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Institute
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.
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 investigate the effects of strong color fields and of the associated enhanced intrinsic transverse momenta on the phi-meson production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC. The observed consequences include a change of the spectral slopes, varying particle ratios, and also modified mean transverse momenta. In particular, the composition of the production processes of phi-mesons, that is, direct production vs. coalescence-like production, depends strongly on the strength of the color fields and intrinsic transverse momenta and thus represents a sensitive probe for their measurement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dilepton spectra are calculated within the microscopic transport model UrQMD and compared to data from the CERES experiment. The invariant mass spectra in the region between 300 MeV and 600 MeV depend strongly on the mass dependence of the rho meson decay width which is not sufficiently determined by the Vector Meson Dominance model. A consistent explanation of both the recent Pb+Au data and the proton induced data can be given without additional medium effects.
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.
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.
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.
Abschließend sollen hier die wichtigsten, neuen Ergebnisse herausgestellt und ein Ausblick auf mögliche zukünftige Studien gegeben werden. In dieser Arbeit wurden vorwiegend Schwerionenkollisionen bei Einschußenergien zwischen ungefähr 40 MeV/Nukleon und 400 MeV/Nukleon mit dem Quantenmolekulardynamik-Modell untersucht. Ein Schwerpunkt war hierbei die Beschreibung der Umkehr des kollektiven, transversalen Seitwärtsflusses in der Reaktionsebene. Der negative Seitwärtsfluß, der bei niedrigen Energien der Größenordnung kleiner als 100 MeV/Nukleon durch die attraktiven Wechselwirkungen verursacht wird, verschwindet bei Steigerung der Einschußenergie bei der Balance-Energie E-bal. einsetzt. Oberhalb dieser dominieren die repulsiven Wechselwirkungen, so daß positiver transversaler Fluß einsetzt. Sowohl die negativen Flußwinkel als auch der Übergang hin zu positiven Flußwinkeln konnte fur eine große Anzahl verschiedener Energien und Stoßparameter mit unterschiedlichen Zustandsgleichungen für die Systeme 40-20-Ca + 40-20-Ca und 197-79 Au + 197-79 Au mit dem Quantenmolekulardynamik-Modell beschrieben werden. Ziel muß es bleiben, die verschiedenen, grundlegenden physikalischenWechselwirkungen eindeutig und unabhängig voneinander zu bestimmen. Ein erfolgversprechender Weg sind die hier vorgestellten Methoden und die Hinweise zur ad quaten Interpretation experimenteller Ergebnisse. Die Abhängigkeit der Balance-Energien von der Masse des betrachteten Systems ist sehr sensitiv auf den Nukleon-Nukleon Wirkungsquerschnitt im Medium. Hier wurde systematisch gezeigt, daß die Balance-Energien stark vom Stoßparameter abhängen. Die Zunahme der Balance-Energie mit dem Stoßparameter ist ungefähr linear. Für das System Ca+Ca kann sich die Balance-Energie beim Übergang von zentraleren zu mittleren Stoßparametern mehr als verdoppeln. Daher ist für die Interpretation der gemessenen Balance-Energien in bezug auf eine Modifikation des nukleo- nischen Wirkungsquerschnitts im Medium oder der Zustandsgleichung eine genaue Kenntnis des Stoßparameters von größter Wichtigkeit. Vorläufige experimentelle Analysen scheinen die vorhergesagte Stoßparameterabhängigkeit sehr gut zu bestätigen [Wes 95]. Weiterhin hat sich herauskristallisiert, daß bei der Berücksichtigung impulsabhängiger Wechselwirkungen die Balance-Energien bei größeren Stoßparametern signifikant kleiner sind als für den Fall der Nichtberücksichtung. Daher konnten experimentelle Bestimmungen der Balance- Energien bei größeren Stoßparametern signifikante Hinweise auf die tatsächliche Bedeutung der impulsabhängigen Wechselwirkungen in diesem Energiebereich geben. Es wurde gezeigt, daß für schwere Systeme wie Au+Au die langreichweitige internukleare Coulomb-Wechselwirkung vor dem Kontakt der Kerne im Energiebereich der Balance-Energien nicht vernachlässigt werden darf. Die hervorgerufene Repulsion bewirkt eine Drehung des Systems. Während in diesem gedrehten System dynamischer negativer Fluß beobachtbar ist, ist er es nicht im Laborsystem. Die im gedrehten Kontaktbezugssystem bestimmten Balance- Energien fur Au+Au sind erwartungsgemäß kleiner als für Ca+Ca und nehmen mit wachsendem Stoßparameter zu. Ein neuartiger Zwei-Komponenten-Fluß konnte in semiperipheren Kollisionen von Ca+Ca be- schrieben und analysiert werden. Dabei wird in einem Ereignis in verschiedenen Rapiditätsbereichen gleichzeitig positiver und negativer transversaler Fluß möglich. Die wenig komprimierte Spektatorenmaterie, die vermehrt aus schwereren Fragmenten besteht, zeigt negativen Fluß bei großen Rapiditäten, wohingegen dieKompressionszone in Form von einzelnen Nukleonen positiven transversalen Fluß zeigt. Aufgrund der großen Sensitivität gegenüber den Systemparametern und der Zustandsgleichung lohnt es sich, diesen Effekt experimentell zu untersuchen. Beim Studium azimuthaler Verteilungen wurde deutlich, daß auch in den Balance-Punkten noch kollektiver Fluß in Form von azimuthaler Asymmetrie vorliegt. Im Gegensatz zur bekannten hochenergetischen Bevorzugung der Emissionswinkel senkrecht zur Reaktionsebene für Teilchen aus der Wechselwirkungszone wurde hier die bei kleineren Energien preferentielle Emission in die Reaktionsebene aufgezeigt. Diese nimmt mit der Teilchenmasse und dem Stoßparameter zu. Das systematische Studium der Anregungsfunktion dieser azimuthalen Asymmetrie könnte durch die Übergangsenergien, die durch den Wechsel von der preferentiellen Emission in die Reaktionsebene zu der Bevorzugung der Winkel senkrecht zur Reaktionsebene definiert sind, wertvolle, ergänzende Information zu den Balance-Energien liefern.
Invited talk at the 7th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter, SQM 2003, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, USA, 12-17 Mar, 2003. 11 pages, 12 figures. Journal-ref: J.Phys. G30 (2004) S139-S150. We review recent developments in the field of microscopic transport model calculations for ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular, we focus on the strangeness production, for example, the phi-meson and its role as a messenger of the early phase of the system evolution. Moreover, we discuss the important e ects of the (soft) field properties on the multiparticle system. We outline some current problems of the models as well as possible solutions to them
Invited talk at the XXXIII International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Krakow, Poland, 5-11 Sept, 2003. 5 pages, 1 figure Journal-ref: Acta Phys.Polon. B35 (2004) 23-28. We review the recent developments on microscopic transport calculations for two-particle correlations at low relative momenta in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC.