Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Charles Gale

Publications and source records attributed to Charles Gale.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

The polarization of thermal dileptons emitted in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

This work presents calculations of thermal dilepton emission and polarization observables. It features a comprehensive framework which comprises virtual photon spectral functions complete at next-to-leading-order in the strong coupling and iEBE-MUSIC hydrodynamic simulations. The polarization of thermal lepton pairs is shown to be sensitive to in-medium properties of the quark-gluon plasma. We consider Pb+Pb collisions performed in conditions specific to the LHC and examine the magnitude and behaviour of the polarization as measured in different frames, the effects of the pre-equilibrium gluon abundance, and we derive a one-to-one mapping between dielectron and dimuon polarization.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Electromagnetic Radiation from Baryon-Rich Matter in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We perform a study of electromagnetic radiation in heavy-ion collisions at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Beam Energy Scan (BES) and SPS energies using the iEBE-MUSIC framework, which includes 3D dynamical Monte Carlo Glauber initial conditions, MUSIC (3+1)D viscous relativistic hydrodynamics, and the UrQMD hadronic afterburner. The multistage modeling has been calibrated to hadronic data at RHIC-BES energies using a Bayesian analysis. Integrating the thermal photon emission rates with the medium evolution, we study the direct photon yield and elliptic flow and how they vary with collision energy and emission source. We compare with results obtained by the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations. We employ next-to-leading order thermal QCD dilepton emission rates to compute dilepton invariant mass spectra and extract the effective temperature of the quark-gluon plasma at different collision energies.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

An End-to-End Generative Diffusion Model for Heavy-Ion Collisions

Heavy-ion collision physics has entered the high precision era, demanding theoretical models capable of generating huge statistics to compare with experimental data. However, traditional hybrid models, which combine hydrodynamics and hadronic transport, are computationally intensive, creating a significant bottleneck. In this work, we introduce DiffHIC, an end-to-end generative diffusion model, to emulate ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The model takes initial entropy density profiles and transport coefficients as input and directly generates two-dimensional final-state particle spectra. Our results demonstrate that DiffHIC achieves a computational speedup of approximately $10^5$ against traditional simulations, while accurately reproducing a wide range of physical observables, including integrated and differential anisotropic flow, multi-particle correlations, and momentum fluctuations. This framework provides a powerful and efficient tool for phenomenological studies in the high-precision era of heavy-ion physics.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Charm quark evolution in the early stages of heavy-ion collisions

Heavy quarks are predominantly generated at the initial stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions such that heavy flavor observables have the potential to provide information on the pre-equilibrium medium dynamics. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of D-meson $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$ to early-time charm quark dynamics in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. We employ the IP-Glasma+MUSIC+UrQMD framework to model the evolution of the bulk medium. Charm quarks are generated using PYTHIA with nuclear parton distribution functions and evolved using Langevin dynamics within MARTINI. We observe that even though there is significant momentum broadening in the earliest stage, D-meson $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$ are only weakly sensitive to pre-equilibrium interactions.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Electromagnetic radiation from Quark-Gluon Plasma at finite baryon density

Using the Bayesian calibrated iEBE-MUSIC framework, we compute the production of electromagnetic radiation from hot hadronic matter at finite baryon density. Results for thermal photon and thermal dilepton yields are obtained by folding in-medium emission rates with posterior-sampled backgrounds evolved hydrodynamically. We consider different photon sources and analyze the collision-energy dependence of the thermal-to-prompt photon ratio. The sensitivity of the dilepton spectra to the pre-equilibrium stage is explored by considering different initialization procedures. Finally, we examine the impact on dilepton spectra of choosing parameter sets stemming from different Bayesian data analyses.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

In-plane transverse polarization in heavy-ion collisions

We give an analytical expression for the in-plane polarization $P^{x}$, in heavy-ion collisions that has, to our knowledge, not been measured in heavy-ion collision experiments. We also carry out a numerical study of $P^{x}$ using a hydrodynamic model simulation as a cross-check for the analytical formula. It is found that if the temperature-gradient contribution is neglected the simulation result for $P^{x}$ qualitatively agrees with the analytical one. The prediction of $P^{x}$ can be tested in experiments and will contribute to provide a complete and consistent picture of spin phenomena in heavy-ion collisions.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Interplay of prompt and non-prompt photons in photon-triggered jet observables

Prompt photons are important yet challenging to observe in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, as they are produced in the early stages and traverse almost the entire QGP medium without interaction. Experimental analyses typically employ isolation cuts, in the hope to identify prompt photons. Most theoretical studies consider only events with actual prompt photons, assuming no contribution from isolated non-prompt photons to reduce computational cost. For the first time, we present a study that compares simulation results generated using inclusive (bremsstrahlung) and prompt-photon events with multiple experimental observables for both $p-p$ and $Pb-Pb$ collisions at $5.02$ TeV. Simulations are carried out using the multi-stage JETSCAPE framework tuned to describe the quenching of jets and hadrons. Isolated non-prompt photons are generated in hard photon bremsstrahlung, where the photon is radiated at a sufficient angle to the jet. Several photon triggered jet and jet substructure observables show significant contributions from inclusive photons, yielding an improvement in comparison with experimental data. Novel photon triggered jet substructure observables are also expected to show new structures, yet to be detected in experiment. This effort examines the significance of isolated non-prompt photons using parameters tuned for a simultaneous description of the leading hadron and jet spectrum, and thus provides an independent verification of the multistage evolution framework.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2025

Effects of hadronic reinteraction on jet fragmentation from small to large systems

We investigate the impact of the hadronic phase on jet quenching in nuclear collider experiments, an open question in heavy-ion physics. Previous studies in a simplified setup suggest that hadronic interactions could have significant effects, but a systematic analysis is needed. Using the X-SCAPE event generator with the SMASH afterburner, we study the role of hadronic rescattering on jet fragmentation hadrons. Applying this framework to $e^++e^-$ collisions, we demonstrate that even in small systems with limited particle production, hadronic interactions lead to measurable modifications in final-state hadronic and jet observables by comparing scenarios with and without afterburner rescattering.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2025

Effects of a background magnetic field on dilepton radiation

We explore the feasibility of using dilepton radiations as a QGP magnetometer. We calculate the dilepton production rate in the presence of a time-dependent magnetic field typically found in heavy-ion collisions. We compute the thermal dilepton spectra from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt s$ = 19.6 GeV BES energy -- using a realistic (3+1)-dimensional multistage hydrodynamic simulation. We find the thermal dilepton elliptic flow to be very sensitive to the strength of the magnetic field.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Dilepton emission in heavy ion collisions and chemical equilibrium of QCD matter

We study thermal dilepton production and anisotropic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 \, \mathrm{TeV}$ using next-to-leading-order (NLO) thermal QCD dilepton emission rates. A hybrid model (IP-Glasma+\kompost+MUSIC+UrQMD) simulates the collision evolution. The role of the pre-equilibrium stage in dilepton observables is examined. We also explore how chemical equilibrium in QCD matter affect dilepton observables.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2025

Leading order, next-to-leading order, and non-perturbative parton collision kernels: Effects on the jet substructure

As an important signature of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a high-precision energy-loss model is essential to independently verify the QGP properties extracted from soft particles. In this work, we optimize the energy loss modeling in MARTINI by introducing the formation time of the parton shower in the initial hard scattering, which is essential for a simultaneous description of the hadron and jet $R_{AA}$. Based on this, we study the phenomenological influence of the higher order collision kernels -- the up-to-NLO one evaluated by EQCD and the non-perturbative (NP) one computed in lattice QCD -- on the energy loss of the hard parton, compared to the LO kernel. The hadron and jet $R_{AA}$ are calculated with AMY rates using the three kernels and the optimized parameter sets for the running coupling. The results exhibit remarkable similarities in their overall values as well as in $p_T$ and centrality dependence. Sizable differences in the jet substructure are observed between different soft radiation rates.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

Thermal dilepton polarization and dynamics of the QCD plasma in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We present the first theoretical study of the polarization of lepton pairs produced in $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC, using next-to-leading order (NLO) dilepton emission rates. These calculations employ a multi-stage framework to simulate the evolution of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and to explore the sensitivity of polarization to early times. It is found that the intermediate invariant-mass dileptons are indeed probes of the thermal equilibration process, and go beyond the reach of hadronic observables. We compute the polarization anisotropy coefficient obtained with LO dilepton rates, and show that the LO and NLO results differ radically, both in trend and in magnitude, at low and intermediate lepton pair invariant masses.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2024

An end-to-end generative diffusion model for heavy-ion collisions

We train a generative diffusion model (DM) to simulate ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions from end to end. The model takes initial entropy density profiles as input and produces two-dimensional final particle spectra, successfully reproducing integrated and differential observables. It also captures higher-order fluctuations and correlations. These findings suggest that the generative model has successfully learned the complex relationship between initial conditions and final particle spectra for various shear viscosities, as well as the fluctuations introduced during initial entropy production and hadronization stages, providing an efficient framework for resource-intensive physical goals. The code and trained model are available at https://huggingface.co/Jing-An/DiffHIC/tree/main.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2024

Simulating Charm Quarks in IP-Glasma Initial Stage and Quark-Gluon Plasma: A Hybrid Approach for charm quark phenomenology

We present phenomenological findings on charm quark transport while including its energy loss in both pre-equilibrium and hydrodynamic stages of the evolution. We employed the MARTINI event generator for the production and evolution of heavy quarks in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The sensitivity of the heavy meson nuclear modification factor and flow coefficient to the early stage of heavy-ion collisions and bulk medium evolution is analyzed for Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV. Our study provides insights into the interaction strength of charm quarks during the early phase and within the quark-gluon plasma.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

QCD jets in a hot and dense medium: a study of shower formation time and collision kernels

With the use of MARTINI, a model which considers evolving QCD jets against a fluid dynamical background, it is shown that the introduction of formation time to the parton shower after the initial hard scattering is essential for a simultaneous description of charged hadron and jet $R_{AA}$. This inclusion also improves jet shape ratio at small angle and jet fragmentation function ratios of leading charged hadrons. The MARTINI framework is then aimed at a study of the leading order, next-to-leading-order, and non perturbative collision kernels. Sizable differences in the modification of jet substructure observables, i.e., jet shape and fragmentation functions are observed. Such differences are caused by the difference in the radiation rates of relatively soft gluons that survive in the evolution in medium.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

Probing the equilibration of the QCD matter created in heavy-ion collisions with dileptons

A systematic study of intermediate invariant mass dilepton production in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV is performed, using next-to-leading-order (NLO) thermal QCD dilepton emission rates with a multistage dynamical approach which includes event-by-event IP-Glasma initial conditions, relativistic viscous fluid dynamics, and a hadronic afterburner. Considering dilepton yield and anisotropic flow, special attention is paid to the out-of-equilibrium aspects, both thermal and chemical, and to the contribution of the Drell-Yan process. The relative contribution of each of those different channels to dilepton observables is calculated and discussed.

nucl-th↗