We review hadron formation from a deconfined quark gluon plasma (QGP) via coalescence or recombination of quarks and gluons. We discuss the abundant experimental evidence for coalescence from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and compare the various coalescence models advocated in the literature. We comment on the underlying assumptions and remaining challenges as well as the merits of the models. We conclude with a discussion of some recent developments in the field.
Different scenarios for the creation of constituent mass in the hadron formation process are discussed. Effects of these may be observable in hadron momentum spectra.
Elliptic flow of charm hadrons is investigated based on the quark coalescence model. Due to the large difference between the charm quark and light quark masses, hadrons containing both light and charm quarks show a qualitatively different $v_2(p_\perp)$ from hadrons containing only light quarks. Simple relations are proposed to infer quark elliptic flow from those of hadrons. The effects of the finite momentum spread of hadron wavefunctions are also studied, and are found to be small for charm hadrons.
Quark coalescence models have been applied successfully to reproduce measured hadron production data in relativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies, which finding strongly supports the formation of deconfined quark matter in these collisions. The investigation of meson and baryon production is an ideal tool to understand dynamical details of hadronization, especially strange hadron numbers and ratios. We display latest results on the production of strange particles in quark coalescence processes in heavy ion collisions at different collider energies.
We review the quark coalescence model for hadronization in relativistic heavy ion collisions and show how it can explain the observed large baryon to meson ratio at intermediate transverse momentum and scaling of the elliptic flows of identified hadrons. We also show its predictions on higher-order anisotropic flows and discuss how quark coalescence applied to open- and hidden-charm mesons can give insight to charm quark interactions in the quark-gluon plasma and $J/Ψ$ production in heavy ion collisions.
Recent experimental data support the presence of quark coalescence in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. Hadronization of quark matter and hadron formation in heavy ion collisions can be described by the coalescence process, and measured data are reproduced successfully. On the other hand, the theoretical coalescence calculations are based on a non-relativistic description. Here we investigate the robustness of the coalescence description, using different wave-function overlap during hadron formation.
Transverse momentum spectra of pions, protons and antiprotons in Au+Au collisions at intermediate RHIC energy of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=62$ GeV are studied in a model that includes both quark coalescence from the dense partonic matter and fragmentation of the quenched perturbative minijet partons. The resulting baryon to meson ratio at intermediate transverse momenta is predicted to be larger than that seen in experiments at higher center of mass energies.
We study the production of charmed hadrons $D^{0}$ and $Λ_c^+$ in relativistic heavy-ion collisions using an improved quark coalescence model. In particular, we extend the usual coalescence model by letting a produced hadron to have the same velocity as the center-of-mass velocity of coalesced constituent quarks during hadronization to take into account the effect of collective flow in produced quark-gluon plasma. This results in a shift of charmed resonances of higher masses to larger transverse momenta ($p_T^{}$). Requiring all charm quarks of very low $p_T^{}$ to be converted to hadrons via…
We show that hadronization via quark coalescence enhances hadron elliptic flow at large pT relative to that of partons at the same transverse momentum. Therefore, compared to earlier results based on covariant parton transport theory, more moderate initial parton densities dN/dη(b=0) ~ 1500-3000 can explain the differential elliptic flow v_2(pT) data for Au+Au reactions at s^1/2=130 and 200 AGeV from RHIC. In addition, v2(pT) could saturate at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. If strange quarks have weaker flow than light quarks, hadron v_2 at high pT decreases with relative…
The large and saturating differential elliptic flow v2(pT) observed in Au+Au reactions at RHIC so far could only be explained assuming an order of magnitude denser initial parton system than estimated from perturbative QCD. Hadronization via parton coalescence can resolve this ``opacity puzzle'' because it enhances hadron elliptic flow at large pT relative to that of partons at the same transverse momentum. An experimentally testable consequence of the coalescence scenario is that v2(pT) saturates at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. In addition, if strange quarks have weake…
Production of $c\bar c$ pairs in elementary hadron-hadron collisions is introduced in a simulation of relativistic heavy ion collisions. Coalescence of charmed quarks and antiquarks into various charmonium states is performed and the results are compared to PHENIX J$/ψ$ Au+Au data. The $χ$ and $ψ$' bound states must be included as well as the ground state J$/ψ$, given the appreciable feeding from the excited states down to the J$/ψ$ via gamma decays. Charmonium coalescence is found to take place at relatively late times: generally after $c$($\bar c$)-medium interactions have ceased. Direct pro…
We study the $B_c^+$ production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. In the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) produced in heavy-ion collisions, heavy quarks make random motions with the energy loss. We employ the Langevin equations to study the non-equilibrium distributions of heavy quarks and the Instantaneous Coalescence Model (ICM) to study the hadronization process. Due to abundant charm and bottom quarks in the QGP, their coalescence probability is significantly enhanced compared with the situations in proton-proton collisions. We find that the final production of $B_c^+$ is increased …
We develop a new formulation of the quark coalescence model by including the quark number conservation in order to describe the hadronization of the bulk of the quark-gluon plasma. The scalings between hadron and quark phase space distributions are shown to depend on the transverse momentum. For hard quarks, our general scalings reproduce the usual quadratic scaling relation for mesons and the cubic scaling relation for baryons. For softer quarks, however, the inclusion of the quark number conservation leads to a linear scaling for the hadron species that dominates the quark number of each fla…
Heavy quarks are initially produced in nuclear collisions and the number is conserved during the evolution of the system. We establish a sequential coalescence model with charm conservation and apply it to charmed hadron production at RHIC and LHC energies. The charm conservation enhances the earlier formed hadrons and reduces the later formed ones, which leads to a $D_s/D^0$ enhancement and a $Λ_c/D^0$ suppression. The mass dependence of the sequential hadron formation provides us a new tool for studying the quark-gluon plasma hadronization in high energy nuclear collisions.
Hydrodynamics and jet quenching are responsible for the elliptic flow $v_2$ and suppression of large transverse momentum ($p_T$) hadrons, respectively, two of the most important phenomena leading to the discovery of a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. A consistent description of the hadron suppression factor $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$, especially at intermediate $p_T$, however, remains a challenge. We solve this long-standing $R_{AA}\otimes v_2$ puzzle by including quark coalescence for hadronization and final state hadron cascade in the coupled linear Bolt…
Coalescence of minijet partons with the partons from the quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions is suggested as the mechanism for production of hadrons with intermediate transverse momentum. The resulting enhanced antiproton and pion yields at intermediate transverse momentum gives a plausible explanation for the observed large antiproton to pion ratio. With further increasing momentum, the ratio is predicted to decrease and approach the small value given by independent fragmentations of minijet partons after their energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma.
The production rate of negative parity baryons was found to be much weaker than that of positive states in RHIC experiments. In the present paper we show that this suppression is a simple consequence of the coalescence dynamics of hadronization.
The coalescence model assumes instant formation of a bound state from unbound particles based on the overlapping of two states in spatial and momentum spaces and quantum numbers. Therefore, applied to the hadronization of partons, it provides a snapshot of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) just before hadronization. We use the coalescence model for the formation of the ground state of open heavy flavor and the statistical model for heavier states. Assuming that all heavy flavors in thermal equilibrium hadronize through the coalescence, we find that the QGP just before hadronization is not composed of…
The fast simultaneous hadronization and chemical freeze out of supercooled quark-gluon plasma, created in relativistic heavy ion collisions, leads to the re-heating of the expanding matter and to the change in a collective flow profile. We use the assumption of statistical nature of the hadronization process, and study quantitatively the freeze out in the framework of hydrodynamical Bjorken model with different quark-gluon plasma equations of state.
Using updated gluon distributions from global fits to data, we investigate the sensitivity of direct photoproduction of heavy quarks and exclusive production of vector mesons to varying strength of gluon modifications. Implications of using these processes for constraining nuclear gluon distributions are discussed.
We investigate the hadronic cooling of a quark droplet within a microscopic model. The color flux tube approach is used to describe the hadronization of the quark phase. The model reproduces experimental particle ratios equally well compared to a static thermal hadronic source. Furthermore, the dynamics of the decomposition of a quark-gluon plasma is investigated and time dependent particle ratios are found.
We show that either mass ordering or quark number scaling of anisotropic flow can result from quark coalescence, depending on the nature of phase space correlations at hadronization. Quark number scaling signals nonequilibrium dynamics because it can only appear when hydrodynamic correlations break down. However, the scaling does not hold for all nonthermal distributions, and is compatible with covariant transport theory only if remarkable cancellations occur at RHIC.
We explore the effect of hadronization by partonic coalescence on a "conical" signal at the partonic level. We show that, by transferring partons from a lower to a higher $p_T$, coalescence makes the conical signal stronger and hence less susceptible to thermal smearing, provided the signal is integrated over a large momentum bin and effects such as non-collinearity and a finite Wigner function width are taken into account. We explore the role of this effect in baryon/meson scaling and calculate the effect of resonances decays on such a conical signal.
One of the key signatures of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) is the energy loss of high momentum particles as they traverse the strongly interacting medium. The energy loss of these particles is governed by the jet transport coefficient $\hat{q}/T^3$, wherein it has been thought that there is a large jump as the system transitions between the hadron gas and Quark Gluon Plasma phases. Here we calculate $\hat{q}/T^3$ within the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model with the particle list PDG16+ and find that, if one incorporates the experimental error in the hadronic calculation of $\hat{q}/T^3$ and ass…
The productions of real photons from quark gluon plasma and hot hadronic matter formed after the nucleus - nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies are discussed. The effects of the spectral shift of the hadrons at finite temperature on the production of photons are investigated. On the basis of the present analysis it is shown that the photon spectra measured by WA98 collaboration in Pb + Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies can be explained by both QGP as well as hadronic initial states if the spectral shift of hadrons at finite temperature is taken into account. Several other works o…
The directed flow ($v_{1}$) of open charm meson ($D^{0}$) is studied in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200~GeV using A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model framework with partonic interactions (string melting version). Within this framework, it is found that although the initial spatial eccentricity ($ε_{1}$) of charm quark is smaller than light quarks, the charm quark $v_{1}$ magnitude is found to be approximately 7 times larger than that of the light u quark at large rapidity. This indicates that the charm quarks can retain more information from initial condition than the light quarks. …
We discuss recent data on particle production with emphasis on the degree of thermal and chemical equilibration achieved. The data are interpreted in terms of a resonance gas model. The phase boundary constructed between the resonance gas and the quark-gluon plasma is shown to be very close to the deduced parameters characterizing the hadronic fireball at freeze-out.
We evaluate the factor $κ$ appearing in Langer's expression for the nucleation rate extended to the case of hadron bubbles forming in zero baryon number cooled quark-gluon plasma. We consider both the absence and presence of viscosity and show that viscous effects introduce only small changes in the value of $κ$
The production of particles with double, triple and hidden charm in heavy ion collisions is studied in the framework of the statistical coalescence model. According to the postulates of the model, the charm quark-antiquark pairs are created at the initial stage of a heavy ion reaction in hard parton collisions. The amount of charm is assumed to be unchanged at later stages. The charm (anti)quarks are distributed among different hadron species at hadronization according to the laws of statistical physics. Several approaches to the statistical treatment of charm hadronization are considered. The…
A parton and hadron cascade model, PACIAE, is employed to investigate the net charge transfer fluctuation within $|η|$=1 in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV. It is turned out that the observable of net charge transfer fluctuation, $κ$, in hadronic final state (HM) is nearly a factor of 3 to 5 larger than that in initial partonic state (QGM). However, only twenty percent of the net charge transfer fluctuation in the QGM can survive the hadronization
We present a simple model for the dimuon production from the decay of vector mesons which are hadronized from a baryon-free quark-gluon plasma. Continuous decay of vector mesons in the medium is known to enhance the dimuon production and in our model we can estimate the total yield of dimuons decayed from vector mesons through the rate equations for the number of vector mesons of interest. Muon pair production critically depends on the time duration of both the mixed and hadronic phases. Results are discussed in view of possible measurements in experiments.
We review the application and successes of a phase-space coalescence plus fragmentation model that has been applied for hadronization at RHIC. The physical concept is discussed together with the practical implementation. The robustness of main predictions is reviewed together with several open issues like relevance of three dimensional calculation, finite width of the wave functions, effects of quark masses, energy-entropy conservation, space-momentum correlation. Eventually the relevance of coalescence also for the study of the microscopic interaction of heavy quarks is highlighted.
Elliptic flow of hadrons observed at relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC), provides us an important signature of possible de-confinement transition from hadronic phase to partonic phase. However, hadronization processes of de-confined partons back into final hadrons are found to play a vital role in the observed hadronic flow. In the present work, we use coalescence mechanism also known as Recombination (ReCo) to combine quarks into hadrons. To get there, we have used Boltzmann transport equation in relaxation ti…
The string melting version of a multi-phase transport model is often applied to high-energy heavy-ion collisions since the dense matter thus formed is expected to be in parton degrees of freedom. In this work we improve its quark coalescence component, which describes the hadronization of the partonic matter to a hadronic matter. We removed the previous constraint that forced the numbers of mesons, baryons, and antibaryons in an event to be separately conserved through the quark coalescence process. A quark now could form either a meson or a baryon depending on the distance to its coalescence …
We present a detailed comparison of coalescence and thermal-statistical models for the production of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in high-energy collisions. For the first time, such a study is carried out as a function of the size of the object relative to the size of the particle emitting source. Our study reveals large differences between the two scenarios for the production of objects with extended wave-functions. While both models give similar predictions and show similar agreement with experimental data for (anti-)deuterons and (anti-)3He nuclei, they largely differ in their description of (anti…
Recently we have reported the correct formulation of the lattice QCD method at the zero temperature to study the hadron formation from the quarks and gluons by incorporating the non-zero boundary surface term in QCD which arises due to the confinement of quarks and gluons inside the finite size hadron. In this paper we extend this to the finite temperature QCD and present the correct formulation of the lattice QCD method at the finite temperature to study the hadron formation from the quark-gluon plasma.
In a coalescence plus independent fragmentation approach we calculate the $p_T$ spectra of the main hadrons: $π, K, p, \bar p, Λ, ϕ$ in a wide range of transverse momentum from low $p_T$ up to about 10 GeV. The approach in its main features was developed several years ago at RHIC energy. Augmenting the model with the inclusion of some more main resonance decays, we show that the approach correctly predicts the evolution of the $p_T$ spectra from RHIC to LHC energy and in particular the baryon-to-meson ratios $p/π,\bar p/π,Λ/K$ that reach a value of the order of unit at $p_T \sim 3\, \rm GeV$. …
Assuming that quark and antiquark numbers are separately conserved during hadronization, we calculate Bremsstrahlung photon from a hadronizing quark-gluon plasma. The quark and antiquark numbers are obtained from the hadron numbers in the statistical model and the transition amplitudes for the hadronization from the constraint that all quarks and antiquarks must be consumed in the hadronization. Then Bremsstrahlung photon from the hadronization is obtained in the soft photon approximation, and we find that its contribution to the direct photon increases in low-energy heavy-ion collisions and i…
We propose an improved quark coalescence model for spin alignment of vector mesons and polarization of baryons by spin density matrix with phase space dependence. The spin density matrix is defined through Wigner functions. Within the model we propose an understanding of spin alignments of vector mesons $ϕ$ and $K^{*0}$ (including $\bar{K}^{*0}$) in the static limit: a large positive deviation of $ρ_{00}$ for $ϕ$ mesons from 1/3 may come from the electric part of the vector $ϕ$ field, while a negative deviation of $ρ_{00}$ for $K^{*0}$ may come from the electric part of vorticity tensor fields…
We numerically study the effects of high gluon density at small x on the evolution of gluon distribution function in both hadrons and nuclei. Using a newly derived, Wilson renormalization group-based evolution equation which includes n to 1 gluon ladder fusion, we find significant reduction in nuclear gluon distribution function for large nuclei at zero impact parameter at energies relevant for RHIC and LHC experiments.
The production of light nuclei in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is well described by both the thermal model, where light nuclei are in equilibrium with hadrons of all species present in a fireball, and by the coalescence model, where light nuclei are formed due to final-state interactions after the fireball decays. We present and critically discuss the two models and further on we consider two proposals to falsify one of the models. The first proposal is to measure a yield of exotic nuclide $^4{\rm Li}$ and compare it to that of $^4{\rm He}$. The ratio of yields of the nuclides is quite di…
We study the energy-momentum and baryonic number conservation laws for quark-gluon plasma discontinuity transitions into hadron matter states. We find that the time-like shock hadronization of a supercooled quark-gluon plasma (when the normal vector to the discontinuity hypersurface is time-like) should take place. We consider some properties of this process, which is different from the standard space-like shock hadronization.
We study the production of $ΛΛ$ and $\overline{Λ\text{n}}$ exotic states in central Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV at LHC via both hadron and quark coalescence within a covariant coalescence model with a blast-wave-like parametrization for the phase-space configurations of constituent particles at freezeout. In the hadron coalescence, the two states are considered as molecular states while they are considered as six-quark states in the quark coalescence.For $\overline{Λ\text{n}}$, we find that the yields of both molecular and six-quark states are much larger than the experimental…
We have carried out simulations of the hadronization of a hot, ideal but effectively massive quark-gluon gas into color neutral clusters in the framework of the semi-classical SU(3) chromodielectric model. We have studied the possible quark-gluon compositions of clusters as well as the final mass distribution and spectra, aiming to obtain an insight into relations between hadronic spectral properties and the confinement mechanism in this model.
The number of constituent quarks (NCQ-) scaling of hadrons and the number of constituent nucleons (NCN-) scaling of light nuclei are proposed for nuclear modification factors ($R_{cp}$) of hadrons and light nuclei, respectively, according to the experimental investigations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Based on coalescence mechanism the scalings are performed for pions and protons in quark level, and light nuclei $d (\bar d)$ and $^3$He for nucleonic level, respectively, formed in Au + Au and Pb + Pb collisions and nice scaling behaviour emerges. NCQ or NCN scaling law of $R_{cp}$ can …
Following an explicit example, we present the chain of steps required for an event-by-event description of hadron production in high energy hadronic and nuclear collisions. We start from incoming nuclei, described in the Color Glass Condensate effective theory, whose collision creates the gluon fields of the glasma. Individual gluons are then sampled from the gluon fields' Husimi (smeared Wigner) distributions, and clustered using a new spacetime based algorithm. Clusters are fed into the Herwig event generator, which performs the hadronization, conserving energy and momentum. We discuss the p…
Heavy quark coalescence probability in the presence of a potential
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH（GSI亥姆霍兹重离子研究中心有限公司）；Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main（法兰克福约翰·沃尔夫冈·歌德大学理论物理研究所）；Helmholtz Research Academy Hessen for FAIR (HFHF)（黑森亥姆霍兹FAIR研究学院）
We study the particle production in the early stage of the ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. To this end the Boltzmann kinetic equations for gluons and pions with elastic rescattering are considered together with a simple model for the parton-hadron conversion process (hadronisation). It is shown that the overpopulation of the gluon phase space in the initial state leads to an intermediate stage of Bose enhancement in the low-momentum gluon sector which due to the gluon-pion conversion process is then reflected in the final distribution function of pions. This pattern is very similar to …
The gravitational form factors (GFFs) of hadrons encode the matrix elements of the energy momentum tensor of QCD. These quantities describe how energy, spin, and various mechanical properties of hadrons are carried by their quark and gluon constituents. We present the gluon GFFs of the pion, nucleon, $ρ$ meson, and $Δ$ baryon as functions of the squared momentum transfer $t$ in the region $0 \leq -t < 2 \; \text{GeV}^2$, as determined in a lattice QCD study with pion mass $m_π = 450(5) \; \text{MeV}$. By fitting the extracted GFFs using multipole and z-parameter expansion functional forms, we …
We estimate the energy loss distribution and investigate the quenching of hadron spectra in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions due to the collisional energy loss of energetic partons from hard parton collisions in the initial stage.
The interaction of spatially extended heavy hadrons is investigated in the framework of lattice QCD with dynamical quarks. In addition to the baryon-baryon potential results for the baryon-antibaryon and for the meson-meson system are presented. It is shown that the expected dipole forces have a very short range and that sea quarks play a minor important role.
Final state medium-induced gluon radiation in ultradense nuclear matter is examined and shown to favor large angle emission when compared to vacuum bremsstrahlung due to the suppression of collinear gluons. Perturbative expression for the contribution of its hadronic fragments to the back-to-back particle correlations is derived. It is found that in the limit of large jet energy loss gluon radiation determines the yield and angular distribution of | Delta phi | > Pi/2 di-hadrons to transverse momenta pT2 of the associated particles. Clear transition from enhancement to suppression of the away-…
We modified the gluon saturation model by rescaling the momentum fraction according to saturation momentum and introduced the Cooper-Frye hydrodynamic evolution to systematically study the pseudo-rapidity distributions of final charged hadrons at different energies and different centralities for Au-Au collisions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The features of both gluon saturation and hydrodynamic evolution at different energies and different centralities for Au-Au collisions are investigated in this paper.
We recently introduced a completely new way to study ultrarelativistic nuclear scattering by providing a link between the string model approach and a statistical description. A key issue is the microcanonical treatment of hadronizing individual quark matter droplets. In this paper we describe in detail the hadronization of these droplets according to n-body phase space, by using methods of statistical physics, i.e. constructing Markov chains of hadron configurations.
It has been predicted that dilepton production may be used as a quark-gluon plasma probe. We calculate the rapidity distributions of thermal dileptons produced by an evolving quark-gluon plasma assuming a longitudinal scaling expansion with initial conditions locally determined from the hadronic rapidity density. These distributions are compared with Drell-Yan production and semileptonic charm decays at invariant mass $M = 2$, 4, and 6 GeV.
Theoretical understanding of the observed jet quenching measurements at RHIC and LHC is challenging in QCD because it requires understanding of parton to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD. In this paper, by using closed-time path integral formalism, we derive the gauge invariant definition of the gluon to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD which is consistent with factorization theorem in non-equilibrium QCD from first principles.
The shear ($η$) and bulk ($ζ$) viscosities are calculated in a quasiparticle relaxation time approximation. The hadron phase is described within the relativistic mean field based model with scaled hadron masses and couplings. The quark phase is treated in terms of the heavy quark bag model fitted to the lattice data. A two-phase model allowing for the first order phase transition from the hadron phase to the strongly coupled quark gluon plasma is constructed by means of the Gibbs conditions. Temperature and baryon density dependence of the calculated viscosity-to-entropy ratios ($η/s$, $ζ/s$) …
Hypothesis of quark binding through condensation of gluons inside hadrons is formulated in the context of a renormalization group procedure for effective particles (RGPEP) in the light-front (LF) Hamiltonian approach to QCD. At the momentum scales of relative motion of hadronic constituents that are comparable with Lambda_QCD, the hypothetical boost-invariant constituent dynamics is identified using gauge symmetry. The resulting picture of mesons and baryons closely resembles constituent quark models with harmonic oscillator potentials, shares some features of AdS/QCD, and can be systematicall…
