Pion Interferometry at RHIC: Probing a Thermalized Quark-Gluon Plasma?

2000/12/31 by Sven Soff, S. Soff, Steffen A. Bass +2 · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.86.3981

published as Phys.Rev.Lett. 86 (2001) 3981-3984 · 4 pages, 3 figures, revised version, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in print)

arxiv created 2001/02/27 · openalex publication_date 2001/04/30 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

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 Tc (and thus the latent heat), and the specific entropy of the QGP. The model calculations suggest a rapid increase of R(out)/R(side) as a function of KT if a thermalized QGP were formed.

Citations

• Collective dynamics in highly relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Relativistic Hadron-Hadron Collisions in the Ultra-Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics Model (UrQMD)
• Hadronic freeze-out following a first order hadronization phase transition in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Review of Particle Physics

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• Experimental and theoretical challenges in the search for the quark–gluon plasma: The STAR Collaboration's critical assessment of the evidence from RHIC collisions
• Thermal time scales in a color glass condensate
• What have we learned from relativistic heavy-ion collider?
• Effect of shear viscosity on spectra, elliptic flow, and Hanbury Brown–Twiss radii
• Transverse-Mass Dependence of Two-Pion Correlations inAu+AuCollisions atsNN<mml:mspace/>=<mml:mspace/>130GeV
• Early Collective Expansion: Relativistic Hydrodynamics and the Transport Properties of QCD Matter