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We study the effects of strict conservation laws and the problem of negative contributions to final momentum distribution during the freeze out through 3-dimensional hypersurfaces with space-like normal. We study some suggested solutions for this problem, and demonstrate it on one example. PACS: 24.10.Nz, 25.75.-q
In fluid dynamical models the freeze out of particles across a three dimensional space-time hypersurface is discussed. The calculation of final momentum distribution of emitted particles is described for freeze out surfaces, with both space-like and time-like normals, taking into account conservation laws across the freeze out discontinuity.
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.
Abstract: An accurate impact parameter determination in a heavy ion collision is crucial for almost all further analysis. The capabilities of an artificial neural network are investigated to that respect. A novel input generation for the network is proposed, namely the transverse and longitudinal momentum distribution of all outgoing (or actually detectable) particles. The neural network approach yields an improvement in performance of a factor of two as compared to classical techniques. To achieve this improvement simple network architectures and a 5 × 5 input grid in (pt, pz) space are suffcient.
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.
Signatures of quark gluon plasma formation in high-energy heavy ion collisions : a critical review
(1998)
Ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions offer the unique opportunity to probe highly excited dense nuclear matter under controlled laboratory conditions. The compelling driving force for such studies is the expectation that an entirely new form of matter may be created from such reactions. That form of matter, called the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), is the QCD analogue of the plasma phase of ordinary atomic matter. However, unlike such ordinary plasmas, the deconfined quanta of a QGP are not directly observable because of the fundamental confining property of the physical QCD vacuum. What is observable are hadronic and leptonic residues of the transient QGP state. There is a large variety of such individual probes.
Triple differential cross sections of pions in heavy ion collisions at 1 GeV/nucl. are studied with the IQMD model. After discussing general properties of resonance and pion production we focus on azimuthal correlations: At projectile- and target-rapidities we observe an anticorrelation in the in-plane transverse momentum between pions and protons. At c.m.-rapidity, however, we find that high pt pions are being preferentially emitted perpendicular to the event-plane. We investigate the causes of those correlations and their sensitivity on the density and momentum dependence of the real and imaginary part of the nucleon and pion optical potential.
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.
A model based on chiral SU(3)-symmetry in nonlinear realisation is used for the investigation of nuclei, superheavy nuclei, hypernuclei and multistrange nuclear objects (so called MEMOs). The model works very well in the case of nuclei and hypernuclei with one Lambda-particle and rules out MEMOs. Basic observables which are known for nuclei and hypernuclei are reproduced satisfactorily. The model predicts Z=120 and N=172, 184 and 198 as the next shell closures in the region of superheavy nuclei. The calculations have been performed in self-consistent relativistic mean field approximation assuming spherical symmetry. The parameters were adapted to known nuclei.
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.
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.
We examine experimental signatures of TeV-mass black hole formation in heavy ion collisions at the LHC. We find that the black hole production results in a complete disappearance of all very high p_T (> 500 GeV) back-to-back correlated di-jets of total mass M > M_f ~ 1 TeV. We show that the subsequent Hawking-decay produces multiple hard mono-jets and discuss their detection. We study the possibility of cold black hole remnant (BHR) formation of mass ~ M_f and the experimental distinguishability of scenarios with BHRs and those with complete black hole decay. Finally we point out that a Heckler-Kapusta-Hawking plasma may form from the emitted mono-jets. In this context we present new simulation data of Mach shocks and of the evolution of initial conditions until the freeze-out.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To describe ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions we construct a three-fluid hydrodynamical model. In contrast to one-fluid hydrodynamics, it accounts for the finite stopping power of nuclear matter, i.e. for nonequilibrium e ects in the early stage of the reaction. Within this model, we study baryon dynamics in the BNL-AGS energy range. For the system Au+Au we find that kinetic equilibrium between projectile and target nucleons is established only after a time teq CM H 5 fm/c C 2RAu/³CM. Observables which are sensitive to the early stage of the collision (like e.g. nucleon flow) therefore di er considerably from those calculated in the one-fluid model.
We study the time scale for pressure equilibration in heavy ion collisions at AGS energies within the three-fluid hydrodynamical model and a microscopic cascade model (UrQMD). We find that kinetic equilibrium is reached in both models after a time of 5 fm/c (center-of-mass time). Thus, observables which are sensitive to the early stage of the reaction differ considerably from the expectations within the instant thermalization scenario (one-fluid hydrodynamical model).
We investigate the excitation function of quark-gluon plasma formation and of directed in-plane flow of nucleons in the energy range of the BNLAGS and for the Ekin Lab = 40A GeV Pb+Pb collisions performed recently at the CERN-SPS. We employ the three-fluid model with dynamical unification of kinetically equilibrated fluid elements. Within our model with first-order phase transition at high density, droplets of QGP coexisting with hadronic matter are produced already at BNL-AGS energies, Ekin Lab C 10A GeV. A substantial decrease of the isentropic velocity of sound, however, requires higher energies, Ekin Lab C 40A GeV. We show the e ect on the flow of nucleons in the reaction plane. According to our model calculations, kinematic requirements and EoS effects work hand-in-hand at Ekin Lab = 40A GeV to allow the observation of the dropping velocity of sound via an increase of the directed flow around midrapidity as compared to top BNL-AGS energy.
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.
We investigate hadron production and transverse hadron spectra in nucleus-nucleus collisions from 2 A·GeV to 21.3 A·TeV within two independent transport approaches (UrQMD and HSD) based on quark, diquark, string and hadronic degrees of freedom. The enhancement of pion production in central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions relative to scaled pp collisions (the ’kink’) is described well by both approaches without involving a phase transition. However, the maximum in the K+ p+ ratio at 20 to 30 A·GeV (the ’horn’) is missed by ~ 40%. Also, at energies above ~5 A·GeV, the measured K± mT-spectra have a larger inverse slope than expected from the models. Thus the pressure generated by hadronic interactions in the transport models at high energies is too low. This finding suggests that the additional pressure - as expected from lattice QCD at finite quark chemical potential and temperature - might be generated by strong interactions in the early pre-hadronic/partonic phase of central heavy-ion collisions. Finally, we discuss the emergence of density perturbations in a first-order phase transition and why they might affect relative hadron multiplicities, collective flow, and hadron mean-free paths at decoupling. A minimum in the collective flow v2 excitation function was discovered experimentally at 40 A·GeV - such a behavior has been predicted long ago as signature for a first order phase transition.
We calculate open charm and charmonium production in Au + Au reac- tions at ps = 200 GeV within the hadron-string dynamics (HSD) transport approach employing open charm cross sections from pN and N reactions that are fitted to results from PYTHIA and scaled in magnitude to the available experimental data. Charmonium dissociation with nucleons and formed mesons to open charm (D + ¯D pairs) is included dynamically. The comover dissociation cross sections are described by a simple phase-space model including a single free parameter, i.e. an interaction strength M2 0 , that is fitted to the J/ suppression data for Pb + Pb collisions at SPS energies. As a novel feature we implement the backward channels for char- monium reproduction by D ¯D channels employing detailed balance. From our dynamical calculations we find that the charmonium recreation is com- parable to the dissociation by comoving mesons. This leads to the final result that the total J/ suppression at ps = 200 GeV as a function of centrality is slightly less than the suppression seen at SPS energies by the NA50 Collaboration, where the comover dissociation is substantial and the backward channels play no role. Furthermore, even in case that all di- rectly produced J/ mesons dissociate immediately (or are not formed as a mesonic state), a sizeable amount of charmonia is found asymptotically due to the D + ! J/ + meson channels in central collisions of Au + Au at ps = 200 GeV which, however, is lower than the J/ yield expected from f pp collis ns.
Charmonium production and suppression in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies is investigated within di erent models, i.e. the comover absorption model, the threshold suppression model, the statistical coalescence model and the HSD transport approach. In HSD the charmonium dissociation cross sections with mesons are described by a simple phase-space parametrization including an e ective coupling strength |Mi|2 for the charmonium states i =Xc,J/psi, psi'. This allows to include the backward channels for charmonium reproduction by DD channels which are missed in the comover absorption and threshold suppression model employing detailed balance without introducing any new parameters. It is found that all approaches yield a reasonable description of J/psi suppression in S+U and Pb+Pb collisions at SPS energies. However, they di er significantly in the psi'/J/psi ratio versus centrality at SPS and especially at RHIC energies. These pronounced differences can be exploited in future measurements at RHIC to distinguish the hadronic rescattering scenarios from quark coalescence close to the QGP phase boundary.
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.
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.
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.
The relaxation of hot nuclear matter to an equilibrated state in the central zone of heavy-ion collisions at energies from AGS to RHIC is studied within the microscopic UrQMD model. It is found that the system reaches the (quasi)equilibrium stage for the period of 10-15 fm/c. Within this time the matter in the cell expands nearly isentropically with the entropy to baryon ratio S/A = 150 - 170. Thermodynamic characteristics of the system at AGS and at SPS energies at the endpoints of this stage are very close to the parameters of chemical and thermal freeze-out extracted from the thermal fit to experimental data. Predictions are made for the full RHIC energy square root s = 200$ AGeV. The formation of a resonance-rich state at RHIC energies is discussed.
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.
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.
Conventional cluster and virial expansions are generalized to momentum dependent interparticle potentials. The model with Lorentz contracted hard core potentials is considered, e.g. as hadron gas model. A Van der Waals-type model with a temperature dependent excluded volume is derived. Lorentz contraction effects at given temperature are stronger for light particles and make their effective excluded volume smaller than that of heavy ones.
We discuss the possibility of producing a new kind of nuclear system by putting a few antibaryons inside ordinary nuclei. The structure of such systems is calculated within the relativistic mean field model assuming that the nucleon and antinucleon potentials are related by the G parity transformation. The presence of antinucleons leads to decreasing vector potential and increasing scalar potential for the nucleons. As a result, a strongly bound system of high density is formed. Due to the significant reduction of the available phase space the annihilation probability might be strongly suppressed in such systems.
Dynamics of strange, charm and high momentum hadrons in relativistic nucleus nucleus collisions
(2003)
We investigate hadron production and attenuation of hadrons with strange and charm quarks (or antiquarks) as well as high transverse momentum hadrons in relativistic nucleus-nucleus col- lisions from 2 A·GeV to 21.3 A·TeV within two independent transport approaches (UrQMD and HSD). Both transport models are based on quark, diquark, string and hadronic degrees of freedom, but do not include any explicit phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma. From our dynamical calculations we find that both models do not describe the maximum in the K+/ + ratio at 20 - 30 A·GeV in central Au+Au collisions found experimentally, though the excitation functions of strange mesons are reproduced well in HSD and UrQMD. Furthermore, the transport calculations show that the charmonium recreation by D + J/ + meson reactions is comparable to the dissociation by comoving mesons at RHIC energies contrary to SPS energies. This leads to the final result that the total J/ suppression as a function of centrality at RHIC should be less than the suppression seen at SPS energies where the comover dissociation is substantial and the backward channels play no role. Furthermore, our transport calculations in comparison to exper- imental data on transverse momentum spectra from pp, d+Au and Au+Au reactions show that pre-hadronic e ects are responsible for both the hardening of the hadron spectra for low transverse momenta (Cronin e ect) as well as the suppression of high pT hadrons. The mutual interactions of formed hadrons are found to be negligible in central Au+Au collisions at s = 200 GeV for pT e 6 GeV/c and the sizeable suppression seen experimentally is attributed to a large extent to the interactions of leading pre-hadrons with the dense environment.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
We calculate prompt photon production in high-energy nuclear collisions. We focus on the broadening of the intrinsic transverse momenta of the partons in the initial state from nuclear e ects, and their influence on the prompt photon pt distribution. Comparing to WA98 data from Pb+Pb collisions at s = 17.4A GeV we find evidence for the presence of nuclear broadening at high pt in this hard process. Below pt < 2.7 GeV the photon distribution is due to small momentum transfer processes. At RHIC energy, s = 200A GeV, the e ect of intrinsic transverse momentum on the spectrum of prompt photons is less prominent. The region pt = 3 4 GeV would be the most promising for studying the nuclear broadening effects at that energy. Below pt = 2 3 GeV the contribution from large momentum transfers flattens out, and we expect that region to be dominated by soft contributions.