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

The Chiral Magnetic Effect: Beam-energy and system-size dependence

We consider the energy dependence of the local ${\cal P}$ and ${\cal CP}$ violation in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions over a large energy range within a simple phenomenological model. It is expected that at LHC the chiral magnetic effect will be about 20 times weaker than at RHIC. At lower energy range this effect should vanish sharply at energy somewhere above the top SPS one. To elucidate CME background effects a transport model including magnetic field evolution is put forward.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Rise of azimuthal anisotropies as a signature of the Quark-Gluon-Plasma in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The azimuthal anisotropies of the collective transverse flow of hadrons are investigated in a large range of heavy-ion collision energy within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) microscopic transport approach which incorporates explicit partonic degrees of freedom in terms of strongly interacting quasiparticles (quarks and gluons) in line with an equation-of-state from lattice QCD as well as dynamical hadronization and hadronic dynamics in the final reaction phase. The experimentally observed increase of the elliptic flow $v_2$ with bombarding energy is successfully described in terms of the PHSD approach in contrast to a variety of other kinetic models based on hadronic interactions. The analysis of higher-order harmonics $v_3$ and $v_4$ shows a similar tendency of growing deviations between partonic and purely hadronic models with increasing bombarding energy. This signals that the excitation functions of azimuthal anisotropies provide a sensitive probe for the underling degrees of freedom excited in heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, title change

Helicity and vorticity in heavy-ion collisions at NICA energies

Heavy-ion collisions at center-of-mass nucleon collision energies 4.5--11.5 GeV are analyzed within the PHSD transport model. Spectator nucleons are separated, and the transfer of the initial angular momentum of colliding nuclei to the fireball formed by participants is studied. The maximal angular momentum is carried by the fireball in gold-gold collisions with the impact parameter about 5 fm corresponding to centrality class 10--20\%. The obtained participant distributions were fluidized and the energy and baryon number densities, temperature, and velocity fields are obtained in the Landau frame. It is shown that the velocity field has dominantly Hubble-like transversal and longitudinal expansion with the vortical motion being only a small correction on top of it. The vorticity field is calculated and illustrated in detail. The formation of two oppositely-rotating vortex rings moving in opposite directions along the $z$ axis is demonstrated. Other characteristics of the vortical motion such as the Lamb vector field and the kinematic vorticity number are considered. The magnitude of the latter one is found to be smaller than that for the Poiseuille flow and close to the pure shear deformation corresponding to just a flattening of fluid cells. The field of hydrodynamic helicity, which is responsible for the axial vortex effect, is calculated. The separation of positive and negative helicities localized upper and lower semi-planes with respect to the reaction plane is shown. It is proved that the areas with various helicity signs can be probed by the selection of $\Lambda$ hyperons with positive and negative projections of their momenta orthogonal to the reaction plane.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figures. Figure labels are corrected, references adde

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.