Probing QCD critical fluctuations from light nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
Kai-Jia Sun, Lie-Wen Chen, Che Ming Ko, Zhangbu Xu
备注：
6 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Correlations between neutron and proton density fluctuations considered and presentation improved. Accepted version to appear in PLB
Based on the coalescence model for light nuclei production, we show that the yield ratio $\mathcal{O}_\text{p-d-t} = N_{^3\text{H}} N_p / N_\text{d}^2$ of $p$, d, and $^3$H in heavy-ion collisions is sensitive to the neutron relative density fluctuation $Δn= \langle (δn)^2\rangle/\langle n\rangle^2$ at kinetic freeze-out. From recent experimental data in central Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=6.3$~GeV, $7.6$~GeV, $8.8$~GeV, $12.3$~GeV and $17.3$~GeV measured by the NA49 Collaboration at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), we find a possible non-monotonic behavior of $Δn$ as a function of the collision energy with a peak at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.8$~GeV, indicating that the density fluctuations become the largest in collisions at this energy. With the known chemical freeze-out conditions determined from the statistical model fit to experimental data, we obtain a chemical freeze-out temperature of $\sim 144~$MeV and baryon chemical potential of $\sim 385~$MeV at this collision energy, which are close to the critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram predicted by various theoretical studies. Our results thus suggest the potential usefulness of the yield ratio of light nuclei in relativistic heavy-ion collisions as a direct probe of the large density fluctuations associated with the QCD critical phenomena.
The QCD phenomenology of prompt photon production from e-p to p-p/p-pbar and A-A collisions is reviewed. The use of prompt photons as a probe of (i) parton distribution functions (in a proton or in nuclei) as well as (ii) fragmentation functions (into photons and hadrons) and their medium-modifications is highlighted.
We discuss the role of QCD symmetries in understanding the eta and etaprime mesons in nuclear media. Recent results on the etaprime mass in nuclei from the CBELSA/TAPS collaboration are very similar to the prediction of the Quark Meson Coupling model.
Using the recently proposed $gg --> eta'$ effective vertex, we investigate the production of $η'$ from gluon fusion in $pA$ collisions. We show that measuring $η'$ production cross-section at moderate $x_{η'}$ yields direct information on the small $x$ gluon distribution function of the nucleus. At RHIC, the smallest accessible $x$ turns out to be $O(10^{-5})$ and at LHC, it is $O(10^{-8})$. Therefore, $η'$ is an excellent probe of the Color Glass Condensate.
We demonstrate how the elementary amplitudes $γN\to ΨN$, the amplitude of the nondiagonal $J/ψN\Leftrightarrow ψ' N$ transition, and the total $J/ψN$ and $ψ' N$ cross sections can be determined from measurements of the coherent $J/ψ$ and $ψ'$ photoproduction off light nuclei at moderate energies. For this purpose we provide a detailed numerical analysis of the coherent charmonium photoproduction off silicon within the generalized vector dominance model (GVDM) adjusted to account for the physics of charmonium models and color transparency phenomenon.
It is argued that, in heavy ion collisions, thermal dileptons are good probes of the transport properties of the medium created in such events, and also of its early-time dynamics, usually inaccessible to hadronic observables. In this work we show that electromagnetic azimuthal momentum anisotropies do not only display a sensitivity to the shear relaxation time and to the initial shear-stress tensor profile, but also to the temperature dependence of the shear viscosity coefficient.
The idea that the nuclear matter may posses long range topological order is supported by the theory and the lattice calculations. At high temperature this order is instrumental in producing anomalous phenomena such as the Chiral Magnetic Effect. In the cold nuclear matter it affects the gluon distribution in the nuclear wave function at low $x$. The effect of the topological order is encapsulated in the unintegrated gluon distribution functions which are proportional, at the leading order, to the square of the gluon propagator at finite topological charge density. It is argued that the Electro…
We discuss the role of QCD symmetries and confinement in understanding eta and etaprime mesic nuclei. Eta and etaprime bound states in nuclei are sensitive to the flavour-singlet component in the meson. The bigger the singlet component, the more attraction and the greater the binding. Recent results on the etaprime mass in nuclei from the CBELSA/TAPS collaboration are very similar to the prediction of the Quark Meson Coupling model. In the model eta-etaprime mixing induces a factor of two enhancement of the eta-nucleon scattering length relative to the prediction with a pure octet eta, with re…
We utilize an event-by-event relativistic hydrodynamic calculation performed at a number of different incident beam energies to investigate the creation of hot and dense QCD matter near the critical point. Using state-of-the-art analysis and visualization tools we demonstrate that each collision event probes QCD matter characterized by a wide range of temperatures and baryo-chemical potentials, making a dynamical response of the system to the vicinity of the critical point very difficult to isolate above the background.
Half-life estimates for neutrinoless double beta decay depend on particle physics models for lepton flavor violation, as well as on nuclear physics models for the structure and transitions of candidate nuclei. Different models considered in the literature can be contrasted - via prospective data - with a "standard" scenario characterized by light Majorana neutrino exchange and by the quasiparticle random phase approximation, for which the theoretical covariance matrix has been recently estimated. We show that, assuming future half-life data in four promising nuclei (Ge-76, Se-82, Te-130, and X…
Heavy-ion reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei provide a unique means to investigate the equation of state of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. In particular, recent analyses of the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion reactions have already put a stringent constraint on the nuclear symmetry energy around the nuclear matter saturation density. We review this exciting result and discuss its implications on nuclear effective interactions and the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei. In addition, we also review the theoretica…
We investigate the use of elastic and inelastic scatterings with secondary beams of radioactive nuclei as a mean to obtain information on ground state properties and transition matrix elements to continuum states. An eikonal model is developed for this purpose by using the folding potential. In particular we discuss possible signatures of halo wavefunctions in elastic and inelastic scattering experiments.
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…
Hidden-color configurations are a key prediction of QCD with important physical consequences. In this work we examine a QCD color-singlet configuration in nuclei formed by combining six scalar $[u d]$ diquarks in a strongly bound $\rm SU(3)_C$ channel. The resulting hexadiquark state is a charge-2, spin-0, baryon number-4, isospin-0, color-singlet state. It contributes to alpha clustering in light nuclei and to the additional binding energy not saturated by ordinary nuclear forces in \he as well as the alpha-nuclei sequence of interest for nuclear astrophysics. We show that the strongly bound …
The role of QCD scales and chiral symmetry in finite nuclei is examined. The Dirac-Hartree mean-field coupling constants of Nikolaus, Hoch, and Madland (NHM) are scaled in accordance with the QCD-based prescription of Manohar and Georgi. Whereas the nine empirically-based coupling constants of NHM span thirteen orders of magnitude, the scaled coupling constants are almost all {\it natural}, being dimensionless numbers of order one. We speculate that this result provides good evidence that QCD and chiral symmetry apply to finite nuclei.
Our understanding of halo nuclei has so far relied on high-energy scattering and reactions, but a number of uncertainties remain. I discuss in general terms the new range of observables which will be measured by experiments around the Coulomb barrier, and how some details of the reaction mechanisms still need to be clarified.
Nuclear many-body theory is used to study nuclear matter and finite nuclei at extreme isospin. In-medium interactions in asymmetric nuclear matter are obtained from (Dirac-) Brueckner theory. Neutron skin formation in Ni and Sn isotopes is investigated by relativistic mean-field calculations in DDRH theory with density dependent meson-nucleon vertices. Applications to light nuclei are discussed with special emphasis on pairing and core polarization in weakly bound nuclei. Approaches accounting for continuum coupling in dripline pairing and core polarization are presented. Calculations for the …
We argue that by measuring higher moments of the net proton number fluctuations in heavy ion collisions (HIC) one can probe the QCD chiral cross over transition experimentally. We discuss the properties of fluctuations of the net baryon number in the vicinity of the chiral crossover transition within the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model at finite temperature and baryon density. The calculation includes non-perturbative dynamics implemented within the functional renormalization group approach. We find a clear signal for the chiral crossover transition in the fluctuations of the net bary…
We review the phenomenon of color coherence in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), its implications for hard and soft processes with nuclei, and its experimental manifestations. The relation of factorization theorems in QCD with color coherence phenomena in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) and color coherence phenomena in hard exclusive processes is emphasized. Analyzing numerically the QCD evolution equation for conventional and skewed parton densities in nuclei, we study the onset of generalized color transparency and nuclear shadowing of the sea quark and gluon distributions in nuclei as well as r…
We discuss the potential of light-nuclei measurement in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies for the search of the hypothetical QCD critical end-point. A previous proposal based on neutron density fluctuations has brought appealing experimental evidences of a maximum in a ratio involving tritons, protons and deuterons, ${\cal O}_{tpd}$. However these results are difficult to reconcile with the state-of-the-art statistical thermal model predictions. Based on the idea that the QCD critical point can lead to a substantial attraction among nucleons, we propose new ratios involving $^4$He …
The Beam Energy Scan program has been undertaken at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to search for the QCD critical point. The presence of the critical point is expected to lead to non-monotonic behavior of several quantities. Here we report the result of higher moments of net-charge distributions for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39 GeV as measured by the STAR experiment. The STAR results are compared with results from HIJING event generator and Hadron Resonance (HRG) Models.
Most atomic nuclei are deformed with a quadrupole shape described by its overall strength $β_2$ and triaxiality $γ$. The deformation can be accessed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions by measuring the collective flow response of the produced quark-gluon plasma to the eccentricity $\varepsilon_2$ and the density gradient $d_{\perp}$ in the initial state. Using analytical estimate and a Glauber model, I show that the variances, $\langle\varepsilon_2^2\rangle$ or $\langle(δd_{\perp}/d_{\perp})^2\rangle$, and skewnesses, $\langle\varepsilon_2^2δd_{\perp}/d_{\perp}\rangle$ or $\langle(δd_{\perp}/d…
We discuss the empirical evidence for a universal Color Glass Condensate and outline prospects for further studies at future colliders. Some ramifications for initial conditions in heavy ion collisions are pointed out.
The relevance of higher order cumulants of conserved charges for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC is discussed. Using properties of $O(4)$ scaling functions, the generic structure of these higher cumulants at vanishing baryon chemical potential is discussed. Chiral model calculations are then used to study their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. It is argued that the rapid variation of sixth and higher order cumulants at the phase boundary may be used to explore the QCD phase diagram in experiment. Moreover, results for …
We investigate dijet production from proton-nucleus collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as a means for observing superfast quarks in nuclei with Bjorken $x>1$. Kinematically, superfast quarks can be identified through directly measurable jet kinematics. Dynamically, their description requires understanding several elusive properties of nuclear QCD, such as nuclear forces at very short distances, as well as medium modification of parton distributions in nuclei. In the present work, we develop a model for nuclear parton distributions at large $x$ in which the nuclear dynamics at short …
We present a detailed comparison of coalescence and thermal-statistical models for the production of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in high-energy collisions. For the first time, such a study is carried out as a function of the size of the object relative to the size of the particle emitting source. Our study reveals large differences between the two scenarios for the production of objects with extended wave-functions. While both models give similar predictions and show similar agreement with experimental data for (anti-)deuterons and (anti-)3He nuclei, they largely differ in their description of (anti…
Using the nucleon coalescence model, which can naturally take into account the correlations in the nucleon density distribution, we study the effects of QCD critical point on light nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the yield ratio $N_tN_p/N_d^2$ of proton ($p$), deuteron ($d$) and triton ($t$) increases monotonically with the nucleon density correlation length, which is expected to increase significantly near the critical point in the QCD phase diagram. Our study thus demonstrates that the yield ratio $N_tN_p/N_d^2$ can be used as a sensitive probe of the QCD…
The cranked relativistic Hartree+Bogoliubov theory has been applied for a systematic study of the nuclei around 254No, the heaviest nuclei for which detailed spectroscopic data are available. The deformation, rotational response, pairing correlations, quasi-particle and other properties of these nuclei have been studied with different relativistic mean field (RMF) parametrizations. For the first time, the quasi-particle spectra of odd deformed nuclei have been calculated in a fully self-consistent way within the framework of the RMF theory. The energies of the spherical subshells, from which a…
A new way to study the spin-isospin dependence of the $ΞN$ interaction is explored through the energy levels of $ΞNα$ and $ΞNαα$ systems with $α$ being a spectator to attract the $ ΞN$ pair without changing its spin-isospin structure. By using the Gaussian expansion method (GEM) with the state-of-the-art $ΞN$ potential obtained from lattice QCD calculations, it is found that $ΞNαα$ has spin-doublet bound states with $J^π={1^-}$ and $2^-$ in both isospin triplet and singlet channels. The inversion of the $1^-$-$2^-$ spin-doublet between the iso-triplet and the iso-singlet is found to be strongl…
It is theoretically and experimentally argued that there may exist bubble or toroid-shaped configurations in some nucleus systems. Based on the nuclear transport model, it is shown that compared with the collision of normal nuclei, there is a depletion of central density of compression with bubble configurations in projectile and target nuclei. This depletion of central compression density may affect some observables in heavy-ion collisions.
Particle production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions depends on the details of the nucleon density distributions in the colliding nuclei. We demonstrate that the charged hadron multiplicity distributions in isobaric collisions at ultrarelativistic energies provide a novel approach to determine the poorly known neutron density distributions and thus the neutron skin thickness in finite nuclei, which can in turn put stringent constraints on the nuclear symmetry energy.
Dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions at various energies is studied using coarse-grained transport simulations. Microscopic output from the Ultra-relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) model is hereby put on a grid of space-time cells which allows to extract the local temperature and chemical potential in each cell via an equation of state. The dilepton emission is then calculated applying in-medium spectral functions from hadronic many-body theory and partonic production rates based on lattice calculations. The comparison of the resulting spectra with experimental data shows t…
Heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies probe matter at extreme conditions of temperatures and energy densities. The study of event-by-event fluctuations of experimental observables is crucial to probe the QCD phase transition, locate the critical point, and learn about the associated critical phenomena. At the critical point, all thermodynamic quantities behave anomalously. Fluctuation measurements provide access to thermodynamic response functions. We discuss the methods for obtaining the isothermal compressibility using particle multiplicity fluctuation, and specific heat using fluctu…
In this Letter, we report on alpha particle emission through the nuclear break-up in the reaction 40Ca on a 40Ca target at 50A MeV. It is observed that, similarly to nucleons, alpha particles can be emitted to the continuum with very specific angular distribution during the reaction. The alpha particle properties can be understood as resulting from an alpha cluster in the daughter nucleus that is perturbed by the short range nuclear attraction of the collision partner and emitted. A time-dependent theory that describe the alpha particle wave-function evolution is able to reproduce qualitativel…
On the basis of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock method with the nucleon-nucleon forces obtained from lattice QCD simulations, the properties of the medium-heavy doubly-magic nuclei such as 16^O and 40^Ca are investigated. We found that those nuclei are bound for the pseudo-scalar meson mass M_PS ~ 470 MeV. The mass number dependence of the binding energies, single-particle spectra and density distributions are qualitatively consistent with those expected from empirical data at the physical point, although these hypothetical nuclei at heavy quark mass have smaller binding energies than the real nucl…
Probing Near-Threshold $s$-Wave Components in Heavy Nuclei via Coulomb-Assisted Neutron Transfer
The University of Osaka（大阪大学）；Research Center for Nuclear Physics, The University of Osaka（大阪大学核物理研究中心）；University of Electro-Communications（电气通信大学）；Institute for Advanced Science, University of Electro-Communications（电气通信大学高等科学研究所）
We present a complete systematic theoretical study of multifragmentation for asymmetric colliding nuclei for heavy-ion reactions in the energy range between 50 MeV/nucleon and 1000 MeV/nucleon by using isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model. We have observed an interesting outcome for asymmetric colliding nuclei. The comparison between the symmetric and asymmetric colliding nuclei for the isospin independent cross section and isospin dependent cross section has been studied. We have found the pronounced effect of different cross section and mass asymmetry on the nuclear reac…
Relationships between mass intervals for free hadrons and in nuclei are studied in two theoretical approaches inspired by QCD: naive quark model and skyrmion model, taking one example each from mesons and baryons, that of pi-rho splitting in mesons, and nucleon-Delta splitting in baryons. Possible deconfinement effects in nuclei are examined.
In this paper, we calculate the cross-section for the photoproduction of quark-antiquark pairs in the peripheral collision of ultra-relativistic nuclei, by treating the color field of the nuclei within the Color Glass Condensate model. We find that this cross-section is sensitive to the saturation scale $Q_s^2$ that characterizes the model. In particular, the transverse momentum spectrum of the produced pairs could be used to measure the properties of the color glass condensate.
It is shown that intermittency, a self-similar correlation with respect to the size of the phase space volume, is sensitive to critical density fluctuations of baryon numbers in a system belonging to the three-dimensional (3D) Ising universality class. The relation between intermittency index and relative baryon density fluctuation is obtained. We thus suggest that measuring the intermittency in relativistic heavy-ion collisions could be used as a good probe of density fluctuations associated with the QCD critical phenomena. From recent preliminary results on neutron density fluctuations in ce…
We report on our progress in the calculation of nuclear ground-state properties using effective Lagrangians whose construction is constrained by QCD scales and chiral symmetry. Good evidence is found that QCD and chiral symmetry apply to finite nuclei.
We propose to use antiprotons to investigate the sizes of stable and neutron-rich exotic nuclei by measurements of the $\pbar A$ absorption cross section along isotopic chains in inverse kinematics. The expected effects are studied theoretically in a microscopic model. The $\pbar U$ optical potentials are obtained by folding free space $\pbar N$ scattering amplitudes with HFB ground state densities and solving the scattering equations by direct integration. The mass dependence of absorption cross sections is found to follow closely the nuclear root-mean-square radii. The total absorption cross…
The need for the three-body forces (3BF) for reproduction of physical properties of light nuclei has been evident for some time. These 3BF are doing quite well for light nuclei, but there seems to be scope for other 3BF which may arise from other physical considerations not included so far. Here we discuss a QCD motivated new 3BF which should be included in studies of nuclei, in particular the light one3s. We perform variational Monte Carlo calculations including this new 3BF and discuss improvements brought in thereby for light nuclei.
The fundamental theory of the strong interaction -- quantum chromodynamics (QCD) -- provides the foundational framework with which to describe and understand the key properties of atomic nuclei. A deep understanding of the explicit role of quarks and gluons in nuclei remains elusive however, as these effects have thus far been well-disguised by confinement effects in QCD which are encapsulated by a successful description in terms of effective hadronic degrees of freedom. The observation of the EMC effect has provided an enduring indication for explicit QCD effects in nuclei, and points to the …
Short-range correlations (SRC) in asymmetric nuclei with an unusual neutron-to-proton ratio can be studied with quasi-free two-nucleon knockout processes following the collision between accelerated ions and a proton target. We derive an approximate factorized cross section for those SRC-driven $p(A,p^{\prime} N_1 N_2)$ reactions. Our reaction model hinges on the factorization properties of SRC-driven $A(e, e^\prime N_1 N_2)$ reactions for which strong indications are found in theory-experiment comparisons. In order to put our model to the test we compare its predictions with results of $^{12}\…
I discuss how the fundamental theory of strong interactions given by QCD can be exploited to make accurate predictions for the solar fusion processes involving few-nucleon systems and to provide a novel description of nuclear matter as well as excitations near the chiral phase transition. The tool used is effective field theory combined with the modern technique of renormalization group flow. The notion of "BR scaling" is reinterpreted in terms of the vector manifestation à la Harada and Yamawaki. It is argued that the vector manifestation scenario predicts a QCD phase structure much richer th…
Relativistic heavy ion collisions provide the possibility to study the topological charge in QCD matter through the event-by-event fluctuating net axial charge or nonequal numbers of left- and right-handed quarks they generate in the produced quark-gluon plasma. Based on the chiral kinetic approach for nearly massless quarks and antiquarks in the strong vorticity field produced along the normal direction of the reaction plane of non-central heavy ion collisions, we show that a unique signal for the topological charge in QCD matter can be identified from the asymmetric distribution of particles…
I present results from the first lattice QCD calculations of axial-current matrix elements in light nuclei, performed by the NPLQCD collaboration. Precision calculations of these matrix elements, and the subsequent extraction of multi-nucleon axial-current operators, are essential in refining theoretical predictions of the proton-proton fusion cross section, neutrino-nucleus cross sections and $ββ$-decay rates of nuclei. In addition, they are expected to shed light on the phenomenological quenching of $g_A$ that is required in nuclear many-body calculations.
I review the current status of lattice Monte-Carlo computations of the equation of state of QCD, our current understanding of the thermalization process at collider energies, and two new theoretical developments, one pertaining to the ab-initio calculation of the low-$x$ gluon structure of heavy nuclei, the other to the chaotic behavior of QCD. At the end I give a brief overview of the status of various quark-gluon plasma signatures.
Charmed nuclei are investigated utilizing $Λ_c N$ and $Σ_c N$ interactions that have been extrapolated from lattice QCD simulations at unphysical masses of $m_π= 410$--$570$ MeV to the physical point using chiral effective field theory as guideline. Calculations of the energies of $Λ_c$ single-particle bound states for various charmed nuclei from $^{\ 5}_{Λ_c}$Li to $^{209}_{Λ_c}$Bi are performed using a perturbative many-body approach. This approach allows one to determine the finite nuclei $Λ_c$ self-energy from which the energies of the different bound states can be obtained. Though the $Λ_…
This presentation reports on recent developments concerning basic aspects of low-energy QCD as they relate to the understanding of the nucleon mass and the nuclear many-body problem.
