Squeezed correlations of strange particles-antiparticles

Squeezed correlations of hadron-antihadron pairs are predicted to appear if their masses are modified in the hot and dense medium formed in high-energy heavy ion collisions. If discovered experimentally, they would be an unequivocal evidence of in-medium mass shift found by means of hadronic probes. We discuss a method proposed to search for this novel type of correlation, illustrating it by means of D(s)-mesons with in-medium shifted masses. These particles are expected to be more easily detected and identified in future upgrades at RHIC.

Shear viscosity from thermal fluctuations in relativistic conformal fluid dynamics

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Squeezed correlations among particle-antiparticle pairs

The hadronic correlation among particle-antiparticle pairs was highlighted in the late 1990's, culminating with the demonstration that it should exist if the masses of the hadrons were modified in the hot and dense medium formed in high energy heavy ion collisions. They were called Back-to-Back Correlations (BBC) of particle-antiparticle pairs, also known as squeezed correlations. However, even though they are well-established theoretically, such hadronic correlations have not yet been experimentally discovered. Expecting to compel the experimentalists to search for this effect, we suggest here a clear way to look for the BBC signal, by constructing the squeezed correlation function of phi phi and K(+)K(-) pairs at RHIC energies, plotted in terms of the average momentum of the pair, K(12)=1/2(k(1) + k(2)), inspired by procedures adopted in Hanbury-Brown & Twiss (HBT) correlations.

SQUEEZED PARTICLE-ANTIPARTICLE CORRELATIONS

A novel type of correlation involving particle-antiparticle pairs was found out in the 1990's. Currently known as squeezed or Back-to-Back Correlations (BBC), they should be present if the hadronic masses are modified in the hot and dense medium formed in high energy heavy ion collisions. Although well-established theoretically, such hadronic correlations have not yet been observed experimentally. In this phenomenological study we suggest a promising way to search for the BBC signal, by looking into the squeezed correlation function of phi phi and K(+)K(-) pairs at RHIC energies, as function of the pair average momentum, K(12) = (k(1) + k(2))/2. The effects of in-medium mass-shift on the identical particle correlations (Hanbury-Brown and Twiss effect) are also discussed.

Linking the hydrodynamic and kinetic description of a dissipative relativistic conformal theory

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Noise and ultraviolet divergences in the dynamics of the chiral condensate in QCD

The time evolution of the matter produced in high energy heavy-ion collisions seems to be well described by relativistic viscous hydrodynamics. In addition to the hydrodynamic degrees of freedom related to energy-momentum conservation, degrees of freedom associated with order parameters of broken continuous symmetries must be considered because they are all coupled to each other. of particular interest is the coupling of degrees of freedom associated with the chiral symmetry of QCD. Quantum and thermal fluctuations of the chiral fields act as noise sources in the classical equations of motion, turning them into stochastic differential equations in the form of Ginzburg-Landau-Langevin (GLL) equations. Analytic solutions of GLL equations are attainable only in very special circumstances and extensive numerical simulations are necessary, usually by discretizing the equations on a spatial lattice. However, a not much appreciated issue in the numerical simulations of GLL equations is that ultraviolet divergences in the form of lattice-spacing dependence plague the solutions. The divergences are related to the well-known Rayleigh-Jeans catastrophe in classical field theory. In the present communication we present a systematic lattice renormalization method to control the catastrophe. We discuss the implementation of the method for a GLL equation derived in the context of a model for the QCD chiral phase transition and consider the nonequilibrium evolution of the chiral condensate during the hydrodynamic flow of the quark-gluon plasma.

Memory effect and fast spinodal decomposition

We consider the modification of the Cahn-Hilliard equation when a time delay process through a memory function is taken into account. We then study the process of spinodal decomposition in fast phase transitions associated with a conserved order parameter. The introduced memory effect plays an important role to obtain a finite group velocity. Then, we discuss the constraint for the parameters to satisfy causality. The memory effect is seen to affect the dynamics of phase transition at short times and have the effect of delaying, in a significant way, the process of rapid growth of the order parameter that follows a quench into the spinodal region.

Continuous emission versus freeze-out via hanbury brown-twiss

The effect of the continuous emission hypothesis on the two-pion Bose-Einstein correlation function is discussed and compared with the corresponding results based on the usual freeze-out. Sizable differences in the correlation function appear in these different descriptions of the decoupling process. This means that, when extracting properties of the hot matter formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions from the data, completely different conclusions may be reached according to the description of the particle emission process adopted.

Improved Langevin approach to spinodal decomposition in the chiral transition

We use an improved Langevin description that incorporates both additive and multiplicative noise terms to study the dynamics of phase ordering. We perform real-time lattice simulations to investigate the role played by different contributions to the dissipation and noise. Lattice-size independence is assured by the use of appropriate lattice counterterms. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Update on the status of hadronic squeezed correlations at RHIC energies

In high energy heavy ion collisions a hot and dense medium is formed, where the hadronic masses may be shifted from their asymptotic values. If this mass modification occurs, squeezed back-to-back correlations (BBC) of particle-antiparticle pairs are predicted to appear, both in the femionic (fBBC) and in the bosonic (bBBC) sectors. Although they have unlimited intensity even for finite-size expanding systems, these hadronic squeezed correlations are very sensitive to their time emission distribution. Here we discuss results in case this time emission is parameterized by a Lévy-type distribution, showing that it reduces the signal even more dramatically than a Lorentzian distribution, which already reduces the intensity of the effect by orders of magnitude, as compared to the sudden emission. However, we show that the signal could still survive if the duration of the process is short, and if the effect is searched for lighter mesons, such as kaons. We compare some of our results to recent PHENIX preliminary data on squeezed correlations of K +K - pairs. © 2011 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Diffusion of Lambda(c) in hot hadronic medium and its impact on Lambda(c)/D ratio

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Drag force in a strongly coupled anisotropic plasma

We calculate the drag force experienced by an in finitely massive quark propagating at constant velocity through an anisotropic, strongly coupled N = 4 plasma by means of its gravity dual. We find that the gluon cloud trailing behind the quark is generally misaligned with the quark velocity, and that the latter is also misaligned with the force. The drag coefficient mu can be larger or smaller than the corresponding isotropic value depending on the velocity and the direction of motion. In the ultra-relativistic limit we find that generically mu proportional to p. We discuss the conditions under which this behaviour may extend to more general situations.

Jet quenching in a strongly coupled anisotropic plasma

The jet quenching parameter of an anisotropic plasma depends on the relative orientation between the anisotropic direction, the direction of motion of the parton, and the direction along which the momentum broadening is measured. We calculate the jet quenching parameter of an anisotropic, strongly coupled N = 4 plasma by means of its gravity dual. We present the results for arbitrary orientations and arbitrary values of the anisotropy. The anisotropic value can be larger or smaller than the isotropic one, and this depends on whether the comparison is made at equal temperatures or at equal entropy densities. We compare our results to analogous calculations for the real-world quark-gluon plasma and find agreement in some cases and disagreement in others.

On the radial expansion of tubular structures in a quark-gluon plasma

We study the radial expansion of cylindrical tubes in a hot QGP. These tubes are treated as perturbations in the energy density of the system which is formed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. We start from the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics in two spatial dimensions and cylindrical symmetry and perform an expansion of these equations in a small parameter, conserving the nonlinearity of the hydrodynamical formalism. We consider both ideal and viscous fluids and the latter are studied with a relativistic Navier-Stokes equation. We use the equation of state of the MIT bag model. In the case of ideal fluids we obtain a breaking wave equation for the energy density fluctuation, which is then solved numerically. We also show that, under certain assumptions, perturbations in a relativistic viscous fluid are governed by the Burgers equation. We estimate the typical expansion time of the tubes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-bound interacting QCD matter in compact stars

The quark gluon plasma (QGP) at zero temperature and high baryon number is a system that may be present inside compact stars. It is quite possible that this cold QGP shares some relevant features with the hot QGP observed in heavy ion collisions, being also a strongly interacting system. In a previous work we have derived from the QCD Lagrangian an equation of state (EOS) for the cold QGP, which can be considered an improved version of the MIT bag-model EOS. Compared to the latter, our EOS reaches higher values of the pressure at comparable baryon densities. This feature is due to perturbative corrections and also to nonperturbative effects. Here we apply this EOS to the study of neutron stars, discussing the absolute stability of quark matter and computing the mass-radius relation for self-bound (strange) stars. The maximum masses of the sequences exceed two solar masses, in agreement with the recently measured values of the mass of the pulsar PSR J1614-2230, and the corresponding radii of around 10-11 km.