A review on the two-pion Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets is presented. The characteristic quantities of the granular source extracted by imaging analysis are presented and compared with the HBT radii obtained by the usual Gaussian formula fit. The signals of granular sources are presented.
We investigate a domain-structured source in the pion interferometry of relativistic nuclear collisions. The source emits coherent pions intermittently with the background of chaotic pions. The coherent pions examined are either of a general nature or of disoriented chiral condensate. Two- and three-pion correlations for the source are shown to agree well with the recent NA44 experimental data.
We investigate the two-pion interferometry in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions in the granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets. The pion transverse momentum spectra and HBT radii of the granular sources agree well with the experimental data of the $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Au-Au and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV Pb-Pb most central collisions. In the granular source model the larger initial system breakup time may lead to the larger HBT radii $R_{\rm out}$, $R_{\rm side}$, and $R_{\rm long}$. However, the large droplet transverse expansion and limited average relative emitting time o…
We systematically investigate the pion transverse momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. The granular source model can well reproduce the experimental results of the Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV and the Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 2.76 TeV with different centralities. We examine the parameters of the granular source models with an uniform and Woods-Saxon initial energy distributions in a droplet. The parameters exhibit certain…
Three-pion interferometry is investigated for new information on the space-time structure of the pion source created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The two- and three-pion correlations are numerically computed for incoherent source functions based on the Bjorken hydrodynamical model, over a wide range of the kinematic variables. New information provided by three-pion interferometry, different from that provided by two-pion interferometry, should appear in the phases of the Fourier transform of the source function. Variables are identified that would be sensitive to the phases and …
The conditions for the HBT interferometry from stars are compared to those encountered in heavy ion reactions. As a consequence the formalism using wavepackets is developed. The modifications relative to the standard formalism with plane waves are presented, and the effects of the residual Coulomb interactions between charged pions and with the charged source are calculated.
We investigate the chaoticity parameter $λ$ in two-pion interferometry in an expanding boson gas model. The degree of Bose-Einstein condensation of identical pions, density distributions, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation functions are calculated for the expanding gas within the mean-field description with a harmonic oscillator potential. The results indicate that a sources with thousands of identical pions may exhibit a degree of Bose-Einstein condensation at the temperatures during the hadronic phase in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. This finite condensation may decrease the chao…
We investigate the two-pion interferometry in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions in the granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets. The pion transverse momentum spectra and HBT radii of the granular sources agree well with the experimental data of the most central Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV at RHIC and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV at LHC. In the granular source model the larger initial system breakup time for the LHC collisions as compared to the RHIC collisions may lead to the larger HBT radii $R_{\rm out}$, $R_{\rm side}$, and $R_{\rm long}$. Ho…
We systematically investigate the pion transverse momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the granular source model for the heavy ion collisions of Au-Au at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV and Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 2.76 TeV with different centralities. The granular source model can well reproduce the experimental results of the heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We examine the parameters involved in the granular source model. The experimental data of the momentum spectrum, elliptic flow,…
Puzzling discrepancies between recent pion interferometry data on Au+Au reactions at s^1/2 = 130 and 200 AGeV from RHIC and predictions based on ideal hydrodynamics are analyzed in terms of covariant parton transport theory. The discrepancies of out and longitudinal radii are significantly reduced when the finite opacity of the gluon plasma is taken into account.
Two- and three-pion correlation functions are investigated for a source that is not fully chaotic. Various models are examined to describe the source. The chaoticity and weight factor are evaluated in each model as measures of the strength of correlations and compared to experimental results. A new measure of three-pion correlation is also suggested.
Using a simple final-state rescattering model coupled with a simple Coulomb model, the effects of the central Coulomb potential on pion interferometry measurements in 158 GeV/nucleon Pb+Pb collisions are explored. Although the central Coulomb potential does not introduce correlations between pions, it does prevent an accurate measurement of the momentum difference. This momentum difference smearing effect leads to a reduction in the measured correlation radii and lambda parameters. These distortions are important in 158 GeV/nucleon Pb+Pb collisions because of large source sizes and the strong …
Using a multiphase transport (AMPT) model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic interactions, we study the pion interferometry at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We find that the two-pion correlation function is sensitive to the magnitude of the parton scattering cross section, which controls the parton density at which the transition from the partonic to hadronic matter occurs. Also, the emission source of pions is non-Gaussian, leading to source radii that can be more than twice larger than the radius parameters extracted from a Gaussian fit to the correlation function.
A $χ^2$ analysis is performed to test the resolving power of two-dimensional pion interferometry using for illustration the preliminary E802 data on $Si+Au$ at 14.6 AGeV/c. We find that the resolving power to distinguish two decoupling geometries of different dynamical models is enhanced by studying the variation of the mean $χ^2$ per degrees of freedom with respect to the range of the analysis in the $q_T,q_L$ plane. The preliminary data seem to rule out dynamical models with significant $ω,η$ resonance formation yields.
We examine the evolution of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) droplets with viscous hydrodynamics and analyze the pion transverse-momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in a granular source model consisting of viscous QGP droplets. The shear viscosity of the QGP droplet speeds up and slows down the droplet evolution in the central and peripheral regions of the droplet, respectively. The effect of the bulk viscosity on the evolution is negligible. Although there are viscous effects on the droplet evolution, the pion momentum spectrum and elliptic flow change littl…
The ALICE Collaboration measure the three- and four-pion Bose-Einstein correlations (BECs) in Pb-Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is speculated that the significant suppressions of multi-pion BECs are due to a considerable degree of coherent pion emission in the collisions. In this paper, we study the multi-pion BEC functions in a granular source model with coherent pion-emission droplets. We find that the intercepts of multi-pion correlation functions at the relative momenta near zero are sensitive to droplet number in the granular source. They decrease with decreasing dro…
We investigate two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations of quark-gluon plasma droplet sources in single-event measurements. We find that the distribution of the fluctuation between correlation functions of the single- and mixed-events provide useful signals to detect the granular structure of the source.
We address the question which additional information on the source shape and dynamics can be extracted from three-particle Bose-Einstein correlations. For chaotic sources the true three-particle correlation term is shown to be sensitive to the momentum dependence of the saddle point of the source and to its asymmetries around that point. For partially coherent sources the three-pion correlator allows to measure the degree of coherence without contamination from resonance decays. We derive the most general Gaussian parametrization of the two- and three-particle correlator for this case and disc…
Understanding the origins of collective, fluid-like behavior in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions constitutes one of the biggest open challenges in the field. In this Letter, it is argued that certain features in the multiplicity dependence of the source sizes extracted using pion interferometry may be understood quite naturally if small systems evolve hydrodynamically at sufficiently large multiplicities. Interferometry may therefore provide a baseline for probing and constraining the nature of collective behavior in nuclear collisions.
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.
We present a systematic analysis of two-pion interferometry for the central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 3, 5, 7, 11, 17, 27, 39, 62, 130 and 200 GeV/c with the help of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model. Emission source-size radius parameters $R_{long}$, $R_{out}$, $R_{side}$ and the chaotic parameter $λ$ are extracted and compared with the experimental data. Transverse momentum and azimuthal angle dependencies of the HBT radii are also discussed for central Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV/c. The results show that the HBT radii in central collisions do not change much above 7 GeV/c. For…
An extended pion source, which can be temporarily created by a high energy nuclear collision, will also absorb and distort the outgoing pions. We discuss how this effect alters the interferometric pattern of the two-pion momentum correlation function. In particular, we show that the two-pion correlation function decreases rapidly when the opening angle between the pions increases. The opening-angle dependence should serve as a new means of obtaining information about the pion source in the analysis of experimental data.
Based on the UrQMD transport model, the transverse momentum and the rapidity dependence of the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii $R_L$, $R_O$, $R_S$ as well as the cross term $R_{OL}$ at SPS energies are investigated and compared with the experimental NA49 and CERES data. The rapidity dependence of the $R_L$, $R_O$, $R_S$ is weak while the $R_{OL}$ is significantly increased at large rapidities and small transverse momenta. The HBT "life-time" issue (the phenomenon that the calculated $\sqrt{R_O^{2}-R_S^{2}}$ value is larger than the correspondingly extracted experimental data) is also present a…
We investigate pion source sizes through the Yano-Koonin-Podgoretski\uı (YKP) parametrization for the Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) effect in the CERN-SPS 158 GeV/A central collisions. We calculate two-particle correlation functions numerically based on a (3+1)-dimensional relativistic hydrodynamics with a first order phase transition and analyze the pair momentum dependence of the HBT radii extracted from the YKP parametrization in detail. We find that even in the case of a first order phase transition, expansion and the surface dominant freeze-out make the source in the hydrodynamical model opaq…
New type of pion interferometry formulas is derived, in which not only the correlator but also the pion multiplicity is taken consideration. The method to get information about initial emission probability of the unsymmetrized Bosons is given.
The observation of a granular structure in high-energy heavy-ion collisions can be used as a signature for the quark-gluon plasma phase transition, if the phase transition is first order in nature. We propose methods to detect a granular structure by the single-event intensity interferometry. We find that the correlation function from a chaotic source of granular droplets exhibits large fluctuations, with maxima and minima at relative momenta which depend on the relative coordinates of the droplet centers. The presence of this type of maxima and minima of a single-event correlation function at…
We use hydrodynamics to generate freeze-out configurations for non-central heavy-ion collisions at present and future collider energies. Such collisions are known to produce strong elliptic flow. The accompanying space-time structure of the source at freeze-out is analyzed using pion interferometry. Between RHIC and LHC energies the source deformation in the transverse plane changes sign. This leaves characteristic signatures in the emission angle dependence of the HBT radii.
We examine the two-pion interferometry for a granular source of quark-gluon plasma droplets. The evolution of the droplets is described by relativistic hydrodynamics with an equation of state suggested by lattice gauge results. Pions are assumed to be emitted thermally from the droplets at the freeze-out configuration characterized by a freeze-out temperature $T_f$. We find that the HBT radius $R_{out}$ decreases if the initial size of the droplets decreases. On the other hand, $R_{side}$ depends on the droplet spatial distribution and is relatively independent of the droplet size. It increase…
We perform an extensive study of the role played by the equation of state in the hydrodynamic evolution of the matter produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions. By using the same initial conditions and freeze-out scenario, the effects of different equations of state are compared by calculating their respective hydrodynamical evolution, particle spectra, harmonic flow coefficients $v_2$, $v_3$ and $v_4$ and two-pion interferometry radius parameters. The equations of state investigated contain distinct features, such as the nature of the phase transition, as well as strangeness and baryon de…
We calculate the two-pion correlation function for an expanding hadron source with a finite baryon density. The space-time evolution of the source is described by relativistic hydrodynamics and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radius is extracted after effects of collective expansion and multiple scattering on the HBT interferometry have been taken into account, using quantum probability amplitudes in a path-integral formalism. We find that this radius is substantially smaller than the HBT radius extracted from the freeze-out configuration.
The two-kaon interferometry at RHIC is studied in a multi-phase transport model. Similar to the pion case, we find strong space-time correlation at freeze-out for the kaon emission source, which results in a large positive $R_{\rm out}-t$ term and tends to reduce the $R_{\rm out}/R_{\rm side}$ ratio. Unlike the pion case, the source radii for kaons determined from the emission function are close to the radius parameters extracted from a Gaussian fit to the correlation function.
We present results on interferometry correlations for pions emitted in central p+Pb collisions at 5.02TeV in a 3+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamic model with initial conditions from the Glauber Monte Carlo model. The correlation function is calculated as a function of the pion pair rapidity. The extracted interferometry radii show a weak rapidity dependence, reflecting the lack of boost invariance of the pion distribution. A cross-term between the $out$ and $long$ directions is found to be nonzero. The results obtained in the hydrodynamic model are in fair agreement with recent data of the AT…
We study the HBT interferometry of ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions using a freezeout model in which free pions emerge in the course of the last binary collisions in the hadron gas. We show that the HBT correlators of both identical and non-identical pions change with respect to the case of independent pion production. Practical consequences for the design of the event generator with the built in Bose-Einstein correlations are discussed. We argue that the scheme of inclusive measurement of the HBT correlation function does not require the symmetrization of the multi-pion transition amplit…
The space-time evolution of the (1+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics with an initial quark-gluon plasma (QGP) produced in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is studied numerically. The particle-emitting sources undergo a crossover transition from the QGP to hadronic gas. We take into account a usual shear viscosity for the strongly coupled QGP as well as the bulk viscosity which increases significantly in the crossover region. The two-pion Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry for the viscous hydrodynamic sources is performed. The HBT analyses indicate that the viscosity effect on th…
We calculate the Gaussian radius parameters of the pion-emitting source in high energy heavy ion collisions, assuming a first order phase transition from a thermalized Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) to a gas of hadrons. Such a model leads to a very long-lived dissipative hadronic rescattering phase which dominates the properties of the two-pion correlation functions. The radii are found to depend only weakly on the thermalization time tau_i, the critical temperature T_c (and thus the latent heat), and the specific entropy of the QGP. The dissipative hadronic stage enforces large variations of the pi…
Intensity interferometry in noncentral heavy ion collisions provides access to novel information on the geometry of the effective pion-emitting source. We demonstrate analytically that, even for vanishing pair momentum, the cross terms $R_{ol}^2$ and $R_{sl}^2$ of the HBT correlation function in general show a strong first harmonic in their azimuthal dependence. The strength of this oscillation characterizes the tilt of the major axis of the spatial emission ellipsoid away from the direction of the beam. Event generator studies indicate that this tilt can be large (>20 degrees) at AGS energies…
Two-kaon and two-pion correlation functions for an expanding thermalized source are compared. In the Yano-Koonin-Podgoretskii parametrization of the correlation function, the HBT radius parameters are shown to obey M_\bot- scaling in the absence of collective transverse flow. This scaling is broken by transverse flow. An accurate comparison of pion and kaon correlations can thus resolve issue whether the observed M_\bot-dependence of the transverse radius parameter is due to transverse collective flow or other transverse gradients. Effects from resonance decays are shortly discussed.
A study of energy behavior of the pion spectra and interferometry scales is carried out for the top SPS, RHIC and LHC energies within the hydrokinetic approach. The latter allows one to describe evolution of quark-gluon and hadron matter as well as continuous particle emission from the fluid in agreement with the underlying kinetic equations. The main mechanisms that lead to the paradoxical, at first sight, behavior of the interferometry scales, are exposed. In particular, a slow decrease and apparent saturation of $R_{out}/R_{side}$ ratio with an energy growth happens due to a strengthening o…
Any-order pion interferometry formulas for fixed pion multiplicity events and for mixed events are given. Multipion Bose-Einstein correlation effects on the two-pion interferometry and source distribution are studied. It is shown that generalized pion interferometry formula should depneds on pion multiplicity distribution. Pion condensate is also discussed in the paper.
Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlations for charged pions in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=2.4 - 7.7~\text{GeV}$ (corresponding to beam kinetic energies in the fixed target frame from $E_{\rm{lab}}=1.23~\text{to}~30~\text{GeV/nucleon}$) are calculated using the UrQMD model with different equations of state. The effects of a phase transition at high baryon densities are clearly observed in the HBT parameters that are explored. It is found that the available data on the HBT radii, $R_{O}/R_{S}$ and $R^{2}_{O}-R^{2}_{S}$, in the investigated energy region favors a relatively st…
We investigate the fluctuations of pion elliptic flow, triangular flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation functions for the hydrodynamic sources with fluctuating initial conditions in the heavy ion collisions of the Au-Au at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV and the Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =2.76$ TeV. A method based on event-subcollection analysis is used to detect these fluctuations in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. We introduce a granularity length to describe the granular inhomogeneity of the initial sources, and investigate its relationships with the fluctuations of the flow harmoni…
The quantum statistics (QS) correlations of identical bosons are well known to be sensitive to the space-time extent and dynamics of the particle emitting source in high-energy collisions. While two-pion correlations are most often experimentally measured, the QS correlations of three-pions and higher are rarely explored. We present a set of techniques to isolate and analyze 3- and 4-pion QS correlations. In particular, the technique of built correlation functions allows one to more easily study the effects of quantum coherence at finite relative momenta instead of at the unmeasured intercept …
To extract information on hadron production dynamics in the ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision, the space-time structure of the hadron source has been measured using Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry. We study the distortion of the source images due to the effect of a final state interaction. We describe the interaction, taking place during penetrating through a cloud formed by evaporating particles, in terms of a one-body mean field potential localized in the vicinity of the source region. By adopting the semiclassical method, the modification of the propagation of an emitted particle…
The validity of using a pion optical potential to incorporate the effects of final state interactions on HBT interferometry is investigated. We find that if the optical potential is real, the standard formalism is modified as previously described in the literature. However, if the optical potential is complex, a new term involving pion emission from eliminated states must be included. The size of such effects in previous work by Cramer and Miller is assessed.
In this paper, we continue our phenomenological studies of heavy-ion collisions using 3+1d anisotropic hydrodynamics (aHydro). In previous works, we compared quasiparticle aHydro (aHydroQP) with ALICE 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb and RHIC 200 GeV Au-Au collision results. At both energies, the agreement was quite good between aHydroQP and the experimental data for many observables. In this work, we present comparisons of the Hanbury Brown--Twiss (HBT) radii and their ratios determined using pi+ pi+ pairs produced in 200 GeV Au-Au collisions. We first present comparisons with STAR results for the HBT radii an…
Pion and kaon correlations in relativistic nuclear collisions are studied in the framework of boost-invariant, cylindrically symmetric hydrodynamics. It is investigated how the inverse widths of the two-particle correlation functions in out- and side-direction depend on the average transverse momentum of the particle pair, the initial energy density, and the equation of state of the system. The QCD transition leads to a time delay in the expansion of the system and consequently to an enhancement of the ratio of inverse widths in out- and side-direction. This time-delay signal is found to be pa…
In the late stage of the evolution of a pion system in high-energy heavy-ion collisions when pions undergo multiple scatterings, the quantum transport of the interfering pair of identical pions plays an important role in determining the characteristics of the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interference. We study the quantum transport of the interfering pair using the path-integral method, in which the evolution of the bulk matter is described by relativistic hydrodynamics while the paths of the two interfering pions by test particles following the fluid positions and velocity fields. We investigate…
Using one- and two-body density matrices, we calculate the spatial and momentum distributions, two-particle Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) correlation functions, and the chaotic parameter $λ$ in HBT interferometry for the systems of boson gas within the harmonic oscillator potentials with anisotropic frequencies in transverse and longitudinal directions. The HBT chaotic parameter, which can be obtained by measuring the correlation functions at zero relative momentum of the particle pair, is related to the degree of Bose-Einstein condensation and thus the system environment. We investigate the effec…
We investigate quantal perturbations of the interferometric correlations of charged bosons by the Coulomb field of an instantaneous, charged source. The source charge increases the apparent source size by weakening the correlation at non-zero relative momenta. The effect is strongest for pairs with a small total momentum and is stronger for kaons than for pions of the same momenta. The experimental data currently available are well described by this effect without invoking Pratt's exploding source model. A simple expression is proposed to account for the effect.
Intensity interferometry of thermal photons, having transverse momenta $k_T \approx $ 0.1 -- 2.0 GeV, produced in relativistic collision of heavy nuclei is studied. It is seen to provide an accurate information about the temporal and spatial structure of the interacting system. The source dimensions and their $k_T$ dependence revealed by the photon interferometry, display a richness not seen in pion interferometry. We attribute this to difference in the source functions, the fact that photons come out from every stage of the collision and from every point in the system, and the fact that the r…
We study effects of a mean-field interaction on the spacetime geometry of the hadron source measured by utilizing the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We show how a modification of a pion amplitude, caused in the freeze-out process, is incorporated into the correlation function of the interferometry within a semiclassical method. Profiles of the distorted images are illustrated. To make a quantitative estimate of the effects, we construct a mean-field-interaction model on the basis of the pion-pion scattering amplitude, and then invest…
In Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry measurements using identical bosons, the chaoticity parameter lambda has been introduced phenomenologically to represent the momentum correlation function at zero relative momentum. It is useful to study an exactly solvable problem in which the lambda parameter and its dependence on the coherence properties of the boson system can be worked out in great detail. We are therefore motivated to study the state of a gas of noninteracting identical bosons at various temperatures held together in a harmonic oscillator potential that arises either externally or fr…
We discuss predictions for the pion and kaon interferometry measurements in relativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies. In particular, we confront relativistic transport model calculations that include explicitly a first-order phase transition from a thermalized quark-gluon plasma to a hadron gas with recent data from the RHIC experiments. We critically examine the "HBT-puzzle" both from the theoretical as well as from the experimental point of view. Alternative scenarios are briefly explained.
Imaging of sources from data within the intensity interferometry is discussed. In the two-pion case, the relative pion source function may be determined through the Fourier transformation of the correlation function. In the proton-proton case, the discretized source function may be fitted to the correlation data.
A method allowing studies of the hadronic matter at the early evolution stage in A+A collisions is developed. It is based on an interferometry analysis of approximately conserved values such as the averaged phase-space density (APSD) and the specific entropy of thermal pions. The plateau found in the APSD behavior vs collision energy at SPS is associated, apparently, with the deconfinement phase transition at low SPS energies; a saturation of this quantity at the RHIC energies indicates the limiting Hagedorn temperature for hadronic matter. It is shown that if the cubic power of effective temp…
We present a model study of single-particle spectra and two-particle Bose-Einstein correlations for opaque sources. We study the transverse mass dependence of the correlation radii R_\perp, R_\parallel and R_0 in the YKP parametrization and find a strong sensitivity of the temporal radius parameter R_0^2 to the source opacity. A simple comparison with the published data from 158 A GeV/c Pb+Pb collisions at CERN indicates that the pion source created in these collisions emits particles from the whole reaction volume and is not opaque. For opaque sources we find certain regions of inapplicabilit…
The present status of the use of two-particle intensity interferometry as a diagnostic tool to study the space-time dynamics of intermediate energy heavy ion collisions is examined. Calculations for the two-proton and two-pion correlation functions are presented and compared to experiment. The calculations are based on the nuclear Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport theory.
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 geometrie…
I review recent applications of two-particle intensity interferometry in high energy physics, concentrating on relativistic heavy ion collisions. By measuring hadronic single-particle spectra and two-particle correlations in hadron-hadron or heavy-ion collisions, the size and dynamical state of the collision fireball at freeze-out can be reconstructed. I discuss the relevant theoretical methods and their limitations. By applying the formalism to recent pion correlation data from Pb+Pb collisions at CERN we demonstrate that the collision zone has undergone strong transverse growth before freeze…
We present a relativistic quantum mechanical treatment of opacity and refractive effects that allows reproduction of observables measured in two-pion (HBT) interferometry and pion spectra at RHIC. The inferred emission duration is substantial. The results are consistent with the emission of pions from a system that has a restored chiral symmetry.