16722994
A Multi-Phase Transport model for nuclear collisions at RHIC
To study heavy ion collisions at energies available from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, we have developed a multi-phase transport model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic interactions. Specifically, the parton cascade model ZPC, which uses as input the parton distribution from the HIJING model, is extended to include the quark-gluon to hadronic matter transition and also final-state hadronic interactions based on the ART model. Predictions of the model for central Au on Au collisions at RHIC are reported. 25.75.-q, 24.10.Lx, 24.10.Jv Typeset using REVTEX Email: bzhang@kopc1.tamu.edu Email: ko@comp.tamu.edu Email: bali@navajo.astate.edu Email: lin@kopc1.tamu.edu
119023605
A Model for J / psi absorption in hadronic matter
The cross sections for $J/\psi$ absorption by $\pi$ and $\rho$ mesons are studied in a meson-exchange model that includes not only pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar-vector-meson couplings but also three-vector-meson and four-point couplings. We find that they are much larger than in a previous study where only pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar-vector-meson couplings were considered. Including form factors at interaction vertices, the $J/\psi$ absorption cross sections $\sigma_{\pi \psi}$ and $\sigma_{\rho \psi}$ are found to have values on the order of 7 mb and 3 mb, respectively. Their thermal averages in hadronic matter at temperature T=150 MeV are, respectively, about 1 mb and 2 mb.
119204802
Deuteron production and elliptic flow in relativistic heavy ion collisions
The hadronic transport model ART is extended to include the production and annihilation of deuterons via the reactions BB{r_reversible}dM, where B and M stand for baryons and mesons, respectively, as well as their elastic scattering with mesons and baryons in the hadronic matter. This new hadronic transport model is used to study the transverse momentum spectrum and elliptic flow of deuterons in relativistic heavy ion collisions, with the initial hadron distributions after hadronization of the produced quark-gluon plasma taken from a blast wave model. The results are compared with those measured by the PHENIX and STAR Collaborations for Au+Au collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=200 GeV and also with those obtained from the coalescence model based on freeze-out nucleons in the transport model.
17495349
Hadronic scattering of charmed mesons
The scattering cross sections of charm mesons with hadrons such as the pion, rho meson, and nucleon are studied in an effective Lagrangian. In heavy ion collisions, rescattering of produced charm mesons by hadrons affects the invariant mass spectra of both charm meson pairs and dileptons resulting from their decays. These effects are estimated for heavy ion collisions at SPS energies and are found to be significant.
4073106
Multiphase transport model for relativistic heavy ion collisions
We describe in detail how the different components of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model that uses the heavy ion jet interaction generator (HIJING) for generating the initial conditions, Zhang's parton cascade (ZPC) for modeling partonic scatterings, the Lund string fragmentation model or a quark coalescence model for hadronization, and a relativistic transport (ART) model for treating hadronic scatterings are improved and combined to give a coherent description of the dynamics of relativistic heavy ion collisions. We also explain the way parameters in the model are determined and discuss the sensitivity of predicted results to physical input in the model. Comparisons of these results to experimental data, mainly from heavy ion collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, are then made in order to extract information on the properties of the hot dense matter formed in these collisions.
118956794
A transport model for heavy ion collisions at RHIC
To study heavy ion collisions at energies to be available from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), we have developed a transport model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic interactions. Specifically, the parton cascade model ZPC, which uses as input the parton distribution from the HIJING model, is extended to include the quark-gluon to hadronic matter transition and also final-state hadronic interactions based on the ART model. Comparisons with SPS data and predictions for RHIC are reported.
96429210
Electromagnetic counterparts of supermassive black hole binaries resolved by pulsar timing arrays
Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are expected to detect gravitational waves (GWs) from individual low-redshift (z≲ 1.5) compact supermassive (M≳ 109 M⊙) black hole (SMBH) binaries with orbital periods of ∼0.1–10 yr. Identifying the electromagnetic (EM) counterparts of these sources would provide confirmation of putative direct detections of GWs, present a rare opportunity to study the environments of compact SMBH binaries and could enable the use of these sources as standard sirens for cosmology. Here we consider the feasibility of such an EM identification. We show that because the host galaxies of resolved PTA sources are expected to be exceptionally massive and rare, it should be possible to find unique hosts of resolved sources out to z≈ 0.2. At higher redshifts, the PTA error boxes are larger, and may contain as many as ∼100 massive-galaxy interlopers. The number of candidates, however, remains tractable for follow-up searches in upcoming wide-field EM surveys. We develop a toy model to characterize the dynamics and the thermal emission from a geometrically thin gaseous disc accreting on to a PTA-source SMBH binary. Our model predicts that at optical and infrared frequencies, the source should appear similar to a typical luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, owing to the evacuation of the accretion flow by the binary’s tidal torques, the source might have an unusually low soft X-ray luminosity and weak ultraviolet (UV) and broad optical emission lines, as compared to an AGN powered by a single SMBH with the same total mass. For sources at z∼ 1, the decrement in the rest-frame UV should be observable as an extremely red optical colour. These properties would make the PTA sources stand out among optically luminous AGN, and could allow their unique identification. Our results also suggest that accreting compact SMBH binaries may be included among the observed population of optically bright, X-ray-dim AGN.