Evidence for creation of strong electromagnetic fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

It is proposed to identify a strong electric field created during relativistic collisions of asymmetric nuclei via observation of pseudorapidity and transverse momentum distributions of hadrons with the same mass but opposite charges. The detailed calculation results for the directed flow within the Parton-Hadron String Dynamics model are given for Cu-Au interactions at the NICA collision energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=9$ and $5$ GeV. The separation effect is observable at 9 GeV as clearly as at 200 GeVComment: 3 pages, 8 figure

Event-by-event background in estimates of the chiral magnetic effect

In terms of the parton-hadron-string-dynamics (PHSD) approach - including the retarded electromagnetic field - we investigate the role of fluctuations of the correlation function in the azimuthal angle $\psi$ of charged hadrons that is expected to be a sensitive signal of local strong parity violation. For the early time we consider fluctuations in the position of charged spectators resulting in electromagnetic field fluctuations as well as in the position of participant baryons defining the event plane. For partonic and hadronic phases in intermediate stages of the interaction we study the possible formation of excited matter in electric charge dipole and quadrupole form as generated by fluctuations. The role of the transverse momentum and local charge conservation laws in the observed azimuthal asymmetry is investigated, too. All these above-mentioned effects are incorporated in our analysis based on event-by-event PHSD calculations. Furthermore, the azimuthal angular correlations from Au+Au collisions observed in the recent STAR measurements within the RHIC Beam-Energy-Scan (BES) program are studied. It is shown that the STAR correlation data at the collision energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7 and 11.5 GeV can be reasonably reproduced within the PHSD. At higher energies the model fails to describe the $\psi$ correlation data resulting in an overestimation of the partonic scalar field involved. We conclude that an additional transverse anisotropy fluctuating source is needed which with a comparable strength acts on both in- and out-of-plane components.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions within 3-Fluid Hydrodynamics: Hadronic Scenario

A 3-fluid hydrodynamic model for simulating relativistic heavy-ion collisions is introduced. Alongside with two baryon-rich fluids, the new model considers time-delayed evolution of a third, baryon-free (i.e. with zero net baryonic charge) fluid of newly produced particles. Its evolution is delayed due to a formation time, during which the baryon-free fluid neither thermalizes nor interacts with the baryon-rich fluids. After the formation it starts to interact with the baryon-rich fluids and quickly gets thermalized. Within this model with pure hadronic equation of state, a systematic analysis of various observables at incident energies between few and about 160A GeV has been done as well as comparison with results of transport models. We have succeeded to reasonably reproduce a great body of experimental data in the incident energy range of E_{lab} = (1-160)A GeV. The list includes proton and pion rapidity distributions, proton transverse-mass spectra, rapidity distributions of Lambda and antiLambda hyperons, elliptic flow of protons and pions (with the exception of proton v2 at 40A GeV), multiplicities of pions, positive kaons, phi-mesons, hyperons and antihyperons, including multi-strange particles. This agreement is achieved on the expense of substantial enhancement of the interflow friction as compared to that estimated proceeding from hadronic free cross sections. However, we have also found out certain problems. The calculated yield of K^- is approximately by a factor of 1.5 higher than that in the experiment. We have also failed to describe directed transverse flow of protons and pion at E_{lab} > 40A GeV. This failure apparently indicates that the used EoS is too hard and thereby leaves room for a phase transition.Comment: 30 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.