• ### Puzzles in statistical hadron-gas treatment of systems created in proton-proton interactions at CERN SPS(1805.01901)

May 4, 2018 hep-ph, hep-ex, nucl-ex, nucl-th
We analyze the newest data from the NA61/SHINE collaboration which, in addition to previous results on pions and kaons, include mean multiplicities of $p$, $\Lambda$, and $\phi$-mesons produced in inelastic proton-proton (p+p) interactions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=6.3-17.3$~GeV. The canonical ensemble formulation of the ideal hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is used with exact conservation of net baryon number $B=2$, electric charge $Q=2$, and strangeness $S=0$. The chemical freeze-out parameters in p+p interactions are obtained and compared to those in central nucleus-nucleus collisions. We find several serious problems of the statistical model treatment of p+p interactions at the CERN SPS: 1) the inclusion of the $\phi$-meson yields in thermal fits worsens significantly the fit quality ({\it the $\phi$-meson puzzle}); 2) the data shows large event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations in inelastic p+p interactions which cannot be explained within a statistical model, and provide evidence for {\it large non-statistical fluctuations}; 3) the fits within the canonical ensemble formulation of HRG do not give any improvement over the fits within the grand canonical ensemble formulation, i.e., there are {\it no indications for existence of a single statistical system in} p+p interactions.
• ### Flavor-dependent eigenvolume interactions in a hadron resonance gas(1606.06542)

March 22, 2018 hep-ph, nucl-th
Eigenvolume effects in the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model are studied for experimental hadronic yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions. If particle eigenvolumes are different for different hadron species, the excluded volume HRG (EV-HRG) improves fits to multiplicity data. In particular, using different mass~-~volume relations for strange and non-strange hadrons we observe a remarkable improvement in the quality of the fits. This effect appears to be rather insensitive to other details in the schemes employed in the EV-HRG. We show that the parameters found from fitting the data of the ALICE Collaboration in central Pb+Pb collisions at the collision energy $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$~TeV entail the same improvement for all centralities at the same collision energy, and for the RHIC and SPS data at lower collision energies. Our findings are put in the context of recent fits of lattice QCD results.
• ### Quantum van der Waals and Walecka models of nuclear matter(1708.05605)

Oct. 12, 2017 nucl-th
A comparable study of the quantum van der Waals and Walecka models of nuclear matter is presented. Each model contains two parameters which characterize the repulsive and attractive interactions between nucleons. These parameters are fixed in order to reproduce the known properties of the nuclear ground state. Both models predict a first-order liquid-gas phase transition and a very similar behavior in the vicinity of the critical point. Critical exponents of the quantum van der Waals model are studied both analytically and numerically. There are important differences in the behavior of the thermodynamical functions of the considered models at large values of the nucleon number density. At the same time both models fall into the universality class of mean-field theory.
• ### Bose-Einstein condensation and liquid-gas phase transition in alpha-matter(1704.08039)

April 26, 2017 nucl-th
Systems of Bose particles with both repulsive and attractive interactions are studied using the Skyrme-like mean-field model. The phase diagram of such systems exhibits two special lines in the chemical potential-temperature plane: one line which represents the first-order liquid-gas phase transition with the critical end point, and another line which represents the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation. The calculations are made for strongly-interacting matter composed of alpha particles. The phase diagram of this matter is qualitatively similar to that observed for the atomic He4 liquid. The sensitivity of the results to the model parameters is studied. For weak interaction coupling the critical point is located at the Bose-condensation line.
• Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.
• ### New scenarios for hard-core interactions in a hadron resonance gas(1610.08753)

Oct. 27, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
The equation of state of a baryon-symmetric hadronic matter with hard-sphere interactions is studied. It is assumed that mesons are point-like, but baryons and antibaryons have the same hard-core radius rB. Three possibilities are considered: 1) the baryon-baryon and antibaryon-baryon interactions are the same; 2) baryons do not interact with antibaryons; 3) the baryon-antibaryon and meson-(anti)baryon interactions are negligible. By choosing the parameter rB=0.3-0.6 fm, we calculate the nucleon to pion ratio as a function of temperature and perform the fit of hadron yields measured in central Pb+Pb collisions at the bombarding energy Ecm=2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. New nontrivial effects in the interacting hadron resonance gas at temperatures 150-200 MeV are found.
• ### Critical fluctuations in models with van der Waals interactions(1610.01036)

Oct. 4, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
Particle number fluctuations are considered within the van der Waals (VDW) equation, which contains both attractive (mean-field) and repulsive (eigenvolume) interactions. The VDW equation is used to calculate the scaled variance of particle number fluctuations in generic Boltzmann VDW system and in nuclear matter. The strongly intensive measures $\Delta[E^*,N]$ and $\Sigma[E^*,N]$ of the particle number and excitation energy fluctuations are also considered, and, similarly, show singular behavior near the critical point. The $\Delta[E^*,N]$ measure is shown to attain both positive and negative values in the vicinity of critical point. Based on universality argument, similar behavior is expected to occur in the vicinity of the QCD critical point.
• ### Updates to the p+p and A+A chemical freeze-out lines from the new experimental data(1609.04827)

Sept. 15, 2016 hep-ph, hep-ex, nucl-ex, nucl-th
We show that the new data on mean multiplicities measured in p+p and A+A collisions together with the updated list of resonances lead to the significant changes of the obtained freeze-out lines. The new A+A line gives much smaller temperatures at high collision energies and agrees with the values obtained at the LHC. The newly obtained p+p line is much closer to the A+A line than previously expected, and even touches it in the region where the $K^+/\pi^+$ horn appears in the data. It indicates that the temperatures that will be obtained in the beam energy and system size scan by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration might be very close. However, our analysis shows that the chemical potentials could be very different for the same energies in A+A and p+p. It adds more puzzles to the set of surprising coincidences at the energies close to the possible onset of deconfinement.
• ### Limiting temperature of pion gas with the van der Waals equation of state(1508.04585)

Aug. 24, 2016 nucl-th
The grand canonical ensemble formulation of the van der Waals equation of state that includes the effects of Bose statistics is applied to an equilibrium system of interacting pions. If the attractive interaction between pions is large enough, a limiting temperature $T_0$ emerges, i.e., no thermodynamical equilibrium is possible at $T>T_0$. The system pressure $p$, particle number density $n$, and energy density $\varepsilon$ remain finite at $T=T_0$, whereas for $T$ near $T_0$ both the specific heat $C=d\varepsilon/dT$ and the scaled variance of particle number fluctuations $\omega[N]$ are proportional to $(T_0-T)^{-1/2}$ and, thus, go to infinity at $T\rightarrow T_0$. The limiting temperature corresponds also to the softest point of the equation of state, i.e., the speed of sound squared $c_s^2=dp/d\varepsilon$ goes to zero as $(T_0-T)^{1/2}$. Very similar thermodynamical behavior takes place in the Hagedorn model for the special choice of a power, namely $m^{-4}$, in the pre-exponential factor of the mass spectrum $\rho(m)$.
• ### Hydrodynamic modeling of a pure-glue initial scenario in high-energy hadron and heavy-ion collisions(1608.04318)

Aug. 15, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
Partonic matter produced in the early stage of ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is assumed to be composed mainly of gluons, and quarks and antiquarks are produced at later times. The comparable hydrodynamic simulations of heavy-ion collisions for (2+1)-flavor and Yang-Mills equations of state performed by using three different hydrodynamic codes are presented. Assuming slow chemical equilibration of quarks, the spectra and elliptic flows of thermal dileptons and photons are calculated for central Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC energy of $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV. It is shown that a suppression of quarks at early times leads to a significant reduction of the yield of the thermal dileptons, but only to a rather modest suppression of the $p_T$-distribution of direct photons. It is demonstrated that an enhancement of photon and dilepton elliptic flows might serve as a promising signature of the pure-glue initial state. Calculations based on Bjorken hydrodynamics suggest that collisions of small systems at intermediate energies available at RHIC or future FAIR facilities may show stronger effects associated with initial pure gluodynamic evolution.
• ### Electromagnetic probes of a pure-glue initial state in nucleus-nucleus collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider(1604.06346)

Aug. 15, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
Partonic matter produced in the early stage of ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is assumed to be composed mainly of gluons, and quarks and antiquarks are produced at later times. To study the implications of such a scenario, the dynamical evolution of a chemically nonequilibrated system is described by the ideal (2+1)-dimensional hydrodynamics with a time dependent (anti)quark fugacity. The equation of state interpolates linearly between the lattice data for the pure gluonic matter and the lattice data for the chemically equilibrated quark-gluon plasma. The spectra and elliptic flows of thermal dileptons and photons are calculated for central Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider energy of $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV. We test the sensitivity of the results to the choice of equilibration times, including also the case where the complete chemical equilibrium of partons is reached already at the initial stage. It is shown that a suppression of quarks at early times leads to a significant reduction of the yield of the thermal dileptons, but only to a rather modest suppression of the $p_T$-distribution of direct photons. It is demonstrated that an enhancement of photon and dilepton elliptic flows might serve as a promising signature of the pure-glue initial state.
• ### Conserved charge fluctuations are not conserved during the hadronic phase(1608.03737)

Aug. 12, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
We study the correlation between the distributions of the net-charge, net-kaon, net-baryon and net-proton number at hadronization and after the final hadronic decoupling by simulating ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions with the hybrid version of the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model. We find that due to the hadronic rescattering these distributions are not strongly correlated. The calculated change of the correlation, during the hadronic expansion stage, does not support the recent paradigm, namely that the measured final moments of the experimentally observed distributions do give directly the values of those distributions at earlier times, when the system had been closer to the QCD crossover.
• ### Chemical freeze-out conditions in hadron resonance gas(1606.06350)

June 20, 2016 hep-ph
The hadron resonance gas model with hadron-type dependent eigenvolume corrections is employed to fit the hadron yield data of the NA49 collaboration for central Pb+Pb collisions at the c.m. energy per nucleon pair Ecm=6.3, 7.6, 8.8, 12.3, and 17.3 GeV, the hadron midrapidity yield data of the STAR collaboration for Au+Au collisions at Ecm=200 GeV, and the hadron midrapidity yield data of the ALICE collaboration for Pb+Pb collisions at Ecm=2760 GeV. The influence of the eigenvolume corrections is studied.
• ### Hadron multiplicities and chemical freeze-out conditions in proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions(1512.08025)

June 20, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
New results of the NA61/SHINE Collaboration at the CERN SPS on mean hadron multiplicities in proton-proton (p+p) interactions are analyzed within the transport models and the hadron resonance gas (HRG) statistical model. The chemical freeze-out parameters in p+p interactions and central Pb+Pb (or Au+Au) collisions are found and compared with each other in the range of the center of mass energy of the nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3.2-17.3$ GeV. The canonical ensemble formulation of the HRG model is used to describe mean hadron multiplicities in p+p interactions and the grand canonical ensemble in central Pb+Pb and Au+Au collisions. The chemical freeze-out temperatures in p+p interactions are found to be larger than the corresponding temperatures in central nucleus-nucleus collisions.
• ### Entropy production in chemically non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma created in central Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energies(1510.01235)

Jan. 20, 2016 hep-ph, nucl-th
We study the possibility that partonic matter produced at early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is out of chemical equilibrium. It is assumed that initially this matter is mostly composed of gluons, but quarks and antiquarks are produced at later times. The dynamical evolution of partonic system is described by the Bjorken-like ideal hydrodynamics with a time dependent quark fugacity. The results of this model are compared with those obtained by assuming the complete chemical equilibrium of partons already at the initial stage. It is shown that in a chemically non-equilibrium scenario the entropy gradually increases, and about 25% of the total final entropy is generated during the hydrodynamic evolution of deconfined matter. We argue that the (anti)quark suppression included in this approach may be responsible for reduced (anti)baryon to meson ratios observed in heavy-ion collisions at LHC energies.
• ### Non-Gaussian particle number fluctuations in vicinity of the critical point for van der Waals equation of state(1507.06537)

Dec. 21, 2015 nucl-th
The non-Gaussian measures of the particle number fluctuations -- skewness $S\sigma$ and kurtosis $\kappa \sigma^2$ -- are calculated in a vicinity of the critical point. This point corresponds to the end point of the first-order liquid-gas phase transition. The gaseous phase is characterized by the positive values of skewness while the liquid phase has negative skew. The kurtosis appears to be significantly negative at the critical density and supercritical temperatures. The skewness and kurtosis diverge at the critical point. The classical van der Waals equation of state in the grand canonical ensemble formulation is used in our studies. Neglecting effects of the quantum statistics we succeed to obtain the analytical expressions for the rich structures of the skewness and kurtosis in a wide region around the critical point. These results have universal form, i.e., they do not depend on particular values of the van der Waals parameters $a$ and $b$. The strongly intensive measures of particle number and energy fluctuations are also considered and show singular behavior in the vicinity of the critical point.
• ### Undersaturation of quarks at early stages of relativistic nuclear collisions: the hot glue initial scenario and its observable signatures(1509.07682)

Nov. 17, 2015 hep-ph, hep-ex, nucl-ex, nucl-th, hep-lat
The early stage of high multiplicity nuclear collisions is represented by a nearly quarkless, hot, deconfined pure gluon plasma. This new scenario should be characterized by a suppression of high $p_T$ photons and dileptons as well as by reduced baryon to meson ratios. We present the numerical results for central Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC energies by using the ideal Bjorken hydrodynamics with time-dependent quark fugacity. It is shown that about 25\% of final total entropy is generated during the hydrodynamic evolution of chemically undersaturated quark-gluon plasma.
• ### Scaled variance, skewness, and kurtosis near the critical point of nuclear matter(1506.05763)

Nov. 4, 2015 nucl-th
The van der Waals (VDW) equation of state predicts the existence of a first-order liquid-gas phase transition and contains a critical point. The VDW equation with Fermi statistics is applied to a description of the nuclear matter. The nucleon number fluctuations near the critical point of nuclear matter are studied. The scaled variance, skewness, and kurtosis diverge at the critical point. It is found that the crossover region of the phase diagram is characterized by the large values of the scaled variance, the almost zero skewness, and the significantly negative kurtosis. The rich structures of the skewness and kurtosis are observed in the phase diagram in the wide region around the critical point, namely, they both may attain large positive or negative values.
• ### Mean-field approach in the multi-component gas of interacting particles applied to relativistic heavy-ion collisions(1411.1444)

Aug. 13, 2015 nucl-th
Generalized mean-field approach for thermodynamic description of relativistic single- and multi-component gas in the grand canonical ensemble is formulated. In the framework of the proposed approach different phenomenological excluded-volume procedures are presented and compared to the existing ones. The mean-field approach is then used to effectively include hard-core repulsion in hadron-resonance gas model for description of chemical freeze-out in heavy-ion collisions. We calculate the collision energy dependence of several quantities for different values of hard-core hadron radius and for different excluded-volume procedures such as van der Waals and Carnahan-Starling models. It is shown that a choice of the excluded-volume model becomes important for large particle densities. For large enough values of hadron radii ($r\gtrsim0.9$ fm) there can be a sizable difference between different excluded-volume procedures used to describe the chemical freeze-out in heavy-ion collisions. At the same time, for the smaller and more commonly used values of hard-core hadron radii ($r\lesssim0.5$ fm), the precision of the van der Waals excluded-volume procedure is shown to be sufficient.
• ### Van der Waals Equation of State with Fermi Statistics for Nuclear Matter(1504.01363)

June 26, 2015 nucl-th
The van der Waals (VDW) equation of state is a simple and popular model to describe the pressure function in equilibrium systems of particles with both repulsive and attractive interactions. This equation predicts an existence of a first-order liquid-gas phase transition and contains a critical point. Two steps to extend the VDW equation and make it appropriate for new physical applications are carried out in this paper: 1) the grand canonical ensemble formulation; 2) an inclusion of the quantum statistics. The VDW equation with Fermi statistics is then applied to a description of the system of interacting nucleons. The VDW parameters $a$ and $b$ are fixed to reproduce the properties of nuclear matter at saturation density $n_0=0.16$ fm$^{-3}$ and zero temperature. The model predicts a location of the critical point for the symmetric nuclear matter at temperature $T_c\cong 19.7$ MeV and nucleon number density $n_c \cong 0.07$ fm$^{-3}$.
• ### Particle Number Fluctuations for van der Waals Equation of State(1501.03785)

Feb. 4, 2015 cond-mat.stat-mech, nucl-th
The van der Waals (VDW) equation of state describes a thermal equilibrium in system of particles, where both repulsive and attractive interactions between them are included. This equation predicts an existence of the 1st order liquid-gas phase transition and the critical point. The standard form of the VDW equation is given by the pressure function in the canonical ensemble (CE) with a fixed number of particles. In the present paper the VDW equation is transformed to the grand canonical ensemble (GCE). We argue that this procedure can be useful for new physical applications. Particularly, the fluctuations of number of particles, which are absent in the CE, can be studied in the GCE. For the VDW equation of state in the GCE the particle number fluctuations are calculated for the whole phase diagram, both outside and inside the liquid-gas mixed phase region. It is shown that the scaled variance of these fluctuations remains finite within the mixed phase and goes to infinity at the critical point. The GCE formulation of the VDW equation of state can be also an important step for its application to a statistical description of hadronic systems, where numbers of different particle species are usually not conserved.
• ### Hadron Resonance Gas Equation of State from Lattice QCD(1412.5478)

Jan. 23, 2015 hep-ph, nucl-th, hep-lat
The Monte Carlo results in lattice QCD for the pressure and energy density at small temperature $T < 155$ MeV and zero baryonic chemical potential are analyzed within the hadron resonance gas model. Two extensions of the ideal hadron resonance gas are considered: the excluded volume model which describes a repulsion of hadrons at short distances and Hagedorn model with the exponential mass spectrum. Considering both of these models one by one we do not find the conclusive evidences in favor of any of them. The controversial results appear because of rather different sensitivities of the pressure and energy density to both excluded volume and Hagedorn mass spectrum effects. On the other hand, we have found a clear evidence for a simultaneous presence of both of them. They lead to rather essential contributions: suppression effects for thermodynamical functions of the hadron resonance gas due to the excluded volume effects and enhancement due to the Hagedorn mass spectrum.
• ### Time dependence of partition into spectators and participants in relativistic heavy-ion collisions(1407.4644)

Oct. 27, 2014 hep-ph, nucl-th
The process of formation of the participant system in heavy-ion collisions is investigated in the framework of a simplified analytic Glauber-like model, which is based on the relativistic Boltzmann transport equation. The key point lies in the time-dependent partition of the nucleon system into two groups: nucleons, which did not take part in any interaction before a given time and nucleons, which already have interacted. In the framework of the proposed model we introduce a natural energy-dependent temporal scale $t_c$, which allows us to remove all dependencies of the model on the collision energy except for the energy dependence of the nucleon-nucleon cross-section. By investigating the time dependence of the total number of participants we conclude that the formation process of the participant system becomes complete at $t\simeq1.5 t_c$. Time dependencies of participant total angular momentum and vorticity are also considered and used to describe the emergence of rotation in the reaction plane.
• ### A new approach to time-dependent transport through an interacting quantum dot within Keldysh formalism(1311.4377)

The time-dependent transport through a nano-scale device, consisting of a single spin-degenerate orbital with on-site Coulomb interaction, coupled to two leads, is investigated. Various gate and bias voltage time-dependences are considered. The key and new point lies in the proposed way to avoid the difficulties of the usual heavy computation when dealing with two time Green's functions within Keldysh formalism. The time-dependent retarded dot Green's functions are evaluated, in an efficient manner within a non-canonical Hubbard I approximation. Calculations of the time-dependent current are then presented in the wide-band limit for different parameter sets. A comparison between the method and the Hartree-Fock approximation is performed as well. It is shown that the later cannot account reliably for dynamical aspects of transport phenomena.
• ### Longitudinal fluctuations of the center of mass of the participants in heavy-ion collisions(1306.5208)

July 18, 2013 hep-ph, nucl-ex, nucl-th
A model for computing the probability density of event-by-event participant center-of-mass rapidity y^{c.m.} is presented. The evaluations of the y^{c.m.} distribution are performed for different collision energies and different centralities. We show that for certain conditions the rapidity distribution is described by a Gaussian with a variance determined mostly by the collision centrality. It is found that the width of the y^{c.m.} distribution increases strongly for more peripheral collisions, while it depends weakly on the collision energy. Other theoretical estimates of rapidity distribution are presented and questions of interaction and separation between spectators and participants are discussed.