Temperature fluctuations and Tsallis statistics in relativistic heavy ion collisions

In this paper, we study temperature fluctuations in the initial stages of the relativistic heavy ion collision using a multiphase transport model. We consider the plasma in the initial stages after collision before it has a chance to equilibrate. We have considered [Formula: see text] collision with a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV. We use the nonextensive Tsallis statistics to find the entropic index in the partonic stages of the relativistic heavy ion collisions. We find that the temperature and the entropic index have a linear relationship during the partonic stages of the heavy ion collision. This has already been observed in the hadronic phase. A detailed analysis of the dependence of the entropic index on the system shows that for increasing spacetime rapidity, the entropic index of the partonic system increases. The entropic index also depends on the beam collision energy. The calculation of the entropic index from the experimental data fitting of the transverse momenta deals with the hadronic phase. However, our study shows that the behavior of the entropic index in the initial nonequilibrium stage of the collision is very similar to the behavior of the entropic index in the hadronic stage.

Heavy ion collisions and neutron stars : dynamics and thermodynamics of QCD matter

This thesis deals with the phenomenology of QCD matter, its aspects in heavy ion collisions and in neutron stars. The first half of the work focuses on the hadronic phase of QCD matter. One focus is on how the hadronic phase shows itself in heavy ion collisions and how its dynamics can be simulated. The role of hadronic interactions is considered in the context of the lattice QCD data. The second part of this thesis presents a unified approach to QCD matter, the CMF model. The CMF model incorporates many aspects of QCD phenomenology which allows for a consistent description of the hadron-quark transition, making it applicable to the entire QCD phase diagram, i.e., to the cold nuclear matter and to the hot QCD matter. It is shown that a description of both the hot matter created in heavy ion collisions and the cold dense matter in neutron star interiors is possible within one single approach, the CMF model.

Probing the hadronic phase with resonances of different lifetimes in Pb-Pb collisions with ALICE

The ALICE experiment has measured the production of a rich set of hadronic resonances, such as ρ(770)0, K*(892)0, ϕ(1020), ∑±(1385), Λ(1520) and Ξ*0 in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at various energies at the LHC. A comprehensive overview and the latest results are presented in this paper. Special focus is given to the role of hadronic resonances for the study of final-state effects in high-energy collisions. In particular, the measurement of resonance production in heavy-ion collisions has the capability to provide insight into the existence of a prolonged hadronic phase after hadronisation. The observation of the suppression of the production of Λ(1520) resonance in central Pb-Pb collisions at [see formula in PDF] =2.76 TeV adds further support to the existence of such a dense hadronic phase, as already evidenced by the ratios K*(892)0/K and ρ(770)0/π.

Medium modification of strange hadronic resonances at SIS, RHIC and LHC energies

The properties of strange pseudoscalar and vectors mesons as well as strange baryon resonances in dense matter are reviewed. Some open questions on the properties of strange hadrons in medium are addressed, such as the experimental signatures of inmedium effects coming from the hadronic phase on the final observables in heavy-ion collisions for the experimental conditions at SIS, RHIC and LHC energies.

Signatures of chiral symmetry restoration and its survival throughout the hadronic phase interactions

The effect of the chiral symmetry restoration (CSR) on observables from heavy-ion collisions is studied in the energy range [see formula in PDF]=3–20 GeV within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The PHSD includes the deconfinement phase transition as well as essential aspects of CSR in the dense and hot hadronic medium, which are incorporated in the Schwinger mechanism for the hadronic particle production. We adopt different parametrizations of the nuclear equation of state from the non-linear σ - ω model, which enter in the computation of the quark scalar density for the CSR mechanism, in order to estimate the uncertainty in our calculations. For the pion-nucleon ∑-term we adopt ∑π ≈ 45 MeV which corresponds to a ’world average’. Our systematic studies show that chiral symmetry restoration plays a crucial role in the description of heavy-ion collisions at [see formula in PDF]=3–20 GeV, realizing an increase of the hadronic particle production in the strangeness sector with respect to the non-strange one. We identify particle abundances and rapidity spectra to be suitable probes in order to extract information about CSR, while transverse mass spectra are less sensitive ones. Our results provide a microscopic explanation for the "horn" structure in the excitation function of the K+/π+ ratio: the CSR in the hadronic phase produces the steep increase of this particle ratio up to [see formula in PDF] ≈ 7 GeV, while the drop at higher energies is associated to the appearance of a deconfined partonic medium.