2004/11/30 by Dinesh Kumar Srivastava · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Collision #Hadron #Heavy ion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Intensity (physics) #Interferometry #Ion #Large Hadron Collider #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Phase space #Photon #Physics #Pion #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Quark–gluon plasma #Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider #Thermal #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.71.034905
published as Phys.Rev. C71 (2005) 034905 · 16 pages, 11 figures. Added discussions and references. To appear in Phys. Rev. C
arxiv created 2005/01/10 · openalex publication_date 2005/03/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Intensity interferometry of thermal photons having transverse momenta kT\ensuremath≈0.1\ensuremath-2.0 GeV produced in relativistic collision of heavy nuclei is studied. It is seen to provide an accurate information about the temporal and spatial structure of the interacting system. The source dimensions, and their kT dependence revealed by the photon interferometry, display a richness not seen in pion interferometry. We attribute this to the difference in the source functions, the fact that photons come out from every stage of the collision and from every point in the system, and the fact that the rate of production of photons is different for the quark-gluon plasma, which dominates the early hot stage and the hadronic matter that populates the last phase of the collision dynamics. The usefulness of this procedure is demonstrated by an application to collision of lead nuclei at the CERN SPS. Prediction for the transverse momentum dependence of the sizes for SPS, RHIC, and LHC energies are given.