Proceedings for the 5th International Workshop on the Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement (CPOD 2009), Brookhaven National Laboratory, June 8-12, 2009. 9 pages, 9 figures
The PHENIX experiment has conducted searches for the QCD critical point with measurements of multiplicity fluctuations, transverse momentum fluctuations, event-by-event kaon-to-pion ratios, elliptic flow, and correlations. Measurements have been made in several collision systems as a function of centrality and transverse momentum. The results do not show significant evidence of critical behavior in the collision systems and energies studied, although several interesting features are discussed.
The nature of the quark-hadron phase transition can be investigated through analyzing the space-time structure of the hadron emission source. For this, the Bose-Einstein or HBT correlations of identified charged particles are among the best observables. In this paper we present the latest results from the RHIC PHENIX experiment on such measurements.
The last decades of high energy physics revealed, that in ultra-relativistic ion-ion collisions, a strongly interacting quark gluon plasma (sQGP) is created. Varying the collision energy allows for the investigation of the phase diagram of QCD matter. The nature of the quark-hadron transition can be studied via femtoscopy, as the investigation of momentum correlations in heavy ion reactions reveals the space-time structure of the hadron production of the sQGP. Going beyond the Gaussian assumption the shape of this source may be described by Lévy distributions. In this paper we report on recent…
Exploration of the rich structure of the QCD phase diagram is an important topic in the RHIC heavy ion program. One of the ultimate goals of this program is to search for the critical endpoint. Investigation of the space-time structure of hadron emissions at various phase transition points using Bose-Einstein correlations of identical bosons may provide insight on the location of the critical endpoint. PHENIX has performed comprehensive measurements of the Bose-Einstein correlation in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 15, 19, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV, where we incorporated Levy-type source func…
The RHIC Beam Energy Scan focuses on mapping the QCD phase diagram and pinpointing the location of a possible critical end point. Bose-Einstein correlations and event-by-event fluctuations of conserved quantities, measured as a function of centrality and collision energy, are promising tools in these studies. Recent lattice QCD and statistical thermal model calculations predict that higher-order cumulants of the fluctuations are sensitive indicators of the phase transition. Products of these cumulants can be used to extract the freeze-out parameters (1) and to locate the critical point (2). Tw…
As a colorless probe, direct photons balance the $p_T$ of the away-side jet at leading order. Direct photon-hadron correlations are thus an excellent probe for nuclear structure and QCD effects, including parton energy loss in the Quark-Gluon Plasma. PHENIX has measured $π^{0}$ and direct photon-triggered two-particle azimuthal correlations in a variety of collision systems ranging from $p$$+$$p$ to Au+Au at 200 GeV. In $p$$+$Au and $d$$+$Au collisions, no modification of the per-trigger jet yield or away-side correlation width compared to $p$$+$$p$ collisions is observed for direct photon tri…
The study of liquid-gas phase transition in heavy ion collisions has generated a lot of interest amongst the nuclear physicists in the recent years. In heavy ion collisions, there is no direct way of measuring the state variables like entropy, pressure, energy and hence unambiguous characterization of phase transition becomes difficult. This work proposes new signatures of phase transition that can be extracted from the observables which are easily accessible in experiments. It is observed that the temperature dependence of the first order derivative of the order parameters in nuclear liquid g…
Measurement of M, the total multiplicity, for central collision between comparable mass heavy ions can provide a signature for first order phase transition. The derivative of M with respect to E*/A where E* is the excitation energy in the centre of mass and A the total mass of the dissociating system is expected to go through maximum as a function of E*. Theoretical modelling shows that this is the energy where the specific heat Cv maximizes which typically happens at first order phase transition. The measurement of total M is probably feasible in more than one laboratory.
Beam energy scan programs in heavy-ion collisions aim to explore the QCD phase structure at high baryon density. Sensitive observables are applied to probe the signatures of the QCD phase transition and critical point in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and SPS. Intriguing structures, such as dip, peak and oscillation, have been observed in the energy dependence of various observables. In this paper, an overview is given and corresponding physics implications will be discussed for the experimental highlights from the beam energy scan programs at the STAR, PHENIX and NA61/SHINE experiments. Further…
Nuclear level density at low excitation energies is proposed as an indicator of the first order phase transitions in nuclei. The new signature, a maximum value of the level density at the critical point, appears to be sensitive to the detailed way the phase transition takes place in different nuclear regions: it is consistent with phase coexistence in the N=90 region, and with a rapid crossing of the two phases, without their coexistence/mixing at the critical point in the N=60 region, respectively. Candidates for critical point nuclei are proposed for odd-mass and odd-odd nuclei, using correl…
We explore two-particle transfer reactions as a unique probe of the occurence of shape coexistence in shape phase transitions. The (t,p) reactions to the ground state and to excited $0^+$ states are calculated for the isotope chain of even-even Zirconium isotopes starting from stable nuclei up to beyond current experimental limits. Two-particle spectroscopic factors derived from Monte Carlo Shell Model calculations are used, together with the sequential description of the two-particle transfer reaction mechanism. The calculation shows a clear signature for a shape phase transition between $^{9…
