OPUS 4 Latest Documents RSS Feed

"Antiflow" of antiprotons in heavy ion collisions

André Jahns; Christian Spieles; Heinz Sorge; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 17:03:54 +0100

In the framework of the relativistic quantum dynamics approach we investigate antiproton observables in Au-Au collisions at 10.7A GeV. The rapidity dependence of the in-plane directed transverse momentum p(y) of p's shows the opposite sigh of the nucleon flow, which has indeed recently been discovered at 10.7A GeV by the E877 group. The "antiflow" of p's is also predicted at 2A GeV and at 160 A GeV and appears at all energies also for pi's and K's. These predicted p anticorrelations are a direct proof of strong p annihilation in massive heavy ion reactions.

High pT pions as probes of the dense phase of relativistic heavy ion collisions

S. A. Bass; C. Hartnack; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:56:11 +0100

The properties of pions from the hot and dense reaction stage of relativistic heavy ion collisions are investigated with the quantum molecular dynamics model. Pions originating from this reaction stage stem from resonance decay with enhanced mass. They carry high transverse momenta. The calculation shows a direct correlation between high pt pions, early freeze-out times and high freeze-out densities.

Pion and thermal photon spectra as a possible signal for a phase transition

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:50:36 +0100

We calculate thermal photon and neutral pion spectra in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions in the framework of three-fluid hydrodynamics. Both spectra are quite sensitive to the equation of state used. In particular, within our model, recent data for S + Au at 200 AGeV can only be understood if a scenario with a phase transition (possibly to a quark-gluon plasma) is assumed. Results for Au+Au at 11 AGeV and Pb + Pb at 160 AGeV are also presented.

A Stopped delta-matter source in heavy ion collisions at 10-GeV/N?

Markus Hofmann; Raffaele Mattiello; Heinz Sorge; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:47:51 +0100

We predict the formation of highly dense baryon-rich resonance matter in Au+Au collisions at AGS energies. The final pion yields show observable signs for resonance matter. The Delta1232 resonance is predicted to be the dominant source for pions of small transverse momenta. Rescattering e ects consecutive excitation and deexcitation of Delta's lead to a long apparent life- time (> 10 fm/c) and rather large volumina (several 100 fm3) of the Delta-matter state. Heavier baryon resonances prove to be crucial for reaction dynamics and particle production at AGS.

Baryon-antibaryon pair production in time-dependent meson fields

Igor N. Mishustin; Leonid M. Satarov; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:43:11 +0100

Strong mean meson fields, which are known to exist in normal nuclei, experience a violent deformation in the course of a heavy-ion collision at relativistic energies. This may give rise to a new collective mechanism of the particle production, not reducible to the superposition of elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions.

pi-N correlations probe the nuclear equation of state in relativistic heavy ion-collisions

S. A. Bass; C. Hartnack; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:32:49 +0100

We investigate the sensivity of pionic bounce-off and squeeze-out on the density and momentum dependence of the real part of the nucleon optical potential. For the in-plane pion bounce-off we find a strong sensivity on both the density and momentum dependence whereas the out-of-plane pion squeeze-out shows a strong sensivity only towards the momentum dependence but little sensivity towards the density dependence.

Bose stimulated pion production in relativistic nuclear collisions

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:26:33 +0100

We demonstrate the importance of the Bose-statistical effects for pion production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The evolution of the pion phase-space density in central collisions of ultrarelativistic nuclei is studied in a simple kinetic model taking into account the effect of Bose-simulated pion production by the NN collisions in a dense cloud of mesons.

Prominent transverse flow of clusters in stopped Au(150 A MeV)+Au reactions

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:47:37 +0100

Stopped Au(150 A MeV) + Au collisions have been measured with the FOPI-Detector at GSI by imposing an upper limit on the ratio of the global longitudinal momentum to the collected charge within an event.

Azimuthal correlations of pions in relativistic heavy ion collisions at 1 GeV/nucl.

Steffen A. Bass; Christoph Hartnack; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:39:55 +0100

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.

On the impossibility of temperature extraction from heavy ion induced particle spectra

Jens Konopka; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 11:31:34 +0100

Spectra of various particle species have been calculated with the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model for very central collisions of Au+Au. They are compatible with the idea of a fully stopped thermal source which exhibits a transversal expansion besides the thermal distribution of an ideal gas. How- ever, the microscopic analyses of the local flow velocities and temperatures indicate much lower temperatures at densities associated with the freeze-out. The results express the overall impossibility of a model-independent determi- nation of nuclear temperatures from heavy ion spectral data, also at other energies (e.g. CERN) or for other species (i.e. pions, kaons, hyperons)

Neural networks for impact parameter determination

Steffen A. Bass; A. Bischoff; Joachim A. Maruhn; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:34:14 +0100

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.

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at highest energies

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:08:06 +0100

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.

Particle production by time-dependent meson fields in relativistic heavy ion-collisions

Igor N. Mishustin; Leonid M. Satarov; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:02:04 +0100

According to the Walecka mean field theory of nuclear interaction the collective mutual deceleration of the colliding nuclei gives rise to the bremsstrahlung of real and virtual ! mesons. It is shown that decays of these mesons may give a noticeable contribution to the observed yields of the baryon antibaryon pairs, dileptons and pions. Excitation functions and rapidity distributions of particles produced by this mechanism are calculated under some simplifying assumptions about the space time variation of meson fields in nuclear collisions. The calculated multiplicities of coherently produced particles grow fast with the bombarding energy, reaching a saturation above the RHIC bombarding energy. In the case of central Au+Au collisions the bremsstrahlung mechanism becomes comparable with particle production in incoherent hadron hadron collisions above the AGS energies. The rapidity spectra of antibaryons and pions exhibit a characteristic two hump structure which is a consequence of incomplete projectile target stopping at the initial stage of the reaction. The predicted distribution of e+e pairs has a strong peak at invariant masses Me+e < 0.5 GeV.

"Pressure equilibration" in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:53:26 +0100

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).

Modelling the many-body dynamics of heavy ion collisions

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 10:10:35 +0100

Basic problems of the semiclassical microscopic modelling of strongly interacting systems are discussed within the framework of Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD). This model allows to study the influence of several types of nucleonic interactions on a large variety of observables and phenomena occur- ring in heavy ion collisions at relativistic energies. It is shown that the same predictions can be obtained with several numerically completely di erent and independently written programs as far as the same model parameters are employed and the same basic approximations are made. Many observ- ables are robust against variations of the details of the model assumptions used. Some of the physical results, however, depend also on rather technical parameters like the preparation of the initial configuration in phase space. This crucial problem is connected with the description of the ground state of single nuclei, which di ers among the various approaches. An outlook to an improved molecular dynamics scheme for heavy ion collisions is given.

"Soft'' transverse expansion and flow in a multi-fluid model without phase transition

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 10:01:46 +0100

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.

Nonequilibrium fluid-dynamics in the early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 09:57:57 +0100

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.

Properties of exotic matter for heavy ion searches

Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich; Carsten Greiner; Horst Stöcker; Axel P. Vischer — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 09:53:24 +0100

We examine the properties of both forms of strange matter, small lumps of strange quark matter (strangelets) and of strange hadronic matter (Metastable Exotic Multihypernuclear Objects: MEMOs) and their relevance for present and future heavy ion searches. The strong and weak decays are discussed separately to distinguish between long-lived and short-lived candidates where the former ones are detectable in present heavy ion experiments while the latter ones in future heavy ion experiments, respectively. We find some long-lived strangelet candidates which are highly negatively charged with a mass to charge ratio like a anti deuteron (M/Z 2) but masses of A=10 to 16. We predict also many short-lived candidates, both in quark and in hadronic form, which can be highly charged. Purely hyperonic nuclei like the (2 02 ) are bound and have a negative charge while carrying a positive baryon number. We demonstrate also that multiply charmed exotics (charmlets) might be bound and can be produced at future heavy ion colliders.

Probes for the early reaction dynamics of heavy ion collisions at AGS and SPS

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:45:00 +0100

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 Microscopic calculation of secondary Drell-Yan production in heavy ion collisions

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 09:42:26 +0100

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.

Relativistic transport theory of N, Delta and N* (1440) interacting through sigma, omega and pi mesons.

Guangjun Mao; Ludwig Neise; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner; Zhuxia Li — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:00:59 +0100

A self-consistent relativistic integral-di erential equation of the Boltzmann- Uehling-Uhlenbeck-type for the N*(1440) resonance is developed based on an effective Lagrangian of baryons interacting through mesons. The closed time-path Green s function technique and semi-classical, quasi-particle and Born approxima- tions are employed in the derivation. The non-equilibrium RBUU-type equation for the N*(1440) is consistent with that of nucleon s and delta s which we derived before. Thus, we obtain a set of coupled equations for the N,Delta and N*(1440) distribution functions. All the N (1440)-relevant in-medium two-body scattering cross sections within the N,Delta and N*(1440) system are derived from the same effective Lagrangian in addition to the mean field and presented analytically, which can be directly used in the study of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The theoreticalprediction of the free pp - pp* (1440) cross section is in good agreement with the experimental data. We calculate the in-medium N+N - N+N* , N* +N - N+N and N*+N - N* +N cross sections in cold nuclear matter up to twice the nuclear matter density. The influence of different choices of the N* N* coupling strengths, which can not be obtained through fitting certain experimental data, are discussed. The results show that the density dependence of predicted in-medium cross sections are sensitive to the N* N* coupling strengths used. An evident density dependence will appear when a large scalar coupling strength of g^(sigma) N*N* is assumed. PACS number(s): 24.10.Cn; 25.70.-z; 21.65.+f

Dilepton production by bremsstrahlung of meson fields in nuclear collisions

Igor N. Mishustin; Leonid M. Satarov; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:10:58 +0100

We study the bremsstrahlung of virtual omega mesons due to the collective deceleration of nuclei at the initial stage of an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. It is shown that electromagnetic decays of these mesons may give an important contribution to the observed yields of dileptons. Mass spectra of e+e and µ+µ pairs produced in central Au+Au collisions are calculated under some simplifying assumptions on the space time variation of the baryonic current in a nuclear collision process. Comparison with the CERES data for 160 AGev Pb+Au collisions shows that the proposed mechanism gives a noticeable fraction of the observed e+e pairs in the intermediate region of invariant masses. Sensi tivity of the dilepton yield to the in medium modification of masses and widths of vector mesons is demonstrated.

Nuclear shadowing effects on prompt photons at RHIC and LHC

Nils Hammon; Adrian Dumitru; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:57:16 +0100

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.

Direct photons in Pb+Pb at CERN-SPS from microscopic transport theory

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:52:03 +0100

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.

Relativistic quantum transport theory of hadronic matter: the coupled nucleon, delta and pion system

Guangjun Mao; Ludwig Neise; Horst Stöcker; Walter Greiner — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 13:38:24 +0100

We derive the relativistic quantum transport equation for the pion distribution function based on an effective Lagrangian of the QHD-II model. The closed time-path Green s function technique, the semi-classical, quasiparticle and Born approximation are employed in the derivation. Both the mean field and collision term are derived from the same Lagrangian and presented analytically. The dynamical equation for the pions is consistent with that for the nucleons and deltas which we developed before. Thus, we obtain a relativistic transport model which describes the hadronic matter with N,Delta and pi degrees of freedom simultaneously. Within this approach, we investigate the medium e ects on the pion dispersion relation as well as the pion absorption and pion production channels in cold nuclear matter. In contrast to the results of the non-relativistic model, the pion dispersion relation becomes harder at low momenta and softer at high momenta as compared to the free one, which is mainly caused by the relativistic kinetics. The theoretically predicted free pi*N -> Delta cross section is in agreement with the experimental data. Medium e ects on the pi*N -> Delta cross section and momentum-dependent Delta-decay width are shown to be substantial. PACS number(s): 24.10.Cn; 13.75.Cs; 21.65.+f; 25.70.-z