an associated effective potential, the model includes all known hadronic degrees of freedom at low temperatures and densities as well as a quark phase at high temperatures and densities. Hadrons in the model exhibit a finite volume in order to suppress baryons at high T and \mu. This ensures that the right asymptotic degrees of freedom are attained for the description of strongly interacting matter and allows to study the QCD phase diagram in a wide range of temperatures and chemical potentials. Therefore, with this model it is possible to study the phase transition of chiral restoration and deconfinement. In this paper, the impact of quarks on the resulting phase diagram is shown. The results from the chiral model are compared to recent data from lattice QCD.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure

Entropy Production in Collisions of Relativistic Heavy Ions -- a signal for Quark-Gluon Plasma phase transition?

Entropy production in the compression stage of heavy ion collisions is discussed within three distinct macroscopic models (i.e. generalized RHTA, geometrical overlap model and three-fluid hydrodynamics). We find that within these models \sim 80% or more of the experimentally observed final-state entropy is created in the early stage. It is thus likely followed by a nearly isentropic expansion. We employ an equation of state with a first-order phase transition. For low net baryon density, the entropy density exhibits a jump at the phase boundary. However, the excitation function of the specific entropy per net baryon, S/A, does not reflect this jump. This is due to the fact that for final states (of the compression) in the mixed phase, the baryon density \rho_B increases with \sqrt{s}, but not the temperature T. Calculations within the three-fluid model show that a large fraction of the entropy is produced by nuclear shockwaves in the projectile and target. With increasing beam energy, this fraction of S/A decreases. At \sqrt{s}=20 AGeV it is on the order of the entropy of the newly produced particles around midrapidity. Hadron ratios are calculated for the entropy values produced initially at beam energies from 2 to 200 AGeV.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, uses epsfig.sty; Submitted to Nucl.Phys.

Energy Spectra of Anti-nucleons in Finite Nuclei

The quantum vacuum in a many-body system of finite nuclei has been investigated within the relativistic Hartree approach which describes the bound states of nucleons and anti-nucleons consistently. The contributions of the Dirac sea to the source terms of the meson-field equations are taken into account up to the one-nucleon loop and one-meson loop. The tensor couplings for the $\omega$- and $\rho$-meson are included in the model. The overall nucleon spectra of shell-model states are in agreement with the data. The calculated anti-nucleon spectra in the vacuum differ about 20 -- 30 MeV with and without the tensor-coupling effects.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of MENU 2004 (Beijing, Aug. 29 -- Sept. 4, 2004

Some Comments on Relativistic Hydrodynamics and Fuzzy Bags

Three subjects are considered here: the relativistic hydrodynamics equations for a boost-invariant expanding fluid; the fuzzy bag model for the pressure which recently appeared in QCD phenomenology; and the early space-time evolution of the QCD matter, drawn from model studies, which can also be expected to arise in realistic fluid dynamics relevant to heavy ion collisions at LHC.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; v3: additional discussion of lattice data, minor clarifications, references adde

Hypernuclei, dibaryon and antinuclei production in high energy heavy ion collisions: Thermal production vs. Coalescence

We study the production of (hyper-)nuclei and di-baryons in most central heavy Ion collisions at energies of $E_{lab}=1-160 A$ GeV. In particular we are interested in clusters produced from the hot and dense fireball. The formation rate of strange and non-strange clusters is estimated by assuming thermal production from the intermediate phase of the UrQMD-hydro hybrid model and alternatively by the coalescence mechanism from a hadronic cascade model. Both model types are compared in detail. For most energies we find that both approaches agree in their predictions for the yields of the clusters. Only for very low beam energies, and for di-baryons including $\Xi$'s, we observe considerable differences. We also study the production of anti-matter clusters up to top RHIC energies and show that the observation of anti-$^4He$ and even anti-$^4_{\Lambda}He$ is feasible. We have found a considerable qualitative difference in the energy dependence of the strangeness population factor $R_H$ when comparing the thermal production with the coalescence results.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures and 2 tables, version accepted by PL

Open-charm enhancement at FAIR?

We have calculated the D-meson spectral density at finite temperature within a self-consistent coupled-channel approach that generates dynamically the $\Lambda_c$ (2593) resonance. We find a small mass shift for the D-meson in this hot and dense medium while the spectral density develops a sizeable width. The reduced attraction felt by the D-meson in hot and dense matter together with the large width observed have important consequences for the D-meson production in the future CBM experiment at FAIR.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of 9th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2006), Los Angeles, USA, March 26-31, 200