Quark-Gluon Plasma at RHIC and the LHC: Perfect Fluid too Perfect?
James L. Nagle, Ian G. Bearden, William A. Zajc
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11 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the New Journal of Physics focus issue "Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas"
Relativistic heavy ion collisions have reached energies that enable the creation of a novel state of matter termed the quark-gluon plasma. Many observables point to a picture of the medium as rapidly equilibrating and expanding as a nearly inviscid fluid. In this article, we explore the evolution of experimental flow observables as a function of collision energy and attempt to reconcile the observed similarities across a broad energy regime in terms of the initial conditions and viscous hydrodynamics. If the initial spatial anisotropies are very similar for all collision energies from 39 GeV to 2.76 TeV, we find that viscous hydrodynamics might be consistent with the level of agreement for v2 of unidentified hadrons as a function of pT . However, we predict a strong collision energy dependence for the proton v2(pT). The results presented in this paper highlight the need for more systematic studies and a re-evaluation of previously stated sensitivities to the early time dynamics and properties of the medium.
Triple-gluon elastic scatterings are briefly reviewed since the scatterings explain the early thermalization puzzle in Au-Au collisions at RHIC energies. A numerical solution of the transport equation with the triple-gluon elastic scatterings demonstrates gluon momentum isotropy achieved at a time of the order of 0.65 fm/c. Triple-gluon scatterings lead to a short thermalization time of gluon matter.
I present a theory-guided review of RHIC data, arguing that they provide strong evidence for formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma at RHIC. Strong radial flow reflects high thermal pressure in the reaction zone. Large elliptic flow proves that the pressure builds up quickly and the system thermalizes on a very short time scale of less than 1 fm/c. The observed hadron yields are consistent with statistical hadron formation from a quark-gluon plasma, followed by immediate chemical decoupling due to strong radial expansion. The observed suppression of jets appears to confirm the predicted…
Differential elliptic flow and particle spectra are calculated taking into account the finite transport opacity of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au at Ecm ~ 130 A GeV at RHIC. Covariant numerical solutions of the ultrarelativistic Boltzmann equation are obtained using the MPC parton cascade technique. For typical pQCD (~3 mb) elastic cross sections, extreme initial gluon densities, dN/deta ~ 15000, are required to reproduce the elliptic flow saturation pattern reported by STAR. However, we show that the solutions depend mainly on the transport opacity, $χ=\int dz σ_tρ_g$, and thus the data c…
We study the radiative correction to $p_\perp$-broadening of a fast quark in a quark-gluon plasma beyond the soft gluon approximation. We find that the radiative contribution to quark $\langle p_\perp^2\rangle$ for RHIC and LHC conditions is negative.
The predicted quenching of jets in A+A at RHIC energies has been discovered by STAR and PHENIX in preliminary data reported at this conference. We apply the GLV theory of QCD radiative energy loss to estimate the opacity, L/λ_g, of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au collisions at 130 AGeV. We show that (in contrast to the factor of two Cronin enhancement of π^0 found at the SPS by WA98) the factor of 5-8 suppression of p_T \sim 2-4 GeV π^0 reported by PHENIX can be accounted for with an effective static plasma opacity L/λ_g \approx 3-4.
After 15 years of heavy-ion collision experiments at the AGS and SPS, the recent turn-on of RHIC has initiated a new stage of quark-gluon plasma studies. I review the evidence for deconfined quark-gluon matter at SPS energies and the recent confirmation of some of the key ideas by the new RHIC data. Measurements of the elliptic flow at RHIC provide strong evidence for efficient thermalization during the very early partonic collision stage, resulting in a well-developed quark-gluon plasma with almost ideal fluid-dynamical collective behaviour and a lifetime of several fm/c.
The coherent hadron production analogous to Cherenkov radiation of photons gives rise to the ring-like events. Being projected on the ring diameter they produce the two-bump structure recently observed for the away-side jets at RHIC. The position of the peaks and their height determine such properties of the hadronic medium as its nuclear index of refraction, the parton density, the free path length and the energy loss of Cherenkov gluons. Beside comparatively low energy gluons observed at RHIC, there could be high energy gluons at LHC, related to the high energy region of positive real part o…
We study chemical equilibration of quarks and gluons in central nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The initial quark and gluon densities are taken from earlier studies as well as from recent perturbative QCD estimates and are then evolved via rate equations coupled to longitudinally boost-invariant fluid dynamics. We find that, for RHIC initial conditions, the lifetime of quark-gluon matter is too short in order for the quark and gluon number densities to chemically equilibrate prior to hadronization. In contrast, at LHC energies chemical equilibration is complete before the system h…
Since the early eighties, we have shared with Leon Van Hove the following view. That if a QGP were produced in high energy heavy ion colliders, that its hadronization products would likely come from small localized in phase space bubbles of plasma. We develop a model based on HIJING, to which we added a ring of adjoining multiple bubbles in the central rapidity region. Our simulations were designed to be tested by the forthcoming RHIC STAR detector data for 65 GeV/n Au colliding with 65 GeV/n Au. We took into account background and resonance effects to allow a direct comparison with the data. …
In this contribution to the Quark Matter 2012 conference, we study whether energy loss models established for RHIC energies to describe the quenching of heavy quarks can be applied at LHC with the same success. We also benefit from the larger $p_T$-range accessible at this accelerator to test the impact of gluon damping on observables such as the nuclear modification factor.
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.
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was built to re-create and study in the laboratory the extremely hot and dense matter that filled our entire universe during its first few microseconds. Its operation since June 2000 has been extremely successful, and the four large RHIC experiments have produced an impressive body of data which indeed provide compelling evidence for the formation of thermally equilibrated matter at unprecedented temperatures and energy densities -- a "quark-gluon plasma (QGP)". A surprise has been the discovery that this plasma behaves like an almost perfect fluid, w…
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.
A new Monte Carlo model of jet quenching in nuclear collisions, CUJET1.0, is applied to predict the jet flavor dependence of the nuclear modification factor for fragments {\it $f=π,D,B,e^-$} from quenched jet flavors {\it $g,u,c,b$} in central collisions at RHIC and LHC. The nuclear modification factors for different flavors are predicted to exhibit a novel level crossing pattern over a transverse momentum range $5< p_T< 100$ GeV which can test jet-medium dynamics in quark gluon plasmas.
We investigate how thermalization of gluons depends on the initial conditions assumed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC. The study is based on simulations employing the pQCD inspired parton cascade solving the Boltzmann equation for gluons. We consider independently produced minijets with $p_T > p_0=1.3 \sim 2.0$ GeV and a color glass condensate as possible initial conditions for the freed gluons. It turns out that full kinetic equilibrium is achieved slightly sooner in denser system and its timescale tends to saturate. Compared with the kinetic equilibration we find a stronger…
Initial conditions for quark-gluon plasma formation at $τ=0.1\fm$ are considered in lowest order perturbative QCD. Chemical composition, thermalization of the formed semihard quark-gluon system and especially implications of the new HERA parton distributions with the enhancement at small $x$ are studied. The plasma at $τ=0.1\fm$ is shown to be strongly gluon dominated both at RHIC and LHC, and a possibility for rapid thermalization of gluons at LHC is pointed out. Uncertainties in the calculations, particularly shadowing corrections to the parton distributions, are discussed. Free streaming an…
A fast jet propagating through partonic matter loses energy by medium-induced gluon radiation. We propose a method to detect the energy loss of jets and the final-state interaction of the radiated gluons and the jets with the partonic medium. By embedding jets and radiated energy into a parton cascade, we find that the fate of lost jets can be studied by analyzing the momentum distribution of soft hadrons relative to the jet axis.
Heavy quark energy loss in a hot QCD plasma is computed taking into account the competing effects due to suppression of zeroth order gluon radiation below the plasma frequency and the enhancement of gluon radiation due to first order medium induced Bremsstrahlung. The results suggest a surprising degree of cancellation between the two medium effects for charm quarks and provides a possible explanation for the null effect observed by PHENIX in the prompt electron spectrum in Au+Au at $\surd s=$ 130 AGeV.
We study J/psi production at RHIC and LHC energies with both initial production and regeneration. We solve the coupled set of transport equation for the J/psi distribution in phase space and the hydrodynamic equation for evolution of quark-gluon plasma. At RHIC, continuous regeneration is crucial for the J/psi momentum distribution while the elliptic flow is still dominated by initial production. At LHC energy, almost all the initially created J\psis are dissociated in the medium and regeneration dominates the J/psi properties.
Hadron multiplicity in the central rapidity region of high-energy heavy-ion collisions is investigated within a two-component mini-jet model which consists of soft and semi-hard particle production. The hard contribution from mini-jets is reevaluated using the latest parameterization of parton distributions and nuclear shadowing. The energy dependence of the experimental data from RHIC requires a strong nuclear shadowing of the gluon distribution in this model. The centrality dependence of the hadron multiplicity at $\sqrt{s}=130$ GeV is reproduced well with the impact-parameter dependent part…
Although Tevatron has discovered top quark and LHC (pp collisions) has discovered Higgs boson but the RHIC and LHC heavy-ion colliders have not discovered thermalized quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This is because the experimental data of top quark at Tevatron and the experimental data of Higgs boson at LHC are compared with the exact first principle calculation but the experimental data at RHIC and LHC are compared with simplistic models and assumptions which are not exact first principle calculation. In this paper we show that the exact first principle method to study quark-gluon plasma at RHIC a…
We estimate the survival probability of $J/ψ$ in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, using both short-distance QCD and nuclear absorption mechanism. The suppression is found to be almost 100 percent for a thermally equilibrating quark-gluon plasma. The measurement of such a huge suppression of $J/ψ$ may suggest the existence of a deconfined partonic medium, possibly a thermalised quark-gluon plasma, at RHIC.
After reviewing some basic concepts of the theory of strongly interacting matter above nuclear energy density and reviewing some salient results of the experimental program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), these lectures explain why the quark-gluon plasma observed in the RHIC experiments has been called a ``perfect liquid.'' They then give an introduction to some recent ideas concerning the possible origin of the nearly inviscid nature of the quark-gluon plasma and discuss the connection between low viscosity and strong parton energy loss of hot QCD matter.
We calculate and compare bremsstrahlung and collisional energy loss of hard partons traversing a quark-gluon plasma. Our treatment of both processes is complete at leading order in the coupling and accounts for the probabilistic nature of the jet energy loss. We find that the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ for neutral $π^0$ production in heavy ion collisions is sensitive to the inclusion of collisional and radiative energy loss contributions while the averaged energy loss only slightly increases if collisional energy loss is included for parent parton energies $E\gg T$. These results are…
We discuss the recent claim that hadron multiplicities measured at RHIC energies are directly described in terms of gluon degrees of freedom fixed from the initial conditions of central heavy ion collisions. The argument is based on the parton saturation scenario expected to be valid at high parton densities and on the assumption of conserved gluon number. Alternatively we conjecture that "bottom-up" equilibration before hadronization modifies this picture, due to nonconservation of the number of gluons.
The lecture is a brief review of the following topics: (i) collective flow phenomena in heavy ion collisions. The data from RHIC indicate robust collective flows, well described by hydrodynamics with expected Equation of State. The transport properties turned out to be unexpected, with very small viscosity; (ii) physics of highly excited matter produced in heavy ion collisions at T_c<T<4T_c is different from weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma because of relatively strong coupling generating bound states of quasiparticles; (iii) wider discussion of other ``strongly coupled systems'' including st…
In 1996, D.H. Rischke and M. Gyulassy proposed to use the time-delay signal in Bose-Einstein correlations (BEC) as a signature for the possible formation of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In particular, they suggested to measure the ratio of the transversal interferometry radii, $R_{out}/R_{side}$, which can be obtained by fitting experimental BEC data with a parametrization introduced by G. Bertsch et al. in 1988. The transverse radius parameter $R_{out}$ has compared to the transverse radius parameter $R_{side}$ an additional temporal dependence which should…
Recent data on the azimuthal and transverse momentum dependence of high-pT>10 GeV pion nuclear modification factors in nuclear collisions at RHIC/BNL and LHC/CERN are analyzed in terms of a wide class of jet-energy loss models and a variety of transverse expanding collective flow backgrounds. RHIC data at 200 AGeV are found to be surprisingly consistent with rather different dE/dx models when coupled to recent 2+1D minimally viscous QGP flow field predictions. However, extrapolations to LHC, with parameters fixed at RHIC, favor running coupling QCD based energy-loss models over fixed coupling …
A strong $J/ψ$ suppression in central Au+Au collisions has been observed by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We develop a hydro+$J/ψ$ model in which hot quark-gluon matter is described by the full (3+1)-dimensional relativistic hydrodynamics and $J/ψ$ is treated as an impurity traversing through the matter. The experimental $J/ψ$ suppression pattern in mid-rapidity is reproduced well by the sequential melting of $χ_{\rm c}$, $ψ'$, and $J/ψ$ in dynamically expanding fluid. The melting temperature of directly produced $J/ψ$ is well constrained by the participa…
We study the production and equilibration of the gluon-minijet plasma expected to be formed in the central region of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the BNL-RHIC and the CERN-LHC by solving a self-consistent relativistic transport equation. We compute the minijet production within perturbative QCD. Subsequent collisions among the semi-hard partons are treated by considering the elastic gg -> gg processes with screening of the long wavelength modes taken into account. We determine the time $τ_{eq}$ where close to ideal hydrodynamic flow sets in, and find rather similar numbers for cen…
A 1+3 dimensional solution of relativistic hydrodynamics is analyzed in this paper. Momentum distribution and other observables are calculated from the solution and compared to hadronic measurements from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The solution is compatible with the data, but only the freeze-out point of the evolution is determined. Many equation of states and initial states (initial temperatures) are valid with the same freeze-out distribution, thus the same hadronic observables. The observable that would distinguish between these initial temperatures is momentum distribution…
In gold-gold collisions of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) a perfect fluid of quarks, sometimes called the strongly interacting quark gluon plasma (sQGP) is created for an extremely short time. The time evolution of this fluid can be described by hydrodynamical models. After expansion and cooling, the freeze-out happens and hadrons are created. Their distribution reveals information about the final state of the fluid. To investigate the time evolution one needs to analyze penetrating probes, such as direct photon observables. Transverse momentum distributions of low energy direct ph…
Radial and elliptic flow in non-central heavy ion collisions can constrain the effective Equation of State(EoS) of the excited nuclear matter. To this end, a model combining relativistic hydrodynamics and a hadronic transport code(RQMD [17]) is developed. For an EoS with a first order phase transition, the model reproduces both the radial and elliptic flow data at the SPS. With the EoS fixed from SPS data, we quantify predictions at RHIC where the Quark Gluon Plasma(QGP) pressure is expected to drive additional radial and elliptic flow. Currently, the strong elliptic flow observed in the first…
For central heavy ion collisions at the RHIC energy, the entropy per unit rapidity dS/dy at freeze-out is extracted with minimal model dependence from available experimental measurements of particle yields, spectra, and source sizes estimated from two-particle interferometry. The extracted entropy rapidity density is consistent with lattice gauge theory results for a thermalized quark-gluon plasma with an energy density estimated from transverse energy production at RHIC.
We calculate the elliptic flow of thermal photons from Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies for a range of values for the formation time $τ_0$ but fixed entropy (or particle rapidity density). The results are found to be quite sensitive to $τ_0$. The $v_2$ for photons decreases as $τ_0$ decreases and admits a larger contribution from the QGP phase which has a smaller $v_2$. The elliptic flow coefficient for hadrons, on the other hand, is only marginally dependent on $τ_0$.
We perform a joint analysis of the data from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC on the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$. The computations are performed within the light-cone path integral approach to induced gluon emission. Our results show that slow variation of $R_{AA}$ from RHIC to LHC energies indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.
Heavy quark energy loss in a hot QCD plasma is computed taking into account the competing effects due to suppression of zeroth order gluon radiation bellow the plasma frequency and the enhancement of gluon radiation due to transition energy loss and medium induced Bremsstrahlung. Heavy quark medium induced radiative energy loss is derived to all orders in opacity, $(L/λ_g)^n$. Numerical evaluation of the energy loss suggest small suppression of high $p_\perp$ charm quarks, and therefore provide a possible explanation for the null effects observed by PHENIX in the prompt electron spectrum in $A…
The Quark Gluon String Model (QGSM) reproduces well the global characteristics of the $pp$ collisions at RHIC and LHC, e.g., the pseudorapidity and transverse momenta distributions at different centralities. The main goal of this work is to employ the Monte Carlo QGSM for description of femtoscopic characteristics in $pp$ collisions at RHIC and LHC. The study is concentrated on the low multiplicity and multiplicity averaged events, where no collective effects are expected. The different procedures for fitting the one-dimensional correlation functions of pions are studied and compared with the …
The event-by-event multiplicity distribution, the energy densities and energy density weighted eccentricity moments epsilon_n (up to n=6) at early times in heavy-ion collisions at both RHIC (root-s=200 GeV) and LHC (root-s=2.76 TeV) are computed in the IP-Glasma model. This framework combines the impact parameter dependent saturation model (IP-Sat) for nucleon parton distributions (constrained by HERA deeply inelastic scattering data) with an event-by-event classical Yang-Mills description of early-time gluon fields in heavy-ion collisions. The model produces multiplicity distributions that ar…
The presence of thermal gluons reduces the stimulated gluon emission off a heavy quark propagating in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) while absorption causes reduction of the radiative energy loss. On the other hand, the chromo-electromagnetic field fluctuations present in the QGP lead to collisional energy gain of the heavy quark. The net effect of the thermal gluon absorption and field fluctuations is a reduction of the total energy loss of the heavy quark, prominent at the lower momenta. We consider both kind of the energy gains along with the usual losses, and compute the nuclear modification…
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…
The Color Glass Condensate formalism and its application to high energy heavy ion collisions at RHIC are discussed. We argue that the RHIC data supports the view that the Color Glass Condensate provides the initial conditions for gold-gold collisions at RHIC while final state (Quark Gluon Plasma) effects are responsible for the high $p_t$ suppression in mid rapidity. At forward rapidities in deuteron-gold collisions, however, Color Glass Condensate is the underlying physics of the observed suppression of the particle spectra and their centrality dependence.
There is a major need to better constrain nuclear parton densities in order to provide reliable perturbative QCD predictions at the LHC as well as to probe possible non-linear evolution at small values of x. In these proceedings, we discuss how the production of prompt photons at large rapidity in p-p and d-Au collisions at RHIC (sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV) is sensitive to the nuclear modifications of gluon distributions at x~0.001 and at rather low scales, Q^2~10 GeV^2. The nuclear production ratio, R_dAu=sigma(d+A->gamma+X)/(2A sigma(p+p->gamma X), is computed for isolated prompt photons at NLO usin…
We investigate consequences of local energy-momentum conservation for initial eccentricity coefficients in heavy ion collisions at not too high energies relevant for CERN SPS and RHIC BES. Different models of energy density available for pion production are considered. We study dependence of eccentricity coefficients on space-time rapidity for different impact parameters. The naive formula how to define eccentricities breaks with our initial conditions and must be corrected. We predict considerable eccentricities for $ε_{1,2,3,4}$ and specific dependence on space-time rapidity as well as on im…
We study the production of bottomonium states in heavy-ion reactions at collider energies available at RHIC and LHC. We employ an earlier constructed rate equation approach which accounts for both suppression and regeneration mechanisms in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and hadronization phases of the evolving thermal medium. Our previous predictions utilizing two limiting cases of strong and weak bottomonium binding in the QGP are updated by (i) checking the compatibility of the pertinent spectral functions with lattice-QCD results for euclidean correlators, (ii) adapting the initial conditions…
Recent hexadecapole (v4) and elliptic (v2) flow measurements are used to constrain estimates for the degree of local equilibrium, mean free path $λ$, and the viscosity to entropy density ratio (eta/s) of the plasma produced in Au+Au collisions at RootS = 200 GeV. The eccentricity-scaled flow coefficients v2/e2 and v4/e4 indicate that the plasma achieves a degree of local equilibrium within 5 - 10% of the value expected for a fluid with eta/s equal to the conjectured lower bound of 1/4pi. Estimates for $λ$ and eta/s as a function of collision centrality and particle transverse momentum pT, poin…
Nuclear modification factor $I_{AA}$ in $AA$ collisions at RHIC and LHC energies in scenarios with and without quark-gluon plasma formation in $pp$ collisions
本文计算了RHIC和LHC能量下AA碰撞中的核修正因子$I_{AA}$，比较有无夸克-胶子等离子体形成的场景，预测7 TeV O+O碰撞结果，并指出测量$I_{OO}$可揭示$pp$碰撞中的喷注淬火现象。
The production and space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC are investigated with the partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings). Heavy quarks, produced in primary hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, are sampled using the Monte Carlo event generator PYTHIA or the leading order mini-jet model in conjunction with the Glauber model, revealing a strong sensitivity on the parton distribution functions, scales, and heavy quark mass. In a comprehensive study exploring different charm masses…
We study the intensity interferometry with lepton pairs for nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. It is argued that the invariant mass dependence of HBT radii extracted from the correlation functions of dilepton pairs can be used as an efficient tool to scale the size and life time of the quark gluon plasma expected to be formed in nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC. Quantitatively different magnitudes of HBT radii are obtained at RHIC and LHC indicating stronger radial flow at LHC.
The specific shear viscosity (eta/s)_QGP of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) can be extracted from elliptic flow data in heavy-ion collisions by comparing them with the dynamical model VISHNU which couples a viscous fluid dynamic description of the QGP with a microscopic kinetic description of the late hadronic rescattering and freeze-out stage. A robust method for fixing (eta/s)_QGP from the collision centrality dependence of the eccentricity-scaled charged hadron elliptic flow is presented. The systematic uncertainties associated with this extraction method are discussed, with specific attention to …
The energy dependence of charged-hadron production in proton-proton collisions at RHIC and LHC energies is investigated in a nonequilibrium-statistical relativistic diffusion model (RDM) with three sources for particle production. Calculated charged-hadron pseudorapidity distributions for pp at RHIC energies of sqrt(s) = 0.2 and 0.41 TeV, and at LHC energies of 0.9, 2.36 and 7 TeV are optimized with respect to the available data. Predictions for 14 TeV are made. The central source arising from gluon-gluon collisions becomes the major origin of particle production at LHC energies. The midrapidi…
Parton energy loss in Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies is studied by numerically solving the relativistic Boltzmann equation for the partons including $2 \leftrightarrow 2$ and $2 \to 2 + final state radiation$ collision processes. Final particle spectra are obtained using two hadronization models; the Lund string fragmentation and independent fragmentation models. Recent, preliminary $π^0$ transverse momentum distributions from central Au+Au collisions at RHIC are reproduced using gluon-gluon scattering cross sections of 5-12 mb, depending upon the hadronization model. Comparisons with the H…
Thermalization and collective flow of charm (c) and bottom (b) quarks in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions are evaluated based on elastic parton rescattering in an expanding quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We show that resonant interactions in a strongly interacting QGP (sQGP), as well as the effects of parton coalescence, can play an essential role in the interpretation of recent data from the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC), and thus illuminate the nature of the sQGP and its hadronization. Our main assumption, motivated by recent findings in lattice computations of Quantum Chromodynam…
The production and space-time evolution of heavy quarks and J/psi in the quark gluon plasma is studied within the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach to MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). This framework allows interactions among all partons: gluons, light quarks and heavy quarks. Heavy quarks, in particular, interact with the rest of the medium via binary scatterings with a running coupling and a more precise Debye screening which is derived from hard thermal loop calculations. We compare our results of the elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor not only to experimental data of he…
We find supersaturation for the intrinsic gluon distribution of nuclei, i.e. the low $x$ unintegrated nuclear gluon distribution peaks at intermediate transverse momenta $k_t=Q_s$ and vanishes at zero $k_t$. Taking into account the intrinsic transverse momenta of the gluons and the saturation scale $p_s$ of the produced gluons, we calculate the minijet cross section arising from gluon gluon scattering for RHIC energies. For central collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200GeV$ the saturation scale $p_s \approx 1.4$ GeV is larger due to intrinsic $k_t$ effects and increases with energy. Our theoretical resul…
A first attempt has been made to extract the evolution of radial flow from the analysis of the experimental data on electromagnetic probes experimentally measured at SPS and RHIC energies. The $p_T$ spectra of photons and dileptons measured by WA98 and NA60 collaborations respectively at CERN-SPS and the photon spectra obtained by PHENIX collaboration at BNL-RHIC have been used to constrain the theoretical models, rendering the outcome of the analysis largely model independent. We argue that the variation of the radial velocity with invariant mass is indicative of a phase transition from initi…
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.
We study quantitatively the formation and evolution of B_c bound states in a space-time domain of deconfined quarks and gluons (quark-gluon plasma, QGP). At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) one expects for the first time that typical central collisions will result in multiple pairs of heavy (in this case charmed) quarks. This provides a new mechanism for the formation of heavy quarkonia which depends on the properties of the deconfined region. We find typical enhancements of about 500 fold for the B_c production yields over expectations from the elementary coherent hadronic B_c-meson…
We discuss recent developments in assessing heavy-quark interaction in the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). While induced gluon radiation is expected to be the main energy-loss mechanism for fast-moving quarks, we focus on elastic scattering which prevails toward lower energies, evaluating both perturbative (gluon-exchange) and nonperturbative (resonance formation) interactions in the QGP. The latter are treated within an effective model for D- and B-meson resonances above T_c as motivated by current QCD lattice calculations. Pertinent diffusion and drag constants, following from a Fokker-Planck equa…
We investigate impact of $π^0$-production data at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and future E07-011 experiment for the structure function $g_1$ of the deuteron at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) on studies of nucleonic spin structure, especially on the polarized gluon distribution function. By global analyses of polarized lepton-nucleon scattering and the $π^0$-production data, polarized parton distribution functions are determined and their uncertainties are estimated by the Hessian method. Two types of the gluon distribution function are investigated. One is…
