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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.
Entropy production in the compression stage of heavy ion collisions is discussed within three distinct macroscopic models (i.e. generalized RHTA, geometrical overlap model and three-fluid hydrodynamics). We find that within these models \sim 80% or more of the experimentally observed final-state entropy is created in the early stage. It is thus likely followed by a nearly isentropic expansion. We employ an equation of state with a first-order phase transition. For low net baryon density, the entropy density exhibits a jump at the phase boundary. However, the excitation function of the specific entropy per net baryon, S/A, does not reflect this jump. This is due to the fact that for final states (of the compression) in the mixed phase, the baryon density \rho_B increases with \sqrt{s}, but not the temperature T. Calculations within the three-fluid model show that a large fraction of the entropy is produced by nuclear shockwaves in the projectile and target. With increasing beam energy, this fraction of S/A decreases. At \sqrt{s}=20 AGeV it is on the order of the entropy of the newly produced particles around midrapidity. Hadron ratios are calculated for the entropy values produced initially at beam energies from 2 to 200 AGeV.
We calculate the Gaussian radius parameters of the pion-emitting source in high energy heavy ion collisions, assuming a first order phase transition from a thermalized Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) to a gas of hadrons. Such a model leads to a very long-lived dissipative hadronic rescattering phase which dominates the properties of the two-pion correlation functions. The radii are found to depend only weakly on the thermalization time tau i, the critical temperature T c (and thus the latent heat), and the specific entropy of the QGP. The dissipative hadronic stage enforces large variations of the pion emission times around the mean. Therefore, the model calculations suggest a rapid increase of R out/R side as a function of K T if a thermalized QGP were formed.
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.
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.
Entropy production in the initial compression stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions from AGS to SPS energies is calculated within a three-fluid hydrodynamical model. The entropy per participating net baryon is found to increase smoothly and does not exhibit a jump or a plateau as in the 1-dimensional one-fluid shock model. Therefore, the excess of pions per participating net baryon in nucleus-nucleus collisions as compared to proton-proton reactions also increases smoothly with beam energy.
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.
The transverse momentum distribution of prompt photons coming from the very early phase of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions for the RHIC and LHC energies is calculated by means of perturbative QCD. We calculate the single photon cross section (A + B -> gamma + X) by taking into account the partonic sub processes q + q -> gamma + g and q + g -> gamma + q as well as the Bremsstrahlung corrections to those processes. We choose a lower momentum cut-off k0 = 2 GeV separating the soft physics from perturbative QCD. We compare the results for those primary collisions with the photons produced in reactions of the thermalized secondary particles, which are calculated within scaling hydrodynamics. The QCD processes are taken in leading order. Nuclear shadowing corrections, which alter the involved nuclear structure functions are explicitly taken into account and compared to unshadowed results. Employing the GRV parton distribution parametrizations we find that at RHIC prompt QCD-photons dominate over the thermal radiation down to transverse momenta kT ≈ 2 GeV. At LHC, however, thermal radiation from the QGP dominates for photon transverse momenta kT ≤ 5 GeV, if nuclear shadowing effects on prompt photon production are taken into account.