2004/11/30 by J. Casalderrey-Solana, Jorge Casalderrey-Solana, E. V. Shuryak +4 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Conical surface #Elliptic flow #Excitation #Flow (mathematics) #Geometry #Heavy ion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Ion #Jet (fluid) #Jet quenching #Light cone #Mechanics #Momentum (technical analysis) #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quark–gluon plasma #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2006.06.091
published as J.Phys.Conf.Ser.27:22-31,2005; Nucl.Phys.A774:577-580,2006 · Extended version submitted to Journal of Physics G: Conference Series, Workshop on Correlations and Fluctuations in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions, MIT, April 21-23, 2005
arxiv created 2005/06/28 · openalex publication_date 2006/08/01 · arxiv updated 2010/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Quenching is a recently discovered phenomenon in which QCD jets created in heavy ion collisions deposit a large fraction or even all their energy and momentum into the produced matter. At RHIC and higher energies, where that matter is a strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma (sQGP) with very small viscosity, we suggest that this energy/momentum propagate as a collective excitation or ``conical flow''. Similar hydrodynamical phenomena are well known, e.g. the so called sonic booms from supersonic planes. We solve the linearized relativistic hydrodynamic equations to detail the flow picture. We argue that for RHIC collisions the direction of this flow should make a cone at a specific large angle with the jet, of about 70o, and thus lead to peaks in particle correlations at the angle Δϕ=π± 1.2 rad relative to the large-pt trigger. This angle happens to matchperfectly the position of the maximum in the angular distribution of secondaries associated with the trigger recently seen by the STAR and PHENIX collaborations. We also discuss briefly possible alternative explanations and suggest some further tests to clarify the mechanism.