Hanbury Brown--Twiss interferometry (HBT) provides crucial insights into both the space-time structure and the momentum-space evolution of ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions at freeze-out. In particular, the dependence of the HBT radii on the transverse pair momentum $K_T$ and the system charged multiplicity $dN_{\mathrm{ch}}/dη$ may reflect the mechanisms driving collective behavior in small systems. This paper argues that certain features observed in the multiplicity dependence of the HBT radii can be naturally understood if small systems evolve hydrodynamically at high-multiplicity. This study thus establishes a baseline for the multiplicity dependence of HBT in hydrodynamics which may prove useful in discriminating between competing models of collectivity in nuclear collisions.
Identical boson Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry as applied to relativistic heavy-ion collisions is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the use of hadronic scattering models to interpret the physical significance of experimental results. Interferometric studies with center-of-mass energies from < 1 GeV/nucleon up to 5500 GeV/nucleon are considered.
Hanbury-Brown--Twiss interferometry is a technique which yields effective widths (i.e., "HBT radii") of homogeneity regions in the fireballs produced in heavy ion collisions. Because the initial conditions of these collisions are stochastically fluctuating, the measured HBT radii also exhibit variation on an event-by-event basis. However, HBT measurements have, to date, been performed only on an ensemble-averaged basis, due to inherent limitations of finite particle statistics. In this paper, we show that experimental measurements to date are best characterized theoretically as weighted averag…
Through $^{12}$C + $^{197}$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 200 GeV using a multiphase transport (AMPT) model, the azimuthal angle dependences of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii relative to the second- and third-order participant plane from $π$-$π$ correlations are discussed. Three initial geometric configurations of $^{12}$C, namely three-$α$-cluster triangle, three-$α$-cluster chain and Woods-Saxon distribution of nucleons, are taken into account, and their effects on the correlations are investigated. The ratio of the third- to the second-order HBT radii $R_{o(s),3}^2/R_{o(s),2}^2$ is…
We discuss symmetry constraints on the azimuthal oscillations of two-particle correlation (Hanbury Brown--Twiss interferometry) radii for non-central collisions between equal spherical nuclei. We also propose a new method for correcting in a model-independent way the emission angle dependent correlation function for finite event plane resolution and angular binning effects.
$\textbf{HoTCoffeeh}$ ($\textbf{H}$anbury Br$\textbf{o}$wn-$\textbf{T}$wiss $\textbf{Co}$rrelation $\textbf{f}$unctions and radii $\textbf{f}$rom $\textbf{e}$vent-by-$\textbf{e}$vent $\textbf{h}$ydrodynamics) is a new computational tool which determines Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) charged pion ($π^+$) correlation functions and radii for event-by-event (EBE) hydrodynamics with fluctuating initial conditions in terms of Cooper-Frye integrals, including resonance decay contributions. In this paper, we review the basic formalism for computing the HBT correlation functions and radii with resonance de…
The interactions of particles with medium may lead to a nonzero in-medium mass width of the particles and cause them to have different masses in the medium. In this letter, we investigate the influence of the in-medium mass width on the strength of Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. It is found that the strength decreases with in-medium mass width of identical bosons. This influence are more significant for the boson with heavier mass and decreases with increasing particle momentum.
We discuss the elementary physics of the final state Coulomb interactions in Hanbury-Brown Twiss interferometry, showing -- with explicit comparison to E877 data for $π^+π^-$ and $π^\pm p$ -- that the Coulomb corrections in the pair correlation function can be well understood in terms of simple classical physics. We connect the classical picture with descriptions in terms of Coulomb wave functions, and investigate the influence of the ``central'' Coulomb potential on the pair correlation function.
The particle spectra and Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) radius of Au+Au collisions at RHIC energy are investigated by a hydrodynamical expanding source with both shear and bulk viscosities ($ζ$). With a large width of the ratio of $ζ$ to entropy density $s$, both the particle transverse momentum spectra and the ratio $R_{out}/R_{side}$ of HBT radii in the direction of the total transverse momentum of detected two particles ($R_{out}$) and perpendicular to both this direction and the beam direction ($R_{side}$) become a little steeper.
With the parameters fitted by the particle multiplicity, the energy density at chemical freeze-out, and the charged particle elliptic flow, we have studied the effects of the hadronic mean-field potentials on the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss (HBT) correlation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions based on a multiphase transport model. The hadronic mean-field potentials are found to delay the emission time of the system and lead to large HBT radii extracted from the correlation function. Effects on the energy dependence of $R_o^2-R_s^2$ and $R_{o}/ R_{s}$ as well as the eccentricity of the emission s…
The blast wave model is applied to the recent data on HBT radii in pp collisions, measured by the ALICE collaboration. A reasonable description of data is obtained for a rather low temperature of the kinetic freeze-out, T ~ 100 MeV, and the transverse profile corresponding to the emission from a shell of a fairly small width 2 d ~ 1.5 fm. The size and the life-time of the produced system are determined for various multiplicities of the produced particles.
Dissipative relativistic fluid-dynamical descriptions of the extended fireball formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are quite successful, yet require a prescription for converting the fluid into particles. We present arguments in favour of using a locally anisotropic momentum distribution for the particles emitted from the fluid, so as to smooth out discontinuities introduced by the usual conversion prescriptions. Building on this ansatz, we investigate the effect of the asymmetry on several observables of heavy ion physics.
The field of high energy nuclear collisions has witnessed a surge of interest in the role played by hydrodynamic fluctuations. Hydrodynamic fluctuations may have significant effects on matter created in heavy-ion accelerators whose trajectories in the plane of temperature versus chemical potential pass near a possible critical endpoint. We extend previous studies to explore the impact of these fluctuations on Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometry of identical hadrons. With an appropriately defined correlation function we find that the fluctuations increase substantially when the trajectory passes…
We study an exact rotating and expanding solution of the fluid dynamical model of heavy ion reactions, that take into account the rate of slowing down of the rotation due to the longitudinal and transverse expansion of the system. The parameters of the model are set on the basis of realistic 3+1D fluid dynamical calculation at TeV energies, where the rotation is enhanced by the build up of the Kelvin Helmholtz Instability in the flow.
The beam energy dependence of correlation lengths (the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss radii) is calculated by using a blast-wave model and the results are comparable with those from RHIC-STAR beam energy scan data as well as the LHC-ALICE measurements. A set of parameter for the blast-wave model as a function of beam energy under study are obtained by fit to the HBT radii at each energy point. The transverse momentum dependence of HBT radii is presented with the extracted parameters for Au + Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = $ 200 GeV and for Pb+Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV. From our study one can learn that…
In heavy ion collisions resonances can create strong non-Gaussian effects in the 2-pion correlation data. Hence, the commonly used Gaussian fit parameters do not fully characterize these correlators. We suggest a different set of HBT parameters which does not presuppose a particular shape of the correlator and allows to extract additional (non-Gaussian) information. Within a simple model for an expanding source including resonance decays it is shown that this additional information provides a clean distinction between scenarios with and without transverse flow.
We point out that current calculations of inclusive two-particle correlations in p-A collisions based on the Color Glass Condensate approach exhibit a contribution from Hanbury-Brown-Twiss correlations. These HBT correlations are quite distinct from the standard ones, in that they are apparent for particles widely separated in rapidity. The transverse size of the emitter which is reflected in these correlations is the gluonic size of the proton. This raises an interesting possibility of measuring the proton size directly by the HBT effect of particle pairs produced in p-A collisions.
In the light of the recent LHC data on proton-proton and lead-lead collisions we examine the question of the multiplicity scaling of HBT radii in relativistic nuclei and particle interactions. Within the UrQMD transport approach we study a large variety of system sizes at different beam energies and extract the HBT radii. In the calculation, we find a good scaling of the radii as a function of charged particle multiplicity, if the change in the multiplicity is caused by a change of centrality at the same energy. However, the scaling is only approximate when the energy, $\sqrt{s}$, is changed a…
We calculate the three- and four-particle correlations of identical pions in an evolving pion gas (EPG) model with Bose-Einstein condensation. The multi-pion correlation functions in the EPG model are analyzed in different momentum intervals and compared with the experimental data for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. It is found that the multi-pion correlation functions and cumulant correlation functions are sensitive to the condensation fraction of the EPG sources in the low average transverse-momentum intervals of the three and four pions. The model results of the multi-pion cor…
The Yano-Koonin-Podgoretskii (YKP) parametrisation of Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) two-particle correlation functions opens new strategies for extracting the emission duration and testing the longitudinal expansion in heavy-ion collisions. Based on the recently derived model-independent expressions, we present a detailed parameter study of the YKP parameters for a finite, hydrodynamically expanding source model of heavy-ion collisions. For the class of models studied here, we show that the three YKP radius parameters have an interpretation as longitudinal extension, transverse extension and emiss…
In the 1950's Hanbury Brown and Twiss showed that one could measure the angular sizes of astronomical radio sources and stars from correlations of signal intensities, rather than amplitudes, in independent detectors. Their subsequent correlation experiments demonstrating quantum bunching of photons in incoherent light beams were seminal in the development of quantum optics. Since that time the technique of "intensity interferometry" has become a valuable probe of high energy nuclear and particle collisions, providing information on the space-time geometry of the collision. The effect is one of…
I discuss two-particle intensity interferometry as a method to extract from measured 1- and 2-particle momentum spectra information on the space-time geometry and dynamics of the particle emitting source. Particular attention is given to the rapid expansion and short lifetime of the sources created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Model-independent expressions for the HBT size parameters in terms of the space-time variances of the source are derived, and a new parametrization of the correlation function is suggested which allows to separate the transverse, longitudinal and temporal extens…
Recently, the ALICE collaboration analyzed the three- and four-pion Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The measured suppressions of three- and four-pion correlations may originate from a substantial coherence of the particle-emitting sources. In this work we investigate the normalized three- and four-pion HBT correlation functions for evolving pion gas (EPG) sources with Bose-Einstein condensation. We find that the intercepts of the normalized correlation functions at zero relative momentum are sensitive to source condensation and par…
We investigate the transverse momentum dependence of pion HBT radii on the basis of a hydrodynamical model. Recent experimental data show that $R_{\text{out}}/R_{\text{side}} < 1$, which suggests a strong opaqueness of the source. In addition to the opaqueness naturally caused by transverse flow, we introduce an extrinsic opacity by imposing restrictions on the pion emission angle. Comparing the HBT radii obtained from the normal Cooper-Frye prescription and the opaque emission prescription, we find that $R_{\text{out}}/R_{\text{side}}$ is less than unity only for small values of the transvers…
Using one- and two-body density matrices, we calculate the spatial and momentum distributions, two-particle Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) correlation functions, and the chaotic parameter $λ$ in HBT interferometry for the systems of boson gas within the harmonic oscillator potentials with anisotropic frequencies in transverse and longitudinal directions. The HBT chaotic parameter, which can be obtained by measuring the correlation functions at zero relative momentum of the particle pair, is related to the degree of Bose-Einstein condensation and thus the system environment. We investigate the effec…
We examine the evolution of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) droplets with viscous hydrodynamics and analyze the pion transverse-momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in a granular source model consisting of viscous QGP droplets. The shear viscosity of the QGP droplet speeds up and slows down the droplet evolution in the central and peripheral regions of the droplet, respectively. The effect of the bulk viscosity on the evolution is negligible. Although there are viscous effects on the droplet evolution, the pion momentum spectrum and elliptic flow change littl…
I review recent applications of two-particle intensity interferometry in high energy physics, concentrating on relativistic heavy ion collisions. By measuring hadronic single-particle spectra and two-particle correlations in hadron-hadron or heavy-ion collisions, the size and dynamical state of the collision fireball at freeze-out can be reconstructed. I discuss the relevant theoretical methods and their limitations. By applying the formalism to recent pion correlation data from Pb+Pb collisions at CERN we demonstrate that the collision zone has undergone strong transverse growth before freeze…
In Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry measurements using identical bosons, the chaoticity parameter lambda has been introduced phenomenologically to represent the momentum correlation function at zero relative momentum. It is useful to study an exactly solvable problem in which the lambda parameter and its dependence on the coherence properties of the boson system can be worked out in great detail. We are therefore motivated to study the state of a gas of noninteracting identical bosons at various temperatures held together in a harmonic oscillator potential that arises either externally or fr…
Employing NEXUS, one of the most recent simulation programs for heavy ions collisions, we investigate in detail the Hanbury-Twiss correlation function for charged pions for reactions 158 GeV Pb+Pb. For this study we supplement the standard simulation program by electromagnetic interactions. We find that the string fragmentation introduces strong space-momentum correlations and the freeze out times of the correlated pairs have a wide distribution. Both has a strong influence on the apparent source radius determined from the measured correlation correlation function.An equally strong influence i…
The two-particle correlation function employed in Hanbury-Brown Twiss interferometry and femtoscopy is traditionally parameterized by a Gaussian form. Other forms, however, have also been used, including the somewhat more general Lévy form. Here we consider a variety of effects present in realistic femtoscopic studies which may modify the shape of the correlation function and thereby influence the physical interpretation of a given parameterization.
We discuss potential attainability by the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry of photons to probe the spacetime geometry of the primordial plasma created by ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. A possible effect to distort the HBT image is due to an interaction between emitted photon and an extremely strong magnetic field induced by the colliding heavy nuclei in the peripheral collisions. We examine the effects of variation of the refraction index in the strong magnetic field that is called the vacuum birefringence.
Peripheral heavy ion reactions at ultra relativistic energies have large angular momentum that can be studied via two particle correlations using the Differential Hanbury Brown and Twiss method. We analyze the possibilities and sensitivity of the method in a rotating system. We also study an expanding solution of the fluid dynamical model of heavy ion reactions.
A review on the two-pion Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the granular source model of quark-gluon plasma droplets is presented. The characteristic quantities of the granular source extracted by imaging analysis are presented and compared with the HBT radii obtained by the usual Gaussian formula fit. The signals of granular sources are presented.
Recent observations of QGP-like phenomena in small collision systems like p+p and p+A collisions have questioned our understanding of the basic paradigms of high energy heavy-ion physics. A brief discussion of these new aspects in small systems which in turn influence our understanding of hard probes like heavy quarks has been provided. Furthermore, a closer observation of the two-particle Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) interferometry measurements provide new insights in our understanding of medium-like phenomena in small systems. An outlook of future goals and measurements is also made.
Two particle correlation data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have provided detailed femtoscopic information describing the space-time structure of the emission of pions. This data had avoided description with hydrodynamic-based approaches, in contrast to the success of hydrodynamics in reproducing other classes of observables. This failure has inspired the term ``HBT puzzle'', where HBT refers to femtoscopic studies which were originally based on Hanbury-Brown Twiss interferometry. Here, the puzzle is shown to originate not from a single shortcoming of hydrodynamic models, but the co…
We calculate the two-pion correlation function for an expanding hadron source with a finite baryon density. The space-time evolution of the source is described by relativistic hydrodynamics and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radius is extracted after effects of collective expansion and multiple scattering on the HBT interferometry have been taken into account, using quantum probability amplitudes in a path-integral formalism. We find that this radius is substantially smaller than the HBT radius extracted from the freeze-out configuration.
The femtoscopy correlation radii for d-Au collisions at $200$GeV are calculated in the hydrodynamic model and compared to PHENIX collaboration data. For asymmetric systems, such as d-Au or p-Pb collisions, the correlation radius $R_{out-long}$ is estimated and predicted to be non-zero. It appears due to different lifetimes of the parts of the fireball at positive and negative rapidities. Azimuthally sensitive Hanbury Brown-Twiss analysis with respect to the second order event plane shows a significant angular dependence of the radii. It reflects the strong azimuthal asymmetry of the d-Au sourc…
The Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii have been calculated from the two particle correlation functions with virtual photons produced in the collisions of two nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies. We show that the variation of the HBT radii with the invariant mass of the virtual photon can be used to characterize and distinguish the hadronic as well as the partonic phase that might have produced initially in the collisions. It has been illustrated that the non-monotonic variation of the HBT radii with invariant mass provides an access to the development of collective flow in the system.
