A comprehensive introduction is given to the field of relativistic nuclear collisions, and the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. The content of this complex of reviews is shown.
Status and prospects of nuclear clustering studies by dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion are presented. The unstable $^{8}$Be and $^{9}$B nuclei are identified in dissociation of the isotopes $^{9}$Be, $^{10}$B, $^{10}$C and $^{11}$C, and the Hoyle state in the cases $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O. On this ground searching for the Hoyle state and more complex $α$-particle states in the dissociation of the heavier nuclei is suggested. A detailed study of a low-density baryonic matter arising in dissociation of the heaviest nuclei is forthcoming long-term problem. An analysis o…
This article summarizes our present knowledge about nuclear matter at the highest energy densities and its formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We review what is known about the structure and properties of the quark-gluon plasma and survey the observables that are used to glean information about it from experimental data.
Many probes are proposed to determine the quark-gluon plasma and explore its properties in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Some of them are related to initial states of the collisions, such as collective flow, Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation, chiral magnetic effects and so on. The initial states can come from geometry overlap of the colliding nuclei, fluctuations or nuclear structure with the intrinsic geometry asymmetry. The initial geometry asymmetry can transfer to the final momentum distribution in the aspect of hydrodynamics during the evolution of the fireball. Different f…
We extensively study the system size dependence of nuclear collisions with a multi-phase transport model. Previously certain key parameters for the initial condition needed significantly different values for $pp$ and central $AA$ collisions for the model to reasonably describe the yields and transverse momentum spectra of the bulk matter in those collision systems. Here we scale two key parameters, the Lund string fragmentation parameter $b_L$ and the minijet transverse momentum cutoff $p_0$, with local nuclear thickness functions from the two colliding nuclei. This allows the model to use the…
These conferences proceedings summarize the experimental findings of collective effects in nuclear collisions, as presented at the Quark Matter 2018 conference.
We introduce a novel set of observables associated to the rapidly developing field of persistent homology for the quantitative characterization of nuclear collisions and their evolution. Persistent homology allows for the identification of topological and homological characteristics of distributions in multi-dimensional spaces. We demonstrate here how to apply the toolset of persistent homology to the extraction of novel clustering signatures and the identification of long-range flow correlations in the particle production process of nuclear collisions.
This article describes calculations of the yield ratio of anti-particles to the yield of particles ($\bar{p}/p$, $\bar{d}/d$,$\overline{^{3}\mathrm{He}}$/$^{3}$He) in proton-proton and nuclear-nuclear interactions using the self-similarity parameter in the central rapidity region. The used approach is based on the study of relativistic nuclear interactions in the four-velocity space. The results of the calculations are compared with the existing experimental data in a wide center-of-mass energy range ($SPS$, $RHIC$, $LHC$). Within this approach the inclusive spectra of pions and kaons and rati…
We review direct photons in the phenomenology of nuclear collisions at relativistic energies. Direct photons carry information about the space-time evolution of nuclear collisions because the QCD medium is transparent against colorless particles. After a status summary of theoretical and experimental studies, transverse momentum spectra and azimuthal momentum anisotropies of direct photons are studied in the context of the hydrodynamic modeling of relativistic nuclear collisions with emphasis on pre-equilibrium photons. It is implied that pre-equilibrium photons can be as important as thermal …
Extraction of ground-state nuclear deformations from ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions: Nuclear structure physics context
University of York(约克大学);University of Warsaw(华沙大学);Michigan State University(密歇根州立大学);University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill(北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校);Duke University(杜克大学)
The quark matter created in relativistic nuclear collisions is interpreted as a nearly-perfect fluid. The recent efforts to explore its finite-density properties in the beam energy scan programs motivate one to revisit the issue of the local rest frame fixing in off-equilibrium hydrodynamics. I first investigate full second-order relativistic hydrodynamics in the Landau and the Eckart frames. Then numerical hydrodynamic simulations are performed to elucidate the effect of frame choice on flow observables in relativistic nuclear collisions. The results indicate that the flow can differ in the L…
The penetrating nature of electromagnetic signals makes them suitable probes to explore the properties of the strongly-interacting medium created in relativistic nuclear collisions. We examine the effects of the initial conditions and shear relaxation time on the spectra and flow coefficients of electromagnetic probes, using an event-by-event 3+1D viscous hydrodynamic simulation (MUSIC).
I show that the average transverse momentum, $\langle p_t \rangle$, of the hadrons emitted in relativistic nuclear collisions can be used as a ``knob'' to control the strength of the magnetic field induced by the spectator and the participant protons over the overlap region. I thus argue that any observable sensitive to this magnetic field is nontrivially correlated with $\langle p_t \rangle$ at a given collision centrality.
We review the equation of state of QCD matter at finite densities. We discuss the construction of the equation of state with net baryon number, electric charge, and strangeness using the results of lattice QCD simulations and hadron resonance gas models. Its application to the hydrodynamic analyses of relativistic nuclear collisions suggests that the interplay of multiple conserved charges is important in the quantitative understanding of the dense nuclear matter created at lower beam energies. Several different models of the QCD equation of state are discussed for comparison.
The direct photon emission model in relativistic nuclear colliders has been improved in recent years for reducing the discrepancy between theoretical estimations and experimental data and for understanding the properties of the QCD matter. In this study, the contribution of pre-equilibrium photons are investigated in addition to those of prompt and thermal photons in the framework of a relativistic hydrodynamic model. The numerical simulations at an LHC energy suggest that the pre-equilibrium photons may be relevant at intermediate transverse momentum near the saturation momentum scale, increa…
We propose a new method to determine the spatially or impact-parameter dependent nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) using the double parton scattering (DPS) processes in high-energy heavy-ion (proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus) collisions. We derive a simple generic DPS formula in nuclear collisions by accommodating both the nuclear collision geometry and the spatially dependent nuclear modification effect, under the assumption that the impact-parameter dependence of nPDFs is only related to the nuclear thickness function. While the geometric effect is widely adopted, the impact of…
I show that particle collider experiments on relativistic nuclear collisions can serve as direct probes of the deformation of the colliding nuclear species. I argue that collision events presenting very large multiplicities of particles and very small values of the average transverse momentum of the emitted hadrons probe collision geometries in which the nuclear ellipsoids fully overlap along their longer side. By looking at these events one selects interaction regions whose elliptic anisotropy is determined by the deformed nuclear shape, which becomes accessible experimentally through the mea…