We present a study of the heavy-flavor dynamics in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The initial (hard) production of c and b quarks is taken from NLO pQCD predictions. The presence of a hot medium (a Quark Gluon Plasma described by hydrodynamics) affects the final spectra of open-charm (beauty) hadrons and their decay electrons with respect to what found in pp collisions. The propagation of c and b quarks in the plasma is based on a picture of multiple uncorrelated random collisions, described by a relativistic Langevin equation. A microscopic evaluation of the transport coefficients is provided within a pQCD approach (with proper resummation of medium effects). Results for the final spectra of heavy-flavor hadrons and decay-electrons are given, with particular emphasis on R_AA and v_2.
Thermal photon production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au reactions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV is studied in the framework of a 2D+1 hydrodynamical model that describes efficiently the bulk identified hadron spectra at RHIC. The combined thermal plus NLO pQCD photon spectrum is in good agreement with the yields measured by the PHENIX experiment for all Au+Au centralities. Within our model, we demonstrate that the correlation of the thermal photon slopes with the charged hadron multiplicity in each centrality bin provides direct empirical information on the underlying degrees of freedom and on the e…
A snapshot of the results for heavy-flavour observables in heavy-ion (AA) collisions at RHIC and LHC obtained with our transport calculations is displayed. The initial charm and beauty production is simulated through pQCD tools (POWHEG+PYTHIA) and is validated through the comparison with data from pp collisions. The propagation of c and b quarks in the medium formed in heavy-ion collisions is studied through a transport setup based on the relativistic Langevin equation. With respect to past works we perform a more systematic study, providing results with different choices of transport coeffici…
The stochastic dynamics of c and b quarks in the fireball created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC is studied employing a relativistic Langevin equation, based on a picture of multiple uncorrelated random collisions with the medium. Heavy-quark transport coefficients are evaluated within a pQCD approach, with a proper HTL resummation of medium effects for soft scatterings. The Langevin equation is embedded in a multi-step setup developed to study heavy-flavor observables in pp and AA collisions, starting from a NLO pQCD calculation of initial heavy-quark yields, complemented in th…
In this article, we briefly review the recent progress related to extracting the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) specific shear viscosity from the flow data measured at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
We present a calculation of Pi, D and B mesons production at RHIC and LHC energies based upon the KKT model of gluon saturation. We discuss dependence of the nuclear modification factor on rapidity and transverse momentum.
Ultra-relativistic heavy-ions carry strong electromagnetic and nuclear fields. Interactions between these fields in peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions can probe many interesting physics topics. This presentation will focus on coherent two-photon and photonuclear processes at RHIC. The rates for these interactions will be high. The coherent coupling of all the protons in the nucleus enhances the equivalent photon flux by a factor Z^2 up to an energy of ~3 GeV. The plans for studying coherent interactions with the STAR experiment will be discussed. Experimental techniques for separating signa…
The parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE is used to investigate strange particle production in Au + Au collisions at GeV in different centralities and at 39, 11.5 and 7.7 GeV in the most central collision, respectively. It is shown that the transverse momentum distributions of strange particles by the PACIAE model fit the RHIC Beam Energy Scan experimental results well.
We study the mechanism and probability of in-medium hadronization in the deconfined medium produced in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. We show the likelihood of color-neutral objects to be formed inside the partonic fireball and the probability of these states to escape the medium with reduced interaction strength and energy loss. We will suggest specific measurements that are sensitive to the early degrees of freedom and show predictions for these measurements at RHIC and the LHC
PACIAE, a parton and hadron cascade model, is utilized to systematically investigate strange particle production and strangeness enhancement in Au+Au collision and in Pb+Pb collision with the 200GeV at RHIC and 2.76TeV at LHC, respectively. The experimental results at different centrality, which come from the STAR collaboration and the ALICE collaboration, are well described by the PACIAE model. This may represent the importance of the parton and hadron rescatterings, as well as the reduction mechanism of strange quark suppression, added in the PACIAE model.
We report results on event-by-event hard probe of soft matter geometry and fluctuations in heavy ion collisions. Geometric data ($v_2$ of high $p_t$ hadrons) from RHIC plus LHC clearly favors jet "monography" model with strong near-Tc enhancement of jet-medium interaction strength which also implies a less opaque medium at LHC. We also quantify the jet responses to all harmonic anisotropy $v_n$($n=1,2,3,4,5,6$) and their manifestation in hard-soft azimuthal correlations.
Monte-Carlo implementations of kT -factorization formula with both KLN and running-coupling BK unintegrated gluon distributions for nucleus-nucleus collisions are used to analyze recent experimental data on the particle multiplicities from RHIC(Au+Au@200GeV) and LHC(Pb+Pb@2.76TeV). We also compare the predicted transverse energy at midrapidity to new data from ALICE.
A generic jet-energy loss model that is coupled to state-of-the-art hydrodynamic fields and interpolates between a wide class of running coupling pQCD-based and AdS/CFT-inspired models is compared to recent data on the azimuthal and transverse momentum dependence of high-pT pion nuclear modification factors and high-pT elliptic flow measured at RHIC and LHC. We find that RHIC data are surprisingly consistent with various scenarios considered. However, extrapolations to LHC energies favor running coupling pQCD-based models of jet-energy loss. While conformal holographic models are shown to be i…
We discuss the saturation of the parton density in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energiesusing a Pomeron approach. Our predictions for the particle density in ion-ion collisions at RHIC energies can be utilized as the background for the observation of possible quark-gluon plasma production.
Fluid dynamical description of elementary particle collisions has a long history dating back to the works of Landau and Fermi. Nevertheless, it is during the last 10-15 years when fluid dynamics has become the standard tool to describe the evolution of matter created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. In this review I briefly describe the hydrodynamical models, what we have learned when analyzing the RHIC and LHC data using these models, and what the latest developments and challenges are.
We review the current status of jet measurements in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We discuss how the current measurements provide information about the quark-gluon plasma and discuss near future opportunities at both RHIC and the LHC.
We study the emission characteristics of thermal photons at RHIC and LHC as affected by both the space-time evolution of the bulk medium and the thermal emission rates. For the former we compare the results of two evolution models (expanding fireball and hydrodynamics). For the latter, we detail the influence of hadronic emission components and study a speculative scenario by upscaling the default QGP and hadronic rates around the pseudo-critical region.
We introduce a Monte Carlo space-time model for high-energy collisions with nuclei, involving the dynamical interplay of perturbative QCD parton production and evolution, with non-perturbative parton-cluster formation and `afterburner' cascading of formed pre-hadronic clusters plus hadron excitations. This approach allows us to trace the space-time history of parton and hadron degrees of freedom of nuclear collisions on the microscopical level of parton and hadron cascades in both position and momentum space, from the instant of nuclear overlap to the final yield of particles. In applying this…
STAR collaboration at RHIC has recently measured the polarization of $Λ$ hyperons in non-central heavy ion collisions in the RHIC Beam Energy Scan (BES) program. The magnitude of the polarization was found to decrease from few percents at the lowest BES energies to $\approx0.2$% at the top RHIC energy. The polarization signal has been reproduced in different hydrodynamic calculations assuming a thermodynamic spin-vorticity coupling mechanism at the Cooper-Frye hypersurface. In this work an extension of our existing calculations of the $Λ$ polarization in the RHIC BES program to the top RHIC an…
In this letter we update our predictions for the photoproduction of vector mesons in coherent $pp$ and $AA$ collisions at RHIC and LHC energies using the color dipole approach and the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism. In particular, we present our predictions for the first run of the LHC at half energy and for the rapidity dependence of the ratio between the $J/Ψ$ and $ρ$ cross sections at RHIC energies.
We perform a joint jet tomographic analysis of the data on the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant. Our results show that the observed slow variation of $R_{AA}$ from RHIC to LHC indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.
The ratio of nuclear modification factors of high-$p_T$ heavy-flavored mesons tolight-flavored hadrons (heavy-to-light ratio) is shown to be a sensitive tool to test medium-induced energy loss at RHIC and LHC energies. Heavy-to-light ratios of $D$ mesons at RHIC in the region $7<p_T<12$ GeV, and of $D$ and $B$ mesons at the LHC in the region $10<p_T<20$ GeV, are proposed for such a test. Finally, the different contributions to the nuclear modification factor for electrons at RHIC are analyzed. Preliminary PHENIX and STAR data are compatible with radiative energy loss provided the contribution …
An important ingredient for the non-equilibrium evolution of partons at RHIC and LHC is to have some physically reasonable initial conditions for the single particle phase space distribution functions for the partons. We consider several plausible parametrizations of initial conditions for the single particle distribution function f_i(x,p) and fix the parameters by matching \int f(x,p)p^μd σ_μto the invariant momentum space semi-hard parton distributions obtained using perturbative QCD (pQCD), as well as fitting low order moments of the distribution function. We consider parametrizations of f_…
We study the stochastic dynamics of c and b quarks in the hot plasma produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC, providing results for the nuclear modification factor R_AA and the elliptic flow coefficient v_2 of the single-electron spectra arising from their semi-leptonic decays. The initial QQbar pairs are generated using the POWHEG code, implementing pQCD at NLO. For the propagation in the plasma we develop a relativistic Langevin equation (solved in a medium described by hydrodynamics) whose transport coefficients are evaluated through a first-principle calculation. Finally, at…
A kinetic-rate equation approach in a thermally expanding medium is employed to calculate the evolution of charmonium and bottomonium distributions in heavy-ion collisions. The equilibrium properties of the quarkonia are taken from in-medium spectral functions which are schematically constrained by euclidean correlators from lattice QCD. The initial conditions for the rate equation (heavy-flavor cross sections, nuclear absorption) and the thermal evolution are constrained by data as available. After fixing two free parameters to describe charmonium data at SPS and RHIC, the predictions for LHC…
We have studied the probability of two succinct particle production mechanisms, likely to occur in the transition from the deconfined medium produced in RHIC and LHC heavy ion collisions back to the hadron gas, which is abundant at lower temperatures. Evidence has been found for in-medium fragmentation of non-equilibrated partons in the deconfined medium as well as bound state formation in the quark-gluon phase itself, as described by lattice QCD . Through the comparison to PNJL model calculations we attempt to quantify an extended phase of mixed degrees of freedom in a temperature range just …
The approach to problem of nuclear shadowing based on Gribov Reggeon calculus is presented. Here the total cross section of $h A$ interaction is found in a parameter-free description, employing the new data on the gluon density of the Pomeron, measured with high precision at HERA, as input. The model is then applied for calculation of $J/ψ$ production in $d Au$ collisions at top RHIC energy. It is shown that the theoretical estimates are in a very good agreement with the PHENIX data, and further predictions for the $J/ψ$ suppression in $p Pb$ collisions at coming soon LHC are made.
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.
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…
The generic features of parton energy loss effects on the quenching of single hadron spectra in heavy-ion collisions are discussed, paying attention to the expected differences from RHIC to LHC. The need for precise baseline measurements in p-Pb collisions at the LHC is also emphasized. Finally I briefly mention the production of prompt photons in heavy-ion collisions as well as some open questions.
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.
Recent LHC data suggest that perturbative QCD provides a qualitatively consistent picture of jet quenching. Constrained to RHIC pi0 suppression, zero parameter WHDG energy loss predictions agree quantitatively with the charged hadron v2 and D meson RAA measured at LHC and qualitatively with the charged hadron RAA. On the other hand, RHIC-constrained LHC predictions from fully strongly-coupled AdS/CFT qualitatively oversuppress D mesons compared to data; light meson predictions are on less firm theoretical ground but also suggest oversuppression. More detailed data from heavy, especially B, mes…
We study the production of charmonia and charmed hadrons in nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS, RHIC, and LHC energies within the framework of the statistical hadronization model. Results from this model are compared to the measured yields and centrality dependence of J/psi production at SPS and RHIC energies. We explore and contrast the centrality dependence of the production of mesons with open and hidden charm at SPS, RHIC, and LHC. The sensitivity of the results to various input parameters is analyzed in detail for RHIC energy.
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…
I discuss how the initial conditions for QGP-production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC can be computed from perturbative QCD.
$J/ψ$ suppression/production is one of the main signature of quark-gluon plasma detection at RHIC and LHC. In order to study $j/ψ$ suppression/production in high energy heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, one needs to prove the factorization theorem of $j/ψ$ production in non-equilibrium QCD medium, otherwise one will predict infinite cross section of $j/ψ$. In this paper we prove factorization theorem of $j/ψ$ production in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all order in coupling constant.
From Pythia simulations of pp collisions we determine the mean transverse momentum <Pt> of partons producing the leading and associated particles studied in di-hadron correlations. The dependence of <Pt> on the associated particle transverse momentum and expected differences at RHIC and LHC centre of mass energies are discussed.
We study $b\bar{b}$ and $c\bar{c}$ production and the influence of nuclear shadowing at LHC and RHIC energies. We find a significant reduction in the production cross section of both charm and bottom at RHIC and LHC. Bound states such as $Υ$ and $J/Ψ$ are suppressed by this reduction in the charm production cross sections. Therefore, $J/Ψ$ suppression may not be useful as a signature for the quark gluon plasma.
In this article, we briefly review recent progress on hydrodynamic modeling and its implementations to relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The related topics include: 1) initial state fluctuations, final state correlations and event-by-event hydrodynamics, 2) extracting the QGP shear viscosity from flow data, 3) flow and hydrodynamics in 5.02 A TeV p+Pb collisions.
Recent results on minijet production in nuclear collisions at the RHIC and LHC energies are reviewed. Initial conditions of the QGP at $τ=0.1$ fm$/c$, especially parton chemistry, thermalization and net baryon number-to-entropy ratio are discussed. Also, contribution of minijets from a hard BFKL-pomeron ladder will be estimated.
We present results on rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of inclusive charm quark production in hadronic and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, including the next-to-leading order, $O(α_s^3)$, radiative corrections and the nuclear shadowing effect. We determine the hadronic and the {\it effective} (in-medium) K-factor for the differential and total inclusive charm cross sections. We find the fraction of central and inelastic events that contain at least one charm quark pair at LHC energies and obtain the effective $A$-dependence of the inclusive charm production in prot…
Recently we have proved the factorization of NRQCD S-wave heavy quarkonium production at all orders in coupling constant. In this paper we extend this to prove the factorization of infrared divergences in $χ_{cJ}$ production from color singlet $c{\bar c}$ pair in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all orders in coupling constant. This can be relevant to study the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
Recently we have proved NRQCD color octet factorization of S-wave and P-wave heavy quarkonia production at all orders in coupling constant in QCD in vacuum at high energy colliders in Eur. Phys. J. C76 (2016) 448 and in arXiv:1807.04722 [hep-ph] respectively. In this paper we extend this to prove NRQCD color octet factorization of P-wave heavy quarkonium production in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all orders in coupling constant. This proof is necessary to study the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
I discuss Upsilon production in pp collisions at RHIC, Tevatron and LHC energies, in particular the behaviour of the differential cross section in rapidity and the impact of QCD corrections on the P_T differential cross section. I also emphasise the very good agreement between the parameter-free predictions of the Colour-Singlet Model (CSM) and the first LHC data, especially in the region of low transverse momenta, which is the most relevant one for heavy-ion studies. I also show that the CSM predicts Upsilon cross-section ratios in agreement with the most recent LHC data. I then briefly discu…
We briefly review the existing psi(2S) data taken at RHIC, the Tevatron and the LHC. We systematically compare them with colour-singlet-model predictions as a function of the center-of-mass energy, of the quarkonium rapidity and of the quarkonium transverse momentum. The overall agreement is good except for large transverse momenta. This points at the existence of large NNLO corrections or points at colour-octet dominance.
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…
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.
A study of the energy behavior of the interferometry radii is carried out for the RHIC and LHC energies within the hydrokinetic model (HKM). The hydrokinetic predictions for the HBT radii at LHC energies are compared with the recent results of the ALICE Collaboration. The role of non-equilibrium and non-hydrodynamic stage of the matter evolution in formation of the femtoscopy scales at the LHC energies is analyzed. For this aim we develop the hybrid hydrokinetic model.
In the paper, we make a comprehensive study on the hadroproduction of the $B_c (B_c^*)$ meson via the gluon-gluon fusion mechanism at the RHIC and LHC colliders. Total and differential cross sections via the proton-nucleus ($p$-N) and nucleus-nucleus (N-N) collision modes have been discussed under various collision energies. To compare with those via the proton-proton collision mode at the LHC, we observe that sizable number of $B_c (B_c^*)$-meson events can also be produced via the $p$-N and N-N collision modes at the RHIC and LHC. If assuming the spin-triplet $B^*_c$ meson directly decays to…
We compute the particle multiplicities and transverse energies at central and nearly central AA collisions at RHIC and LHC. The initial state is computed from perturbative QCD supplemented by the conjecture of saturation of produced partons. The expansion stage is described in terms of hydrodynamics assuming longitudinal boost invariance and azimuthal symmetry. Transverse flow effects, a realistic list of hadrons and resonance decays are included. Comparison with the data of the multiplicities at $\sqrt s=56$ AGeV and 130 AGeV from RHIC is done and predictions for the full RHIC energy and LHC …
The features of magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are systematically studied by using a modified magnetic field model in this paper. The features of magnetic field distributions in the central point are studied in the RHIC and LHC energy regions. We also predict the feature of magnetic fields at LHC $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 900, 2760 and 7000 GeV based on the detailed study at RHIC $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 62.4, 130 and 200 GeV. The dependencies of the features of magnetic fields on the collision energies, centralities and collision time are systematically investigated, respectively.
The properties of strange pseudoscalar and vectors mesons as well as strange baryon resonances in dense matter are reviewed. Some open questions on the properties of strange hadrons in medium are addressed, such as the experimental signatures of in-medium effects coming from the hadronic phase on the final observables in heavy-ion collisions for the experimental conditions at SIS, RHIC and LHC energies.
Relativistic heavy-ion collisions can produce extremely strong magnetic field in the collision regions. The spatial variation features of the magnetic fields are analyzed in detail for non-central Pb - Pb collisions at LHC $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 900, 2760 and 7000 GeV and Au-Au collisions at RHIC $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 62.4, 130 and 200 GeV. The dependencies of magnetic field on proper time, collision energies and impact parameters are investigated in this paper. It is shown that a enormous with highly inhomogeneous spatial distribution magnetic field can indeed be created in off-central relativistic hea…
A brief introduction to the physics of ultraperipheral collisions at collider energies is given. Photon-hadron (proton/ nucleus) and photon-photon interactions can be studied in a hitherto unexplored energy regime.
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…
Recently we have proved the NRQCD factorization in heavy quarkonium production at high energy colliders at all orders in coupling constant. In this paper we extend this to non-equilibrium QCD and prove the NRQCD factorization in heavy quarkonium production at all orders in coupling constant in non-equilibrium QCD. This proof is necessary to study heavy quarkonium production from quark gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
We assess the theoretical uncertainties on the inclusive J/psi production cross section in the Color Evaporation Model (CEM) using values for the charm quark mass, renormalization and factorization scales obtained from a fit to the charm production data. We use our new results to provide improved baseline comparison calculations at RHIC and the LHC. We also study cold matter effects on J/psi production at leading relative to next-to-leading order in the CEM within this approach.
Results from the photon multiplicity measurements using a fine granularity preshower photon multiplicity detector (PMD) at CERN SPS are discussed. These include study of pseudo-rapidity distributions of photons, scaling of photon multiplicity with number of participating nucleons, centrality dependence of mean transverse momentum of photons, event-by-event fluctuations in photon multiplicity and localised charged-neutral fluctuations. Basic features of the PMD to be used in STAR experiment at RHIC and in ALICE experiment at LHC are also discussed.
The long life-time of the quark-gluon plasma likely to be created in the relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies renders it sensitive to the details of the equation of state of the quark-matter. We show that the $p_T$ dependence of the survival probability of the directly produced $J/ψ$ at RHIC energies and that of the directly produced $Υ$ at LHC energies is quite sensitive to the speed of sound in the quark matter, which relates the pressure and the energy density of the plasma. The transverse expansion of the plasma is shown to strongly affect the $J/ψ$ suppression at LHC…
The phenomenology of gluon saturation at small parton momentum fraction, Bjorken-x, in the proton and in the nucleus is introduced. The experimentally-accessible kinematic domains at the nucleus-nucleus colliders RHIC and LHC are discussed. Finally, the saturation hints emerging from measurements at RHIC and the perspectives for LHC are described.
We study, in the dynamically evolving QGP fireball formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, the growth of strangeness yield toward and beyond the chemical equilibrium. We account for the contribution of the direct strangeness production and evaluate the thermal-QCD strangeness production mechanisms. The specific yield of strangeness per entropy, s/S, is the primary target variable. We explore the effect of collision impact parameter, i.e., fireball size, on kinetic strangeness chemical equilibration in QGP. Insights gained in study the RHIC data with regard to the dynamics …
