The Influence of High Multiplicities at RHIC on the Gamov Factor

The corrections for two-pion correlations due to electromagnetic final-state interactions at high secondary multiplicities are investigated. The analysis is performed by solving the Schr\"odinger equation with a potential which is dictated by the multi-particle environment. Two different post-freeze-out scenarios are examined. First, for a uniformly spread environment of secondary particles, a screened Coulomb potential is exploited. It is shown that the presence of a static and uniform post-freeze-out medium results in a noticeable deviation from the standard Gamov factor. However, after going to a more realistic model of an expanding pion system, this conclusion changes drastically. We argue that the density of the secondary pions n_\pi(t,R), where R is a distance from the fireball, is bounded from above by n_\pi(t,R)\le const/R^2 for all times t. Then, a two-particle scalar potential which is found as a solution of the Maxwell equation for non-uniform medium replaces the screened one. Even this upper limit does not result in an essential deviation from the Gamov correction.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, minor text corrections are mad

Bose-Einstein Correlations of Pion Wavepackets

A wavepacket model for a system of free pions, which takes into account the full permutation symmetry of the wavefunction and which is suitable for any phase space parametrization is developed. The properties of the resulting mixed ensembles and the two-particle correlation function are discussed. A physical interpretation of the chaoticity lambda as localizat of the pions in the source is presented. Two techniques to generate test-particles, which satisfy the probability densities of the wavepacket state, are studied: 1. A Monte Carlo procedure in momentum space based on the standard Metropolis technique. 2. A molecular dynamic procedure using Bohm's quantum theory of motion. In order to reduce the numerical complexity, the separation of the wavefunction into momentum space clusters is discussed. In this context th influence of an unauthorized factorization of the state, i. e. the omissio of interference terms, is investigated. It is shown that the correlation radius remains almost uneffected, but the chaoticity parameter decreases substantially. A similar effect is observed in systems with high multiplic where the omission of higher order corrections in the analysis of two-part correlations causes a reduction of the chaoticity and the radius. The approximative treatment of the Coulomb interaction between pions and source is investigated. The results suggest that Coulomb effects on the co radii are not symmetric for pion pairs of different charges. For negative the radius, integrated over the whole momentum spectrum, increases substan while for positive pions the radius remains almost unchanged.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 0.8 Mb, uses ljour2-macro, Submitted to Z. Phys. A (1997

Multi-boson effects and the normalization of the two-pion correlation function

The two-pion correlation function can be defined as a ratio of either the measured momentum distributions or the normalized momentum space probabilities. We show that the first alternative avoids certain ambiguities since then the normalization of the two-pion correlator contains important information on the multiplicity distribution of the event ensemble which is lost in the second alternative. We illustrate this explicitly for specific classes of event ensembles.Comment: 6 pages, three figures,submit to PR

Testing the Resolving Power of 2-D K^+ K^+ Interferometry

Adopting a procedure previously proposed to quantitatively study two-dimensional pion interferometry, an equivalent 2-D chi^2 analysis was performed to test the resolving power of that method when applied to less favorable conditions, i.e., if no significant contribution from long lived resonances is expected, as in kaon interferometry. For that purpose, use is made of the preliminary E859 K^+ K^+ interferometry data from Si+Au collisions at 14.6 AGeV/c. As expected, less sensitivity is achieved in the present case, although it still is possible to distinguish two distinct decoupling geometries. The present analysis seems to favor scenarios with no resonance formation at the AGS energy range, if the preliminary K^+ K^+ data are confirmed. The possible compatibility of data with zero decoupling proper time interval, conjectured by the 3-D experimental analysis, is also investigated and is ruled out when considering more realistic dynamical models with expanding sources. These results, however, clearly evidence the important influence of the time emission interval on the source effective transverse dimensions. Furthermore, they strongly emphasize that the static Gaussian parameterization, commonly used to fit data, cannot be trusted under more realistic conditions, leading to distorted or even wrong interpretation of the source parameters!Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 4 Postscript figures include

Hanbury-Brown--Twiss Analysis in a Solvable Model

The analysis of meson correlations by Hanbury-Brown--Twiss interferometry is tested with a simple model of meson production by resonance decay. We derive conditions which should be satisfied in order to relate the measured momentum correlation to the classical source size. The Bose correlation effects are apparent in both the ratio of meson pairs to singles and in the ratio of like to unlike pairs. With our parameter values, we find that the single particle distribution is too distorted by the correlation to allow a straightforward analysis using pair correlation normalized by the singles rates. An analysis comparing symmetrized to unsymmetrized pairs is more robust, but nonclassical off-shell effects are important at realistic temperatures.Comment: 21 pages + 9 figures (tarred etc. using uufiles, submitted separately), REVTeX 3.0, preprint number: DOE/ER/40561-112/INT93-00-3

Evidence for chemical equilibration at RHIC

This contribution focuses on the results of statistical model calculations at RHIC energies, including recently available experimental data. Previous calculations of particle yield ratios showed good agreement with measurements at SPS and lower energies, suggesting that the composite system possesses a high degree of chemical equilibrium at freeze-out. The effect of feeddown contamination on the model parameters is discussed, and the sensitivity of individual ratios to the model parameters ($T$, $\mu_B$) is illustrated.Comment: Talk presented at Strange Quarks in Matter 2001, Frankfurt, September 24-29, 2001. Proceedings to be published by J. Phys. G. 8 pages with 4 figure

Multiplicity dependence of identical particle correlations in the quantum optical approach

Identical particle correlations at fixed multiplicity are consideres in the presence of chaotic and coherent fields. The multiplicity distribution, one-particle momentum density, and two-particle correlation function are obtained based on the diagrammatic representation for cmulants in semi-inclusive events. Our formulation is applied to the analysis of the experimental data on the multiplicity dependence of correlation functions reported by the UA1 and the OPAL Collaborations.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Small size boundary effects on two-pion interferometry

The Bose-Einstein correlations of two identically charged pions are derived when these particles, the most abundantly produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions, are confined in finite volumes. Boundary effects on single pion spectrum are also studied. Numerical results emphasize that conventional formulation usually adopted to describe two-pion interferometry should not be used when the source size is small, since this is the most sensitive case to boundary effects. Specific examples are considered for better illustration.Comment: more discussion on Figure4 and diffuse boundar

Antiproton Production in p+Ap+A Collisions at AGS Energies

Inclusive and semi-inclusive measurements are presented for antiproton ($\bar{p}$) production in proton-nucleus collisions at the AGS. The inclusive yields per event increase strongly with increasing beam energy and decrease slightly with increasing target mass. The $\bar{p}$ yield in 17.5 GeV/c p+Au collisions decreases with grey track multiplicity, $N_g$, for $N_g>0$, consistent with annihilation within the target nucleus. The relationship between $N_g$ and the number of scatterings of the proton in the nucleus is used to estimate the $\bar{p}$ annihilation cross section in the nuclear medium. The resulting cross section is at least a factor of five smaller than the free $\bar{p}-p$ annihilation cross section when assuming a small or negligible formation time. Only with a long formation time can the data be described with the free $\bar{p}-p$ annihilation cross section.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure