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The pion source as seen through HBT correlations at RHIC energies is investigated within the UrQMD approach. We find that the calculated transverse momentum, centrality, and system size dependence of the Pratt-HBT radii R_L and R_S are reasonably well in line with experimental data. The predicted R_O values in central heavy ion collisions are larger as compared to experimental data. The corresponding quantity sqrt R_O^2-R_S^2 of the pion emission source is somewhat larger than experimental estimates.
Gravitational radiation from ultra high energy cosmic rays in models with large extra dimensions
(2006)
The effects of classical gravitational radiation in models with large extra dimensions are investigated for ultra high energy cosmic rays (CRs). The cross sections are implemented into a simulation package (SENECA) for high energy hadron induced CR air showers. We predict that gravitational radiation from quasi-elastic scattering could be observed at incident CR energies above 10^9 GeV for a setting with more than two extra dimensions. It is further shown that this gravitational energy loss can alter the energy reconstruction for CR energies E_CR > 5 10^9 GeV.
No black holes at IceCube
(2006)
In the framework of RQMD we investigate antiproton observables in massive heavy ion collisions at AGS energies and compare to preliminary results of the E878 collaboration. We focus here on the considerable influence of the real part of an antinucleon nucleus optical potential on the ¯p momentum spectra. Pacs-numbers: 14.20 Dh, 25.70.-z
In the framework of the relativistic quantum molecular dynamics approach (RQMD) we investigate antideuteron (d) observables in Au+Au collisions at 10.7 AGeV. The impact parameter dependence of the formation ratios d/p2 and d/p2 is calculated. In central collisions, the antideuteron formation ratio is predicted to be two orders of magnitude lower than the deuteron formation ratio. The d yield in central Au+Au collisions is one order of magnitude lower than in Si+Al collisions. In semicentral collisions di erent configuration space distributions of p s and d s lead to a large squeeze out e ect for antideuterons, which is not predicted for the p s.
The extension of the Periodic System into hitherto unexplored domains - anti- matter and hypermatter - is discussed. Starting from an analysis of hyperon and single hypernuclear properties we investigate the structure of multi-hyperon objects (MEMOs) using an extended relativistic meson field theory. These are contrasted with multi-strange quark states (strangelets). Their production mechanism is stud- ied for relativistic collisions of heavy ions from present day experiments at AGS and SPS to future opportunities at RHIC and LHC. It is pointed out that abso- lutely stable hypermatter is unlikely to be produced in heavy ion collisions. New attention should be focused on short lived metastable hyperclusters ( / 10 10s) and on intensity interferometry of multi-strange-baryon correlations.
We want to draw the attention to the dynamics of a (finite) hadronizing quark matter drop. Strange and antistrange quarks do not hadronize at the same time for a baryon-rich system1. Both the hadronic and the quark matter phases enter the strange sector fs 6= 0 of the phase diagram almost immediately, which has up to now been neglected in almost all calculations of the time evolution of the system. Therefore it seems questionable, whether final particle yields reflect the actual thermodynamic properties of the system at a certain stage of the evolution. We put special interest on the possible formation of exotic states, namely strangelets (multistrange quark clusters). They may exist as (meta-)stable exotic isomers of nuclear matter 2. It was speculated that strange matter might exist also as metastable exotic multi-strange (baryonic) objects (MEMO s 3). The possible creation in heavy ion collisions of long-lived remnants of the quark-gluon-plasma, cooled and charged up with strangeness by the emission of pions and kaons, was proposed in 1,4,5. Strangelets can serve as signatures for the creation of a quark gluon plasma. Currently, both at the BNL-AGS and at the CERN-SPS experiments are carried out to search for MEMO s and strangelets, e. g. by the E864, E878 and the NA52 collaborations9,
The microscopic phasespace approach URQMD is used to investigate the stopping power and particle production in heavy systems at SPS and RHIC energies. We find no gap in the baryon rapidity distribution even at RHIC. For CERN energies URQMD shows a pile up of baryons and a supression of multi-nucleon clusters at midrapidity.
The stopping behaviour of baryons in massive heavy ion collisions ( s k 10AGeV) is investigated within di erent microscopic models. At SPS-energies the predictions range from full stopping to virtually total transparency. Experimental data are indicating strong stopping. The initial baryo-chemical potentials and temperatures at collider energies and their impact on the formation probability of strange baryon clusters and strangelets are discussed.
Abstract: We study transverse expansion and directed flow in Au(11AGeV)Au reactions within a multi-fluid dynamical model. Although we do not employ an equation of state (EoS) with a first order phase transition, we find a slow increase of the transverse velocities of the nucleons with time. A similar behaviour can be observed for the directed nucleon flow. This is due to non-equilibrium e ects which also lead to less and slower conversion of longitudinal into transverse momentum. We also show that the proton rapidity distribution at CERN energies, as calculated within this model, agrees well with the preliminary NA44-data.
We discuss the early evolution of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions within a multi- fluid dynamical model. In particular, we show that due to the finite mean-free path of the particles compression shock waves are smeared out considerably as compared to the one-fluid limit. Also, the maximal energy density of the baryons is much lower. We discuss the time scale of kinetic equilibration of the baryons in the central region and its relevance for directed flow. Finally, thermal emission of direct photons from the fluid of produced particles is calculated within the three-fluid model and two other simple expansion models. It is shown that the transverse momentum and rapidity spectra of photons give clue to the cooling law and the early rapidity distribution of the photon source.
A study of secondary Drell-Yan production in nuclear collisions is presented for SPS energies. In addition to the lepton pairs produced in the initial collisions of the projectile and target nucleons, we consider the potentially high dilepton yield from hard valence antiquarks in produced mesons and antibaryons. We calculate the secondary Drell-Yan contributions taking the collision spectrum of hadrons from the microscopic model URQMD. The con- tributions from meson-baryon interactions, small in hadron-nucleus interac- tions, are found to be substantial in nucleus-nucleus collisions at low dilepton masses. Preresonance collisions of partons may further increase the yields.
Direct photon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN-SPS energy is calculated within the relativistic microscopic transport model UrQMD, and within distinctly di erent versions of relativistic hydrodynamics. We find that in UrQMD the local momentum distributions of the secondaries are strongly elongated along the beam axis initially. Therefore, the preequilibrium contribution dominates the photon spectrum at transverse momenta above H 1.5 GeV. The hydrodynamics prediction of a strong correlation between the temperature and radial expansion velocities on the one hand and the slope of the transverse momentum distribution of direct photons on the other hand thus is not recovered in UrQMD. The rapidity distribution of direct photons in UrQMD reveals that the initial conditions for the longitudinal expansion of the photon source (the meson fluid ) resemble rather boostinvariance than Landau-like flow.
We perform an event-by-event analysis of the transverse momentum distribution of final state particles in central Pb(160AGeV)+Pb collisions within a microscopic non-equilibrium transport model (UrQMD). Strong influence of rescattering is found. The extracted momentum distributions show less fluctuations in A+A collisions than in p+p reactions. This is in contrast to simplified p+p extrapolations and random walk models.
We estimate the energy density epsilon pile-up at mid-rapidity in central Pb+Pb collisions from 2 200 GeV/nucleon. epsilon is decomposed into hadronic and partonic contributions. A detailed analysis of the collision dynamics in the framework of a microscopic transport model shows the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and rescattering of leading (di)quarks in the early phase of the reaction for Elab 30 GeV/nucleon. In Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon the energy density reaches up to 4 GeV/fm3, 95% of which are contained in partonic degrees of freedom.
Dissociation rates of J / psi's with comoving mesons : thermal versus nonequilibrium scenario.
(1998)
We study J/psi dissociation processes in hadronic environments. The validity of a thermal meson gas ansatz is tested by confronting it with an alternative, nonequilibrium scenario. Heavy ion collisions are simulated in the frame- work of the microscopic transport model UrQMD, taking into account the production of charmonium states through hard parton-parton interactions and subsequent rescattering with hadrons. The thermal gas and microscopic transport scenarios are shown to be very dissimilar. Estimates of J/psi survival probabilities based on thermal models of comover interactions in heavy ion collisions are therefore not reliable.
We study J/psi suppression in AB collisions assuming that the charmonium states evolve from small, color transparent configurations. Their interaction with nucleons and nonequilibrated, secondary hadrons is simulated us- ing the microscopic model UrQMD. The Drell-Yan lepton pair yield and the J/psi /Drell-Yan ratio are calculated as a function of the neutral transverse en- ergy in Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV and found to be in reasonable agreement with existing data.
Abstract: Local thermal and chemical equilibration is studied for central AqA collisions at 10.7 160 AGeV in the Ultrarelativis- . tic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model UrQMD . The UrQMD model exhibits strong deviations from local equilibrium at the high density hadron string phase formed during the early stage of the collision. Equilibration of the hadron resonance matter is established in the central cell of volume Vs125 fm3 at later stages, tG10 fmrc, of the resulting quasi-isentropic expansion. The thermodynamical functions in the cell and their time evolution are presented. Deviations of the UrQMD quasi-equilibrium state from the statistical mechanics equilibrium are found. They increase with energy per baryon and lead to a strong enhancement of the pion number density as compared to statistical mechanics estimates at SPS energies. PACS: 25.75.-q; 24.10.Lx; 24.10.Pa; 64.30.qt
Noneequilibrium models (three-fluid hydrodynamics and UrQMD) use to discuss the uniqueness of often proposed experimental signatures for quark matter formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions. It is demonstrated that these two models - although they do treat the most interesting early phase of the collisions quite differently(thermalizing QGP vs. coherent color fields with virtual particles) - both yields a reasonable agreement with a large variety of the available heavy ion data.
We study J/psi suppression in AB collisions assuming that the charmonium states evolve from small, color transparent configurations. Their interaction with nucleons and nonequilibrated, secondary hadrons is simulated using the microscopic model UrQMD. The Drell-Yan lepton pair yield and the J/psi Drell-Yan ratio are calculated as a function of the neutral transverse energy in Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV and found to be in reasonable agreement with existing data.
We discuss a model for the space-time evolution of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions which employs relativistic hydrodynamics within one region of the forward light-cone, and microscopic transport theory (i.e. UrQMD) in the complement. Our initial condition consists of a quark-gluon plasma which expands hydrodynamically and hadronizes. After hadronization the solution eventually changes from expansion in local equilibrium to free streaming, as determined selfconsistently by the interaction rates between the hadrons and the local expansion rate. We show that in such a scenario the inverse slopes of the mT -spectra of multiple strange baryons ( Xi,Omega) are practically una ected by the purely hadronic stage of the reaction, while the flow of p's and Lambda's increases. Moreover, we find that the rather soft transverse expansion at RHIC energies (due to a first-order phase transition) is not washed out by strong rescattering in the hadronic stage. The earlier kinetic freeze-out as compared to SPS-energies results in similar inverse slopes (of the mT -spectra of the hadrons in the final state) at RHIC and SPS energies.
We introduce a transport approach which combines partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom on an equal footing and discuss the resulting reaction dynamics. The initial parton dynamics is modeled in the framework of the parton cascade model, hadronization is performed via a cluster hadronization model and configuration space coalescence, and the hadronic phase is described by a microscopic hadronic transport approach. The resulting reaction dynamics indicates a strong influence of hadronic rescattering on the space-time pattern of hadronic freeze-out and on the shape of transverse mass spectra. Freeze-out times and transverse radii increase by factors of 2 3 depending on the hadron species.
We analyze the hadronic freeze-out in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC in a transport approach which combines hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction with a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage at which the hydrodynamic equilibrium assumptions are not valid. With this ansatz we are able to self-consistently calculate the freeze-out of the system and determine space-time hypersurfaces for individual hadron species. The space-time domains of the freeze-out for several hadron species are found to be actually four-dimensional, and di er drastically for the individual hadrons species. Freeze-out radii distributions are similar in width for most hadron species, even though the is found to be emitted rather close to the phase boundary and shows the smallest freeze- out radii and times among all baryon species. The total lifetime of the system does not change by more than 10% when going from SPS to RHIC energies.
Charmonium production and absorption in heavy ion collisions is studied with the Ultrarelativisitic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model. We compare the scenario of universal and time independent color-octet dissociation cross sections with one of distinct color-singlet J/psi, psi 2 and CHIc states, evolving from small, color transparent configurations to their asymptotic sizes. The measured J/psi production cross sections in pA and AB collisions at SPS energies are consistent with both purely hadronic scenarios. The predicted rapidity dependence of J/psi suppression can be used to discriminate between the two experimentally. The importance of interactions with secondary hadrons and the applicability of thermal reaction kinetics to J/psi absorption are in- vestigated. We discuss the e ect of nuclear stopping and the role of leading hadrons. The dependence of the 2/J/psi ratio on the model assumptions and the possible influence of refeeding processes is also studied.
Event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations in nucleus-nucleus collisions are studied within the HSD and UrQMD transport models. The scaled variances of negative, positive, and all charged hadrons in Pb+Pb at 158 AGeV are analyzed in comparison to the data from the NA49 Collaboration. We find a dominant role of the fluctuations in the nucleon participant number for the final hadron multiplicity fluctuations. This fact can be used to check di erent scenarios of nucleus-nucleus collisions by measuring the final multiplicity fluctuations as a function of collision centrality. The analysis reveals surprising e ects in the recent NA49 data which indicate a rather strong mixing of the projectile and target hadron production sources even in peripheral collisions. PACS numbers: 25.75.-q,25.75.Gz,24.60.-k
We investigate event-by-event fluctuations for ensembles with non-fixed multiplicity. Moments of event observable distributions, like total energy distribution, total transverse momentum distribution, etc, are shown to be related to the multi-body correlations present in the system. For classical systems, these moments reduce in the absence of any correlations to the mo- ments of particle inclusive momentum distribution. As a consequence, a zero value for the recently introduced Phi-variable is shown to indicate the van- ishing of two-body correlations from one part, and of correlations between multiplicity and momentum distributions from the other part. It is often misunderstood as a measure of the degree of equilibration in the system.
We investigate the hadronic cooling of a quark droplet within a microscopic model. The color flux tube approach is used to describe the hadronization of the quark phase. The model reproduces experimental particle ratios equally well compared to a static thermal hadronic source. Furthermore, the dynamics of the decomposition of a quark-gluon plasma is investigated and time dependent particle ratios are found.
Using a microscopic transport model together with a coalescence after-burner, we study the formation of deuterons in Au + Au central collisions at s = 200 AGeV . It is found that the deuteron transverse momentum distributions are strongly a ected by the nucleon space-momentum correlations, at the moment of freeze-out, which are mostly determined by the number of rescatterings. This feature is useful for studying collision dynamics at ultrarelativistic energies.
UrQMD at RHIC energies
(1999)
A microscopic model of deconfined matter based on color interactions between semi-classical quarks is studied. A hadronization mechanism is imposed to examine the properties and the disassembly of a thermalized quark plasma and to investigate the possible existence of a phase transition from quark matter to hadron matter.
Relativistic hadron-hadron collisions in the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics model
(1999)
Hadron-hadron collisions at high energies are investigated in the Ultra- relativistic-Quantum-Molecular-Dynamics approach. This microscopic trans- port model describes the phenomenology of hadronic interactions at low and intermediate energies ( s < 5 GeV) in terms of interactions between known hadrons and their resonances. At higher energies, s > 5 GeV, the excitation of color strings and their subsequent fragmentation into hadrons dominates the multiple production of particles in the UrQMD model. The model shows a fair overall agreement with a large body of experimental h-h data over a wide range of h-h center-of-mass energies. Hadronic reaction data with higher precision would be useful to support the use of the UrQMD model for relativistic heavy ion collisions.
A sign reversal of the directed flow parameter v1 in the central rapidity region in Au+Au collisions at s = 200 AGeV is predicted. This anti-flow is shown to be linked to the expansion of the hot matter created. In line with this observation the predicted elliptic flow parameter v2 of various particle species is linked to the mean free path of these particles.
In ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, early stage multiple scatterings may lead to an increase of the color electric field strength. Consequently, particle production - especially heavy quark (and di-quark) production - is greatly enhanced according to the Schwinger mechanism. We test this idea via the Ultra-relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (UrQMD) for Au+Au collisions at the full RHIC energy (ps = 200 AGeV). Relative to p+p collisions, a factor of 60, 20 and 7 enhancement respectively, for (sss), (ss), and , (s) is predicted for a model with increased color electric field strength.
We compute bremsstrahlung arising from the acceleration of individual charged baryons and mesons during the time evolution of high-energy Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider using a microscopic transport model. We elucidate the connection between bremsstrahlung and charge stop- ping by colliding artificial pure proton on pure neutron nuclei. From the inten- sity of low energy bremsstrahlung, the time scale and the degree of stopping could be accurately extracted without measuring any hadronic observables. PACS: 25.75.-q, 13.85.Qk
The quark-molecular-dynamics model is used to study microscopically the dynamics of the coloured quark phase and the subsequent hadron formation in relativistic S+Au collisions at the CERN-SPS. Particle spectra and hadron ratios are compared to both data and the results of hadronic transport calculations. The non-equilibrium dynamics of hadronization and the loss of correlation among quarks are studied.
We address the production of black holes at LHC in space times with compactified space-like large extra dimensions (LXD). Final state black hole production leads to suppression of high-PT jets, i.e. a sharp cut-o in (pp!jet+X). This signal is compared to the jet plus missing energy signature due to graviton production in the final state as proposed by the ATLAS collaboration. Time evolution and lifetimes of the newly created black holes are calculated based on the micro- canonical formalism. It is demonstrated that previous lifetime estimates of micro black holes have been dramatically underestimated. The creation of a large number of quasi-stable black holes is predicted with life times of hundred fm/c at LHC. Medium modifications of the black holes evaporation rate due to the quark gluon plasma in relativistic heavy ion collisions as well as provided by the cosmic fluid in the early universe are studied
The production of black holes at Tevatron and LHC in spacetimes with compactified space-like large extra dimensions is studied. Either black holes can already be observed in ¯ pp collisions at s = 1.8 TeV or the fundamental gravity scale has to be above 1.4 TeV. At LHC the creation of a large number of quasi-stable black holes is predicted, with lifetimes beyond several hundred fm/c. A cut-off in the high-PT jet cross section is shown to be a unique signature of black hole production. This signal is compared to the jet plus missing energy signature due to graviton production in the final state as proposed by the ATLAS collaboration.
The SENECA model, a new hybrid approach to air shower simulations, is presented. It combines the use of efficient cascade equations in the energy range where a shower can be treated as one-dimensional, with a traditional Monte Carlo method which traces individual particles. This allows one to reproduce natural fluctuations of individual showers as well as the lateral spread of low energy particles. The model is quite efficient in computation time. As an application of the new approach, the influence of the low energy hadronic models on shower properties for AUGER energies is studied. We conclude that these models have a significant impact on the tails of lateral distribution functions, and deserve therefore more attention.
The influence of high and low energy hadronic models on lateral distribution functions of cosmic ray air showers for Auger energies is explored. A large variety of presently used high and low energy hadron interaction models are analysed and the resulting lateral distribution functions are compared. We show that the slope depends on both the high and low energy hadronic model used. The models are confronted with available hadron-nucleus data from accelerator experiments.
Impact parameter dependencies in Pb(160 AGeV)+Pb reactions : hydrodynamical vs. cascade calculations
(1999)
We investigate the impact parameter dependence of the specific entropy S/A in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Especially the anti-Lambda/anti-proton ratio is found to be a useful tool to distinguish between chemical equilibrium assumptions assumed in hydrodynamics (here: the 3-fluid model) and the chemical non-equilibrium scenario like in microscopic models as the UrQMD model.
The isospin and strangeness dimensions of the Equation of State are explored. RIA and the SIS200 accelerator at GSI will allow to explore these regions in compressed baryonic matter. 132 Sn + 132 Sn and 100 Sn + 100 Sn collisions as well as the excitation functions of K/pi, Lambda/pi and the centrality dependence of charmonium suppression from the UrQMD and HSD transport models are presented and compared to data. Unambiguous proof for the creation of a 'novel phase of matter' from strangeness and charm yields is not in sight.
Nonequilibrium models (three-fluid hydrodynamics, UrQMD, and quark molecular dynamics) are used to discuss the uniqueness of often proposed experimental signatures for quark matter formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions from the SPS via RHIC to LHC. It is demonstrated that these models - although they do treat the most interesting early phase of the collisions quite differently (thermalizing QGP vs. coherent color fields with virtual particles) -- all yield a reasonable agreement with a large variety of the available heavy ion data. Hadron/hyperon yields, including J/Psi meson production/suppression, strange matter formation, dileptons, and directed flow (bounce-off and squeeze-out) are investigated. Observations of interesting phenomena in dense matter are reported. However, we emphasize the need for systematic future measurements to search for simultaneous irregularities in the excitation functions of several observables in order to come close to pinning the properties of hot, dense QCD matter from data. The role of future experiments with the STAR and ALICE detectors is pointed out.
A novel mechanism of H0 and strangelet production in hadronic interactions within the Gribov-Regge approach is presented. In contrast to traditional distillation approaches, here the production of multiple (strange) quark bags does not require large baryon densities or a QGP. The production cross section increases with center of mass energy. Rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of the H 0 are predicted for pp collisions at E_lab = 160 AGeV (SPS) and \sqrt s = 200 AGeV (RHIC). The predicted total H 0 multiplicities are of order of the Omega-baryon yield and can be accessed by the NA49 and the STAR experiments.
We apply a microcanonical statistical model to investigate hadron production in pp collisions. The parameters of the model are the energy E and the volume V of the system, which we determine via fitting the average multiplicity of charged pions, protons and antiprotons in pp collisions at different collision energies. We then make predictions of mean multiplicities and mean transverse momenta of all identified hadrons. Our predictions on nonstrange hadrons are in good agreement with the data, the mean transverse momenta of strange hadron as well. However, the mean multiplicities of strange hadrons are overpredicted. This agrees with canonical and grandcanonical studies, where a strange suppression factor is needed. We also investigate the influence of event-by-event fluctuations of the E parameter.
A micro-canonical treatment is used to study particle production in pp collisions. First this micro-canonical treatment is compared to some canonical ones. Then proton, antiproton and pion 4 pi multiplicities from proton-proton collisions at various center of mass energies are used to fix the micro-canonical parameters (E) and (V). The dependences of the micro-canonical parameters on the collision energy are parameterised for the further study of pp reactions with this micro-canonical treatment.
The production of multiple strange baryons in pp interactions is studied. Here one can directly probe the microscopic decay of color flux tubes, allowing to differentiate between different string models and a statistical description of the hadronization. To analyse the different stages of a heavy ion collision the time evolution of the elastic and inelastic collision rates in central Pb+Pb interactions are studied. The microscopic simulation supports the idea of separated phases (non-equilibrium -> chemical freeze-out -> kinetic freeze-out) in the evolution of the system. The spectra and abundances of Lambda(1520), K 0(892) and other resonances are used to study the break-up dynamics of the source between chemical and thermal freeze-out.
We show that an unambiguous way of determining the universal limiting fragmentation region is to consider the derivative (d 2 n / d eta 2) of the pseudo-rapidity distribution per participant pair. In addition, we find that the transition region between the fragmentation and the central plateau regions exhibits a second kind of universal behavior that is only apparent in d 2 n / d eta 2. The sqrt s dependence of the height of the central plateau (d n / d eta) eta=0 and the total charged particle multiplicity n total critically depend on the behavior of this universal transition curve. Analyzing available RHIC data, we show that (dn/d eta) eta=0 can be bounded by ln 2 s and n total can be bounded by ln 3 s. We also show that the deuteron-gold data from RHIC has the exactly same features as the gold-gold data indicating that these universal behaviors are a feature of the initial state parton-nucleus interactions and not a consequence of final state interactions. Predictions for LHC energy are also given.
Yields, rapidity and transverse momentum spectra of Delta++(1232), Lambda(1520), Sigma+-(1385) and the meson resonances K0(892), Phi, rho0 and f0(980) are predicted. Hadronic rescattering leads to a suppression of reconstructable resonances, especially at low p_perp. A mass shift of the rho of 10 MeV is obtained from the microscopic simulation, due to late stage rho formation in the cooling pion gas.
Recent calculations applying statistical mechanics indicate that in a setting with compactified large extra dimensions a black hole might evolve into a (quasi-)stable state with mass close to the new fundamental scale M f. Black holes and therefore their relics might be produced at the LHC in the case of extra-dimensional topologies. In this energy regime, Hawking's evaporation scenario is modified due to energy conservation and quantum effects. We reanalyse the evaporation of small black holes including the quantisation of the emitted radiation due to the finite surface of the black hole. It is found that observable stable black hole relics with masses sim 1-3 M f would form which could be identified by a delayed single jet with a corresponding hard momentum kick to the relic and by ionisation, e.g. in a TPC.
String theory suggests the existence of a minimum length scale. An exciting quantum mechanical implication of this feature is a modification of the uncertainty principle. In contrast to the conventional approach, this generalised uncertainty principle does not allow to resolve space time distances below the Planck length. In models with extra dimensions, which are also motivated by string theory, the Planck scale can be lowered to values accessible by ultra high energetic cosmic rays (UHECRs) and by future colliders, i.e. M f approximately equal to 1 TeV. It is demonstrated that in this novel scenario, short distance physics below 1/M f is completely cloaked by the uncertainty principle. Therefore, Planckian effects could be the final physics discovery at future colliders and in UHECRs. As an application, we predict the modifications to the e+ e- to f+ f- cross-sections.
Within the scenario of large extra dimensions, the Planck scale is lowered to values soon accessible. Among the predicted effects, the production of TeV mass black holes at the LHC is one of the most exciting possibilities. Though the final phases of the black hole’s evaporation are still unknown, the formation of a black hole remnant is a theoretically well motivated expectation. We analyze the observables emerging from a black hole evaporation with a remnant instead of a final decay. We show that the formation of a black hole remnant yields a signature which differs substantially from a final decay. We find the total transverse momentum of the black hole event to be significantly dominated by the presence of a remnant mass providing a strong experimental signature for black hole remnant formation.
We discuss modifications of the gyromagnetic moment of electrons and muons due to a minimal length scale combined with a modified fundamental scaleMf . First-order deviations from the theoretical standard model value for g-2 due to these String Theory-motivated e ects are derived. Constraints for the new fundamental scale Mf are given.
Probing the density dependence of the symmetry potential in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions
(2005)
Based on the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model, the effects of the density-dependent symmetry potential for baryons and of the Coulomb potential for produced mesons are investigated for neutron-rich heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies. The calculated results of the Delta-/Delta++ and pi -/pi + production ratios show a clear beam-energy dependence on the density-dependent symmetry potential, which is stronger for the pi -/pi + ratio close to the pion production threshold. The Coulomb potential of the mesons changes the transverse momentum distribution of the pi -/pi + ratio significantly, though it alters only slightly the pi- and pi+ total yields. The pi- yields, especially at midrapidity or at low transverse momenta and the p-/pi+ ratios at low transverse momenta, are shown to be sensitive probes of the density-dependent symmetry potential in dense nuclear matter. The effect of the density-dependent symmetry potential on the production of both, K0 and K+ mesons, is also investigated.
String theory suggests modifications of our spacetime such as extra dimensions and the existence of a mininal length scale. In models with addidional dimensions, the Planck scale can be lowered to values accessible by future colliders. Effective theories which extend beyond the standart-model by including extra dimensions and a minimal length allow computation of observables and can be used to make testable predictions. Expected effects that arise within these models are the production of gravitons and black holes. Furthermore, the Planck-length is a lower bound to the possible resolution of spacetime which might be reached soon.
In this study, we analyze the recently proposed charge transfer fluctuations within a finite pseudo-rapidity space. As the charge transfer fluctuation is a measure of the local charge correlation length, it is capable of detecting inhomogeneity in the hot and dense matter created by heavy ion collisions. We predict that going from peripheral to central collisions, the charge transfer fluctuations at midrapidity should decrease substantially while the charge transfer fluctuations at the edges of the observation window should decrease by a small amount. These are consequences of having a strongly inhomogeneous matter where the QGP component is concentrated around midrapidity. We also show how to constrain the values of the charge correlations lengths in both the hadronic phase and the QGP phase using the charge transfer fluctuations.
The regeneration of hadronic resonances is discussed for heavy ion collisions at SPS and SIS-300 energies. The time evolutions of Delta, rho and phi resonances are investigated. Special emphasize is put on resonance regeneration after chemical freeze-out. The emission time spectra of experimentally detectable resonances are explored.
The influence of the isospin-independent, isospin- and momentum-dependent equation of state (EoS), as well as the Coulomb interaction on the pion production in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions (HICs) is studied for both isospin-symmetric and neutron-rich systems. The Coulomb interaction plays an important role in the reaction dynamics, and strongly influences the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of charged pions. It even leads to the pi- pi+ ratio deviating slightly from unity for isospin-symmetric systems. The Coulomb interaction between mesons and baryons is also crucial for reproducing the proper pion flow since it changes the behavior of the directed and the elliptic flow components of pions visibly. The EoS can be better investigated in neutron-rich system if multiple probes are measured simultaneously. For example, the rapidity and the transverse momentum distributions of the charged pions, the pi- pi+ ratio, the various pion flow components, as well as the difference of pi+-pi- flows. A new sensitive observable is proposed to probe the symmetry potential energy at high densities, namely the transverse momentum distribution of the elliptic flow difference [Delta v_2^pi+ - pi-(p_t rm c.m.].
We compare multiplicities as well as rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of protons, pions and kaons calculated within presently available transport approaches for heavy ion collisions around 1 AGeV. For this purpose, three reactions have been selected: Au+Au at 1 and 1.48 AGeV and Ni+Ni at 1.93 AGeV.
It is investigated whether canonical suppression associated with the exact conservation of an U(1)-charge can be reproduced correctly by current transport models. Therefore a pion-gas having a volume-limited cross section for kaon production and annihilation is simulated within two different transport prescriptions for realizing the inelastic collisions. It is found that both models can indeed dynamically account for the canonical suppression in the yields of rare strange particles.
Longitudinal hadron spectra from proton-proton (pp) and nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions from E_lab= 2 AGeV to sqrt s=200 AGeV are investigated. The widths of the rapidity spectra for various particle species increases monotonously with energy. The present calculation indicates no sign of a step like behaviour as excepted from the Kaon transverse mass systematics. For Pions, the transport simulation is consistent with a Landau type scaling of the rapidity widths, both in central AA reactions and in pp collisions. However, other hadron species do not follow the Landau scaling. The present model predicts a decreasing rapidity width with particle mass for newly produced particles, not supporting a Landau type flow interpretation.
Transverse hadron spectra from proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions from 2 AGeV to 21.3 ATeV are investigated within two independent transport approaches (HSD and UrQMD). For central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at energies above E lab ~ 5 AGeV, the measured K +- transverse mass spectra have a larger inverse slope parameter than expected from the default calculations. The additional pressure - as suggested by lattice QCD calculations at finite quark chemical potential mu q and temperature T - might be generated by strong interactions in the early pre-hadronic/partonic phase of central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions. This is supported by a non-monotonic energy dependence of v2/pT in the present transport model.
Within the ADD-model, we elaborate an idea by Vacavant and Hinchliffe and show quantitatively how to determine the fundamental scale of TeV-gravity and the number of compactified extra dimensions from data at LHC. We demonstrate that the ADD-model leads to strong correlations between the missing E_T in gravitons at different center of mass energies. This correlation puts strong constraints on this model for extra dimensions, if probed at sqr s=5.5 TeV and sqrt s=14 TeV at LHC.
The cumulant method is applied to study elliptic flow (v_2) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt s=200 AGeV, with the UrQMD model. In this approach, the true event plane is known and both the non-flow effects and event-by-event spatial (epsilon) and v_2 fluctuations exist. Qualitatively, the hierarchy of v_2 's from two, four and six-particle cumulants is consistent with the STAR data, however, the magnitude of v_2 in the UrQMD model is only 60% of the data. We find that the four and six-particle cumulants are good measures of the real elliptic flow over a wide range of centralities except for the most central and very peripheral events. There the cumulant method is affected by the v_2 fluctuations. In mid-central collisions, the four and six-particle cumulants are shown to give a good estimation of the true differential v_2, especially at large transverse momentum, where the two-particle cumulant method is heavily affected by the non-flow effects.
We predict transverse and longitudinal momentum spectra and yields of rho 0 and omega mesons reconstructed from hadron correlations in C+C reactions at 2~AGeV. The rapidity and pT distributions for reconstructable rho 0 mesons differs strongly from the primary distribution, while the omega's distributions are only weakly modified. We discuss the temporal and spatial distributions of the particles emitted in the hadron channel. Finally, we report on the mass shift of the rho 0 due to its coupling to the N*(1520), which is observable in both the di-lepton and pi pi channel. Our calculations can be tested with the Hades experiment at GSI, Darmstadt.
Trapping black hole remnants
(2005)
Large extra dimensions lower the Planck scale to values soon accessible. The production of TeV mass black holes at the LHC is one of the most exciting predictions. However, the final phases of the black hole's evaporation are still unknown and there are strong indications that a black hole remnant can be left. Since a certain fraction of such objects would be electrically charged, we argue that they can be trapped. In this paper, we examine the occurrence of such charged black hole remnants. These trapped remnants are of high interest, as they could be used to closely investigate the evaporation characteristics. Due to the absence of background from the collision region and the controlled initial state, the signal would be very clear. This would allow to extract information about the late stages of the evaporation process with high precision.
The recently proposed baryon-strangeness correlation (C_BS) is studied with a string-hadronic transport model (UrQMD) for various energies from E_lab=4 AGeV to \sqrt s=200 AGeV. It is shown that rescattering among secondaries can not mimic the predicted correlation pattern expected for a Quark-Gluon-Plasma. However, we find a strong increase of the C_BS correlation function with decreasing collision energy both for pp and Au+Au/Pb+Pb reactions. For Au+Au reactions at the top RHIC energy (\sqrt s=200 AGeV), the C_BS correlation is constant for all centralities and compatible with the pp result. With increasing width of the rapidity window, C_BS follows roughly the shape of the baryon rapidity distribution. We suggest to study the energy and centrality dependence of C_BS which allow to gain information on the onset of the deconfinement transition in temperature and volume.
We analyze longitudinal pion spectra from E_lab= 2AGeV to sqrt s_NN=200GeV within Landau's hydrodynamical model. From the measured data on the widths of the pion rapidity spectra, we extract the sound velocity c_s in the early stage of the reactions. It is found that the sound velocity has a local minimum (indicating a softest point in the equation of state, EoS) at E_beam=30AGeV. This softening of the EoS is compatible with the assumption of the formation of a mixed phase at the onset of deconfinement.
The ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics model (UrQMD) is used to study global observables in central reactions of Au+Au at sqrt[s]=200A GeV at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Strong stopping governed by massive particle production is predicted if secondary interactions are taken into account. The underlying string dynamics and the early hadronic decoupling implies only small transverse expansion rates. However, rescattering with mesons is found to act as a source of pressure leading to additional flow of baryons and kaons, while cooling down pions.
We investigate the sensitivity of several observables to the density dependence of the symmetry potential within the microscopic transport model UrQMD (ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics model). The same systems are used to probe the symmetry potential at both low and high densities. The influence of the symmetry potentials on the yields of pi-, pi+, the pi-/pi+ ratio, the n/p ratio of free nucleons and the t/3He ratio are studied for neutron-rich heavy ion collisions (208Pb+208Pb, 132Sn+124Sn, 96Zr+96Zr) at E_b=0.4A GeV. We find that these multiple probes provides comprehensive information on the density dependence of the symmetry potential.
Compelling evidence for the creation of a new form of matter has been claimed to be found in Pb+Pb collisions at SPS. We discuss the uniqueness of often proposed experimental signatures for quark matter formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions. It is demonstrated that so far none of the proposed signals like J/psi meson production/suppression, strangeness enhancement, dileptons, and directed flow unambigiously show that a phase of deconfined matter has been formed in SPS Pb+Pb collisions. We emphasize the need for systematic future measurements to search for simultaneous irregularities in the excitation functions of several observables in order to come close to pinning the properties of hot, dense QCD matter from data.
The equilibration of hot and dense nuclear matter produced in the central cell of central Au+Au collisions at RHIC (sqrt s = 200 A GeV) energies is studied within a microscopic transport model. The pressure in the cell becomes isotropic at t approx 5 fm/c after beginning of the collision. Within the next 15 fm/c the expansion of matter in the cell proceeds almost isentropically with the entropy per baryon ratio S/A approx 150, and the equation of state in the (P,epsilon) plane has a very simple form, P=0.15 epsilon. Comparison with the statistical model of an ideal hadron gas indicates that the time t approx 20 fm/c may be too short to reach the fully equilibrated state. Particularly, the creation of long-lived resonance-rich matter in the cell decelerates the relaxation to chemical equilibrium. This resonance-abundant state can be detected experimentally after the thermal freeze-out of particles.
The yields of strange particles are calculated with the UrQMD model for p,Pb(158 AGeV)Pb collisions and compared to experimental data. The yields are enhanced in central collisions if compared to proton induced or peripheral Pb+Pb collisions. The enhancement is due to secondary interactions. Nevertheless, only a reduction of the quark masses or equivalently an increase of the string tension provides an adequate description of the large observed enhancement factors (WA97 and NA49). Furthermore, the yields of unstable strange resonances as the Lambda star(1520) resonance or the phi meson are considerably affected by hadronic rescattering of the decay products.
The equilibration of hot and dense nuclear matter produced in the central region in central Au+Au collisions at square root s = 200A GeV is studied within the microscopic transport model UrQMD. The pressure here becomes isotropic at t approx 5 fm/c. Within the next 15 fm/c the expansion of the matter proceeds almost isentropically with the entropy per baryon ratio S/A approx 150. During this period the equation of state in the (P, epsilon)-plane has a very simple form, P = 0.15 epsilon. Comparison with the statistical model (SM) of an ideal hadron gas reveals that the time of approx 20 fm/c may be too short to attain the fully equilibrated state. Particularly, the fractions of resonances are overpopulated in contrast to the SM values. The creation of such a long-lived resonance-rich state slows down the relaxation to chemical equilibrium and can be detected experimentally.
Enhanced antiproton production in Pb(160 AGeV)+Pb reactions: evidence for quark gluon matter?
(2000)
The centrality dependence of the antiproton per participant ratio is studied in Pb(160 AGeV)+Pb reactions. Antiproton production in collisions of heavy nuclei at the CERN/SPS seems considerably enhanced as compared to conventional hadronic physics, given by the antiproton production rates in pp and antiproton annihilation in p p reactions. This enhancement is consistent with the observation of strong in-medium effects in other hadronic observables and may be an indication of partial restoration of chiral symmetry.
The behavior of hadronic matter at high baryon densities is studied within Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (URQMD). Baryonic stopping is observed for Au+Au collisions from SIS up to SPS energies. The excitation function of flow shows strong sensitivities to the underlying equation of state (EOS), allowing for systematic studies of the EOS. Effects of a density dependent pole of the rho-meson propagator on dilepton spectra are studied for different systems and centralities at CERN energies.
The hypothesis of local equilibrium (LE) in relativistic heavy ion collisions at energies from AGS to RHIC is checked in the microscopic transport model. We find that kinetic, thermal, and chemical equilibration of the expanding hadronic matter is nearly reached in central collisions at AGS energy for t >_ fm/c in a central cell. At these times the equation of state may be approximated by a simple dependence P ~= (0.12-0.15) epsilon. Increasing deviations of the yields and the energy spectra of hadrons from statistical model values are observed for increasing bombarding energies. The origin of these deviations is traced to the irreversible multiparticle decays of strings and many-body (N >_ 3) decays of resonances. The violations of LE indicate that the matter in the cell reaches a steady state instead of idealized equilibrium. The entropy density in the cell is only about 6% smaller than that of the equilibrium state.
Local equilibrium in heavy ion collisions. Microscopic model versus statistical model analysis
(1999)
The assumption of local equilibrium in relativistic heavy ion collisions at energies from 10.7 AGeV (AGS) up to 160 AGeV (SPS) is checked in the microscopic transport model. Dynamical calculations performed for a central cell in the reaction are compared to the predictions of the thermal statistical model. We find that kinetic, thermal and chemical equilibration of the expanding hadronic matter are nearly approached late in central collisions at AGS energy for t >= 10 fm/c in a central cell. At these times the equation of state may be approximated by a simple dependence P ~= (0.12-0.15) epsilon. Increasing deviations of the yields and the energy spectra of hadrons from statistical model values are observed for increasing energy, 40 AGeV and 160 AGeV. These violations of local equilibrium indicate that a fully equilibrated state is not reached, not even in the central cell of heavy ion collisions at energies above 10 AGeV. The origin of these findings is traced to the multiparticle decays of strings and many-body decays of resonances.
The behavior of hadronic matter at high baryon densities is studied within Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (URQMD). Baryonic stopping is observed for Au+Au collisions from SIS up to SPS energies. The excitation function of flow shows strong sensitivities to the underlying equation of state (EOS), allowing for systematic studies of the EOS. Dilepton spectra are calculated with and without shifting the rho pole. Except for S+Au collisions our calculations reproduce the CERES data.
Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) calculations of central collisions between heavy nuclei are used to study fragment production and the creation of collective flow. It is shown that the final phase space distributions are compatible with the expectations from a thermally equilibrated source, which in addition exhibits a collective transverse expansion. However, the microscopic analyses of the transient states in the intermediate reaction stages show that the event shapes are more complex and that equilibrium is reached only in very special cases but not in event samples which cover a wide range of impact parameters as it is the case in experiments. The basic features of a new molecular dynamics model (UQMD) for heavy ion collisions from the Fermi energy regime up to the highest presently available energies are outlined.
We study the thermodynamic properties of infinite nuclear matter with the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (URQMD), a semiclassical transport model, running in a box with periodic boundary conditions. It appears that the energy density rises faster than T4 at high temperatures of T approx. 200 - 300 MeV. This indicates an increase in the number of degrees of freedom. Moreover, We have calculated direct photon production in Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/u within this model. The direct photon slope from the microscopic calculation equals that from a hydrodynamical calculation without a phase transition in the equation of state of the photon source.
The centrality dependence of (multi-)strange hadron abundances is studied for Pb(158 AGeV)Pb reactions and compared to p(158 GeV)Pb collisions. The microscopic transport model UrQMD is used for this analysis. The predicted Lambda/pi-, Xi-/pi- and Omega-/pi- ratios are enhanced due to rescattering in central Pb-Pb collisions as compared to peripheral Pb-Pb or p-Pb collisions. A reduction of the constituent quark masses to the current quark masses m_s \sim 230 MeV, m_q \sim 10 MeV, as motivated by chiral symmetry restoration, enhances the hyperon yields to the experimentally observed high values. Similar results are obtained by an ad hoc overall increase of the color electric field strength (effective string tension of kappa=3 GeV/fm). The enhancement depends strongly on the kinematical cuts. The maximum enhancement is predicted around midrapidity. For Lambda's, strangeness suppression is predicted at projectile/target rapidity. For Omega's, the predicted enhancement can be as large as one order of magnitude. Comparisons of Pb-Pb data to proton induced asymmetric (p-A) collisions are hampered due to the predicted strong asymmetry in the various rapidity distributions of the different (strange) particle species. In p-Pb collisions, strangeness is locally (in rapidity) not conserved. The present comparison to the data of the WA97 and NA49 collaborations clearly supports the suggestion that conventional (free) hadronic scenarios are unable to describe the observed high (anti-)hyperon yields in central collisions. The doubling of the strangeness to nonstrange suppression factor, gamma_s \approx 0.65, might be interpreted as a signal of a phase of nearly massless particles.
Directed and elliptic flow
(1999)
We compare microscopic transport model calculations to recent data on the directed and elliptic flow of various hadrons in 2 - 10 A GeV Au+Au and Pb (158 A GeV) Pb collisions. For the Au+Au excitation function a transition from the squeeze-out to an in-plane enhanced emission is consistently described with mean field potentials corresponding to one incompressibility. For the Pb (158 A GeV) Pb system the elliptic flow prefers in-plane emission both for protons and pions, the directed flow of protons is opposite to that of the pions, which exhibit anti-flow. Strong directed transverse flow is present for protons and Lambdas in Au (6 A GeV) Au collisions as well. Both for the SPS and the AGS energies the agreement between data and calculations is remarkable.
Microscopic calculations of central collisions between heavy nuclei are used to study fragment production and the creation of collective flow. It is shown that the final phase space distributions are compatible with the expectations from a thermally equilibrated source, which in addition exhibits a collective transverse expansion. However, the microscopic analyses of the transient states in the reaction stages of highest density and during the expansion show that the system does not reach global equilibrium. Even if a considerable amount of equilibration is assumed, the connection of the measurable final state to the macroscopic parameters, e.g. the temperature, of the transient "equilibrium" state remains ambiguous.
We analyze the reaction dynamics of central Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon. First we estimate the energy density pile-up at mid-rapidity and calculate its excitation function: The energy density is decomposed into hadronic and partonic contributions. A detailed analysis of the collision dynamics in the framework of a microscopic transport model shows the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and rescattering of leading (di)quarks in the early phase of the reaction for E >= 30 GeV/nucleon. The energy density reaches up to 4 GeV/fm 3, 95% of which are contained in partonic degrees of freedom. It is shown that cells of hadronic matter, after the early reaction phase, can be viewed as nearly chemically equilibrated. This matter never exceeds energy densities of 0.4 GeV/fm 3, i.e. a density above which the notion of separated hadrons loses its meaning. The final reaction stage is analyzed in terms of hadron ratios, freeze-out distributions and a source analysis for final state pions.
Thermodynamical variables and their time evolution are studied for central relativistic heavy ion collisions from 10.7 to 160 AGeV in the microscopic Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (UrQMD). The UrQMD model exhibits drastic deviations from equilibrium during the early high density phase of the collision. Local thermal and chemical equilibration of the hadronic matter seems to be established only at later stages of the quasi-isentropic expansion in the central reaction cell with volume 125 fm 3. Baryon energy spectra in this cell are reproduced by Boltzmann distributions at all collision energies for t > 10 fm/c with a unique rapidly dropping temperature. At these times the equation of state has a simple form: P = (0.12 - 0.15) Epsilon. At SPS energies the strong deviation from chemical equilibrium is found for mesons, especially for pions, even at the late stage of the reaction. The final enhancement of pions is supported by experimental data.
Equilibrium properties of infinite relativistic hadron matter are investigated using the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) model. The simulations are performed in a box with periodic boundary conditions. Equilibration times depend critically on energy and baryon densities. Energy spectra of various hadronic species are shown to be isotropic and consistent with a single temperature in equilibrium. The variation of energy density versus temperature shows a Hagedorn-like behavior with a limiting temperature of 130 +/- 10 MeV. Comparison of abundances of different particle species to ideal hadron gas model predictions show good agreement only if detailed balance is implemented for all channels. At low energy densities, high mass resonances are not relevant; however, their importance raises with increasing energy density. The relevance of these different conceptual frameworks for any interpretation of experimental data is questioned.
Local kinetic and chemical equilibration is studied for Au+Au collisions at 10.7 AGeV in the microscopic Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (UrQMD). The UrQMD model exhibits dramatic deviations from equilibrium during the high density phase of the collision. Thermal and chemical equilibration of the hadronic matter seems to be established in the later stages during a quasiisentropic expansion, observed in the central reaction cell with volume 125 fm3. For t > 10 fm/c the hadron energy spectra in the cell are nicely reproduced by Boltzmann distributions with a common rapidly dropping temperature. Hadron yields change drastically and at the late expansion stage follow closely those of an ideal gas statistical model. The equation of state seems to be simple at late times: P = 0.12 Epsilon. The time evolution of other thermodynamical variables in the cell is also presented.
In this paper, the concepts of microscopic transport theory are introduced and the features and shortcomings of the most commonly used ansatzes are discussed. In particular, the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) transport model is described in great detail. Based on the same principles as QMD and RQMD, it incorporates a vastly extended collision term with full baryon-antibaryon symmetry, 55 baryon and 32 meson species. Isospin is explicitly treated for all hadrons. The range of applicability stretches from E lab < 100$ MeV/nucleon up to E lab> 200$ GeV/nucleon, allowing for a consistent calculation of excitation functions from the intermediate energy domain up to ultrarelativistic energies. The main physics topics under discussion are stopping, particle production and collective flow.
Ratios of hadronic abundances are analyzed for pp and nucleus-nucleus collisions at sqrt(s)=20 GeV using the microscopic transport model UrQMD. Secondary interactions significantly change the primordial hadronic cocktail of the system. A comparison to data shows a strong dependence on rapidity. Without assuming thermal and chemical equilibrium, predicted hadron yields and ratios agree with many of the data, the few observed discrepancies are discussed.
We investigate hadron production as well as transverse hadron spectra in nucleus-nucleus collisions from 2 A.GeV to 21.3 A.TeV within two independent transport approaches (UrQMD and HSD) that are based on quark, diquark, string and hadronic degrees of freedom. The comparison to experimental data demonstrates that both approaches agree quite well with each other and with the experimental data on hadron production. The enhancement of pion production in central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions relative to scaled pp collisions (the 'kink') is well described by both approaches without involving any phase transition. However, the maximum in the K+/Pi+ ratio at 20 to 30 A.GeV (the 'horn') is missed by ~ 40%. A comparison to the transverse mass spectra from pp and C+C (or Si+Si) reactions shows the reliability of the transport models for light systems. For central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at bombarding energies above ~ 5 A.GeV, however, the measured K +/- m-theta-spectra have a larger inverse slope parameter than expected from the calculations. The approximately constant slope of K+/-spectra at SPS (the 'step') is not reproduced either. Thus the pressure generated by hadronic interactions in the transport models above ~ 5 A.GeV is lower than observed in the experimental data. This finding suggests that the additional pressure - as expected from lattice QCD calculations at finite quark chemical potential and temperature - might be generated by strong interactions in the early pre-hadronic/partonic phase of central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions.
REVTEX, 27 pages incl. 10 figures and 3 tables; Phys. Rev. C (in press) Journal-ref: Phys.Rev. C62 (2000) 064906. We study the local equilibrium in the central V = 125 fm3 cell in heavy-ion collisions at energies from 10.7 A GeV (AGS) to 160 A GeV (SPS) calculated in the microscopic transport model. In the present paper the hadron yields and energy spectra in the cell are compared with those of infinite nuclear matter, as calculated within the same model. The agreement between the spectra in the two systems is established for times t >= 10 fm/c in the central cell. The cell results do not deviate noticeably from the infinite matter calculations with rising incident energy, in contrast to the apparent discrepancy with predictions of the statistical model (SM) of an ideal hadron gas. The entropy of this state is found to be very close to the maximum entropy, while hadron abundances and energy spectra differ significantly from those of the SM.
To be published in J. Phys. G - Proceedings of SQM 2004 : We review the results from the various hydrodynamical and transport models on the collective flow observables from AGS to RHIC energies. A critical discussion of the present status of the CERN experiments on hadron collective flow is given. We emphasize the importance of the flow excitation function from 1 to 50 A.GeV: here the hydrodynamic model has predicted the collapse of the v2-flow ~ 10 A.GeV; at 40 A.GeV it has been recently observed by the NA49 collaboration. Since hadronic rescattering models predict much larger flow than observed at this energy we interpret this observation as evidence for a first order phase transition at high baryon density r b. Moreover, the connection of the elliptic flow v2 to jet suppression is examined. It is proven experimentally that the collective flow is not faked by minijet fragmentation. Additionally, detailed transport studies show that the away-side jet suppression can only partially (< 50%) be due to hadronic rescattering. Furthermore, the change in sign of v1, v2 closer to beam rapidity is related to the occurence of a high density first order phase transition in the RHIC data at 62.5, 130 and 200 A.GeV.