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C. Fuchs

Publications and source records attributed to C. Fuchs.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Transition to resonance-rich matter in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies

The equilibration of hot and dense nuclear matter produced in the central region in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ AGeV is studied within the microscopic transport model UrQMD. The pressure here becomes isotropic at $t \approx 5$ fm/c. Within the next 15 fm/c the expansion of the matter proceeds almost isentropically with the entropy per baryon ratio $S/A \approx 150$. During this period the equation of state in the $(P,ε)$-plane has a very simple form, $P=0.15 ε$. Comparison with the statistical model (SM) of an ideal hadron gas reveals that the time of $\approx 20$ fm/$c$ may be too short to attain the fully equilibrated state. Particularly, the fractions of resonances are overpopulated in contrast to the SM values. The creation of such a long-lived resonance-rich state slows down the relaxation to chemical equilibrium and can be detected experimentally.

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Transverse momentum dependence of directed particle flow at 160 AGeV

The transverse momentum ($p_t$) dependence of hadron flow at SPS energies is studied. In particular, the nucleon and pion flow in S+S and Pb+Pb collisions at 160 AGeV is investigated. For simulations the microscopic quark-gluon string model (QGSM) is applied. It is found that the directed flow of pions $v_1(y, Δp_t)$ changes sign from a negative slope in the low-$p_t$ region to a positive slope at $p_t \geq 0.6$ GeV/c as recently also observed experimentally. The change of the flow behaviour can be explained by early emission times for high-$p_t$ pions. We further found that a substantial amount of high-$p_t$ pions are produced in the very first primary NN collisions at the surface region of the touching nuclei. Thus, at SPS energies high-$p_t$ nucleons seem to be a better probe for the hot and dense early phase of nuclear collisions than high-$p_t$ pions. Both, in the light and in the heavy system the pion directed flow $v_1(p_t, Δy)$ exhibits large negative values when the transverse momentum approaches zero, as also seen experimentally in Pb+Pb collisions. It is found that this effect is caused by nuclear shadowing. The proton flow, in contrary, shows the typical linear increase with rising $p_t$.

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Equation of state of resonance-rich matter in the central cell in heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 AGeV

The equilibration of hot and dense nuclear matter produced in the central cell of central Au+Au collisions at RHIC ($\sqrt{s}=200$ AGeV) energies is studied within a microscopic transport model. The pressure in the cell becomes isotropic at $t\approx 5$ fm/$c$ after beginning of the collision. Within the next 15 fm/$c$ the expansion of matter in the cell proceeds almost isentropically with the entropy per baryon ratio $S/A \approx 150$, and the equation of state in the $(P,ε)$ plane has a very simple form, $P=0.15ε$. Comparison with the statistical model of an ideal hadron gas indicates that the time $t \approx 20$ fm/c may be too short to reach the fully equilibrated state. Particularly, the creation of long-lived resonance-rich matter in the cell decelerates the relaxation to chemical equilibrium. This resonance-abundant state can be detected experimentally after the thermal freeze-out of particles.

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Can we determine the nuclear equation of state from heavy ion collisions?

We discuss the problems involved in extracting the nuclear equation-of-state from heavy-ion collisions. We demonstrate that the equation of state becomes effectively softer in non-equilibrium and this effect is observable in terms of collective flow effects. Thus, non-equilibrium effects must be included in transport descriptions on the level of the effective mean fields. A comparison with transverse momentum, rapidity, and centrality selected flow data show the reliability and limitations of the underlying interaction which was derived from microscopic Dirac-Brueckner (DB) results.

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Thermodynamical description of heavy ion collisions

We analyze the thermodynamical state of nuclear matter in transport descriptions of heavy ion reactions. We determine thermodynamical variables from an analysis of local momentum space distributions and compare to blast model parameters from an analysis of fragment energy spectra. These descriptions are applied to spectator and fireball matter in semi-central and central Au+Au collisions at SIS-energies, respectively.

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Fragment Formation and Phase Transitions in Heavy Ion Collisions

We investigate the thermodynamical properties of nuclear matter in heavy ion collisions, in particular with respect to questions of thermodynamical instability, phase transitions and fragmentation. For this we analyze results of relativistic transport calculations of Au+Au collisons at intermediate energies, separately for spectator and participant matter. On one hand, we determine local thermodynamical variables from the analysis of the local momentum distribution; on the other, we analyze fragment energy spectra in a blast model scenario. We find that the spectator represents an instable, equilibrized fragmenting source, while in the participant no such common source can be identified. Our results compare well with experimental determinations of temperatures and flow velocities.

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Spectator and participant decay in heavy ion collisions

We analyze the thermodynamical state of nuclear matter in transport calculations of heavy--ion reactions. In particular we determine temperatures and radial flow parameters from an analysis of fragment energy spectra and compare to local microscopic temperatures obtained from an analysis of local momentum space distributions. The analysis shows that the spectator reaches an equilibrated freeze-out configuration which undergoes simultaneous fragmentation. The fragments from the participant region, on the other hand, do not seem to come from a common fragmenting source, but rather heavier fragments seem to be formed earlier.

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Microscopic study of energy and centrality dependence of transverse collective flow in heavy-ion collisions

The centrality dependence of directed and elliptic flow in light and heavy systems of colliding nuclei is studied within two microscopic transport models at energies from 1 AGeV to 160 A GeV. The pion directed flow has negative slope in the midrapidity range irrespective of bombarding energy and mass number of the colliding ions. In contrast, the directed flow of nucleons vanishes and even develops antiflow in the midrapidity range in (semi)peripheral collisions at energies around 11.6 A GeV and higher. The origin of the disappearance of flow is linked to nuclear shadowing. Since the effect is stronger for a light system, it can be distinguished from the similar phenomenon caused by the quark-gluon plasma formation. In the latter case the disappearance of the flow due to the softening of the equation of state should be most pronounced in collisions of heavy ions. The centrality dependence of the elliptic flow shows that the maximum in the distribution is shifted to very peripheral events with rising incident energy, in accord with experimental data. This is an indication of the transition from baryonic to mesonic degrees of freedom in hot hadronic matter.

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Dilepton Spectra from Decays of Light Unflavored Mesons

The invariant mass spectrum of the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $μ^{+}μ^{-}$ pairs from decays of light unflavored mesons with masses below the $ϕ(1020)$-meson mass to final states containing along with a dilepton pair one photon, one meson, and two mesons are calculated within the framework of the effective meson theory. The results can be used for simulations of the dilepton spectra in heavy-ion collisions and for experimental searches of dilepton meson decays.

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Can shadowing mimic the QCD phase transition?

The directed flow of protons is studied in the quark-gluon string model as a function of the impact parameter for S+S and Pb+Pb reactions at 160 AGeV/c. A significant reduction of the directed flow in midrapidity range, which can lead to the development of the antiflow, is found due to the absorption of early emitted particles by massive spectators (shadowing effect). This effect can mimic the formation of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). However, in the absorption scenario the antiflow is stronger for the system of light colliding nuclei than for the heavy ones, while in the case of the plasma creation the effect should be opposite.

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Kaon squeeze-out in heavy ion reactions

The squeeze-out phenomenon of $K^+$ and $K^-$ mesons, i.e. the azimuthal asymmetry of $K^+$ and $K^-$ mesons emitted at midrapidity in heavy ion reactions, is investigated for beam energies of 1-2 A.GeV. It is found that the squeeze-out signal is strongly affected by in-medium potentials of these mesons. The repulsive $K^+$-nucleus potential gives rise to a pronounced out-of-plane emission of $K^+$'s at midrapidity. With the $K^+$ potential we reproduce well the experimental data of the $K^+$ azimuthal distribution. It is found that the attractive $K^-$-nucleus potential cancels to a large extent the influence of rescattering and reabsorption of the $K^-$ mesons on the projectile and target residuals (i.e. shadowing). This results in an azimuthally isotropic emission of the midrapidity $K^-$ mesons with transverse momentum up to 0.8 GeV/c. Since it is well accepted that the shadowing alone would lead to a significant out-of-plane preference of particle emission, in particular at high transverse momenta, the disappearance of the out-of-plane preference for the $K^-$ mesons can serve as an unambiguous signal of the attractive $K^-$ potential. We also apply a covariant formalism of the kaon dynamics to the squeeze-out phenomenon. Discrepancies between the theory and the experiments and possible solutions are discussed.

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$J/ψ$ normal and anomalous suppressions in a hadron and string cascade model

A mechanism for the effective dissociation of a $c\bar{c}$ pair in the colour electric field of strings is introduced into a hadron and string cascade model, i.e. JPCIAE, which is based on the LUND model, simulating ultra-relativistic nucleus - nucleus collisions. This new mechanism together with the known mechanism of nuclear absorption (both baryons and mesons) could reproduce fairly the data of the normal and anomalous $J/ψ$ suppressions in minimum bias pA, AB (with light projectile), and Pb + Pb collisions at 200 A GeV/c. However the impact parameter (E_T) dependence of the $J/ψ$ suppression factor, both, in S + U and Pb + Pb reactions at 200 A GeV/c and 158 A GeV/c, respectively, is not well reproduced. We also tested the additional mechanism of the energy degradation of leading particles, with which both, the normal and anomalous $J/ψ$ suppressions in minimum bias pA, AB, and Pb + Pb collisions and the E_T dependence of the $J/ψ$ suppression factor are better reproduced.

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Thermodynamical characterization of heavy ion reactions

An detailed study of the thermodynamical state of nuclear matter in transport calculations of heavy--ion reactions is presented. In particular we determine temperatures from an analysis of the local momentum space distribution on one hand, and from a fit to fragment energy spectra in terms of a blast model with radial flow and temperature on the other. We apply this to spectator and participant matter. In spectator we find regions of spinodal instability with temperatures and densities which are consistent with experiments. In the participant we find different temperatures for different fragment masses, indicating that the fragments are not emitted from a source in thermal and chemical equilibrium.

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Heavy ion collisions with non-equilibrium Dirac-Brueckner mean fields

The influence of realistic interactions on the reaction dynamics in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions is investigated. The mean field in relativistic transport calculations is derived from microscopic Dirac-Brueckner (DB) self-energies, taking non-equilibrium effects, in particular the anisotropy of the local phase space configurations, into account. Thus this approach goes beyond the local density approximation. A detailed analysis of various in-plane and out-of-plane flow observables is presented for Au on Au reactions at incident energies ranging from 250 to 800 A.MeV and the results are compared to recent measurements of the FOPI collaboration. An overall good agreement with in-plane flow data and a reasonable description of the out-of-plane emission is achieved. For these results the intrinsic momentum dependence of the non-equilibrium mean fields is important. On the other hand, the local density approximation with the same underlying DB forces as well as a standard non-linear version of the $σω$ model are less successful in describing the present data. This gives evidence of the applicability of self energies derived from the DB approach to nuclear matter also far from saturation and equilibrium.

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Dirac Structure of the Nucleus-Nucleus Potential in Heavy Ion Collisions

We investigate nuclear matter properties in the relativistic Brueckner approach. The in-medium on-shell T-matrix is represented covariantly by five Lorentz invariant amplitudes from which we deduce directly the nucleon self-energy. To enforce correct Hartree-Fock results we develop a subtraction scheme which treats the bare nucleon-nucleon potential exactly in accordance to the different types of meson exchanges. For the higher order correlations we employ two different covariant representations in order to study the uncertainty inherent in the approach. The nuclear matter bulk properties are only slightly sensitive on the explicit representation used. However, we obtain new Coester lines for the various Bonn potentials which are shifted towards the empirical region of saturation.

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Chiral kaon dynamics in heavy ion collisions

The influence of the chiral mean field on the collective motion of kaons in relativistic heavy ion reactions at SIS energies is investigated. We consider three types of collective motion, i.e. the transverse flow, the out-of-plane flow (squeeze-out) and the radial flow. The kaon dynamics is thereby described with a relativistic mean field as it originates form chiral lagrangiens. For the $K$ mesons inside the nuclear medium we adopt a covariant quasi-particle picture including scalar and vector fields and compare this to a treatment with a static potential like force. The comparison to the available data ($K^+$) measured by FOPI and KaoS strongly favor the existence of an in-medium potential. However, using full covariant dynamics makes it more difficult to describe the data which might indicate that the mean field level is not sufficient for a reliable description of the kaon dynamics.

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Lambda collective flow in heavy ion reactions

Collective flow of Lambda hyperons in heavy ion reactions at SIS energies is investigated. It is found that a $Λ$ mean field constructed on the basis of the quark model leads to a good description of the experimental data of the in-plane transverse flow of $Λ$'s. The attractive mean field can also give rise to an additional "virtual" $Λ$ radial flow directed inwards, which is reflected by a "concave" structure of the transverse mass spectrum of the $Λ$ hyperons emitted at midrapidity. The $Λ$ radial flow is found to exhibit a strong mass dependence: The flow is visible in the Ni+Ni system, but is strongly reduced in the system of Au on Au.

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Covariant representations of the relativistic Brueckner T-matrix and the nuclear matter problem

We investigate nuclear matter properties in the relativistic Brueckner approach. The in-medium on-shell T-matrix is represented covariantly by five Lorentz invariant amplitudes from which we deduce directly the nucleon self-energy. We discuss the ambiguities of this approach and the failure of previously used covariant representations in reproducing the nucleon self-energies on the Hartree-Fock level. To enforce correct Hartree-Fock results we develop a subtraction scheme which treats the bare nucleon-nucleon potential exactly in accordance to the different types of meson exchanges. For the remaining ladder kernel, which contains the higher order correlations, we employ then two different covariant representations in order to study the uncertainty inherent in the approach. The nuclear matter bulk properties are only slightly sensitive on the explicit representation used for the kernel. However, we obtain new Coester lines for the various Bonn potentials which are shifted towards the empirical region of saturation. In addition the nuclear equation-of-state turns out to be significantly softer in the new approach.

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