arXiv subjects

Che Ming Ko

Publications and source records attributed to Che Ming Ko.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Unveiling the dynamics of nucleosynthesis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Like nucleosynthesis during the early universe, light nuclei are also produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Although the deuteron ($d$) yields in these collisions can be well described by the statistical hadronization model (SHM), which assumes that particle yields are fixed at a common chemical freezeout near the phase boundary between the quark-gluon plasma and the hadron gas, the recently measured triton ($^3\text{H}$) yields in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7-200$ GeV are overestimated systematically by this model. Here, we develop a comprehensive kinetic approach to study the effects of hadronic re-scatterings, such as $πNN\leftrightarrowπd$ and $πNNN\leftrightarrowπ^3\text{H}~(^3\text{He})$, on $d$, $^3\text{H}$, and $^3\text{He}$ production in these collisions. We find that these reactions have little effects on the deuteron yield but reduce the $^3\text{H}$ and $^3\text{He}$ yields by about a factor of 1.8 from their initial values given by the SHM. This finding helps resolve the overestimation of triton production in the SHM and provides the evidence for hadronic re-scattering effects on nucleosynthesis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

Event-by-event anti-deuteron multiplicity fluctuation in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV

Using the nucleon coalescence model based on kinetic freeze-out nucleons from the hybrid model of MUSIC hydrodynamics and UrQMD hadronic transport, we study the production of anti-deuteron and its event-by-event fluctuation in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. We find a clear suppression of the anti-deuteron to antiproton yield ratio in peripheral collisions, which is in accordance with the measurements from the ALICE Collaboration. Also found is a Poissonian event-by-event fluctuation of the anti-deuteron multiplicity distribution in all collision centralities, which is different from the prediction of a simple coalescence model calculation that assumes all antiproton and antineutron pairs to have the same probability to form anti-deuterons. We further find a small negative correlation between the anti-deuteron and antiproton multiplicity distributions as a result of the baryon conservation.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

Spinodal Enhancement of Light Nuclei Yield Ratio in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Using a relativistic transport model to describe the evolution of the quantum chromodynamic matter produced in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3-200$ GeV, we study the effect of a first-order phase transition in the equation of state of this matter on the yield ratio $N_tN_p/ N_d^2$ ($tp/d^2$) of produced proton ($p$), deuteron ($d$), and triton ($t$). We find that the large density inhomogeneities generated by the spinodal instability during the first-order phase transition can survive the fast expansion of the subsequent hadronic matter and lead to an enhanced $tp/d^2$ in central collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3-5$ GeV as seen in the experiments by the STAR Collaboration and the E864 Collaboration. However, this enhancement subsides with increasing collision centrality, and the resulting almost flat centrality dependence of $tp/d^2$ at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3$ GeV can also be used as a signal for the first-order phase transition.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

Transport Model Comparison Studies of Intermediate-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

Transport models are the main method to obtain physics information from low to relativistic-energy heavy-ion collisions. The Transport Model Evaluation Project (TMEP) has been pursued to test the robustness of transport model predictions in reaching consistent conclusions from the same type of physical model. Calculations under controlled conditions of physical input and set-up were performed with various participating codes. These included both calculations of nuclear matter in a box with periodic boundary conditions, and more realistic calculations of heavy-ion collisions. In this intermediate review, we summarize and discuss the present status of the project. We also provide condensed descriptions of the 26 participating codes, which contributed to some part of the project. These include the major codes in use today. We review the main results of the studies completed so far. They show, that in box calculations the differences between the codes can be well understood and a convergence of the results can be reached. These studies also highlight the systematic differences between the two families of transport codes, known as BUU and QMD type codes. However, when the codes were compared in full heavy-ion collisions using different physical models, as recently for pion production, they still yielded substantially different results. This calls for further comparisons of heavy-ion collisions with controlled models and of box comparisons of important ingredients, like momentum-dependent fields, which are currently underway. We often indicate improved strategies in performing transport simulations and thus provide guidance to code developers. Results of transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions from a given code will have more significance if the code can be validated against benchmark calculations such as the ones summarized in this review.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

Charged pion production from Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.4$ GeV in the Relativistic Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck model

Using the isospin-dependent relativistic Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (RVUU) model, we study charged pion ($π^\pm$) production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 2.4 GeV. By fitting the density dependence of the $Δ$ resonance production cross section in nuclear medium to reproduce the experimental $π^\pm$ multiplicities measured by the HADES Collaboration, we obtain a good description of the rapidity distributions and transverse momentum spectra of $π^\pm$ in collisions at various centralities. Some shortcomings in the description of $π^{\pm}$ production may indicate the need for including the strong potential on $π^\pm$ in RVUU, which is at present absent. We also calculate the proton rapidity distribution in the most central collisions and compare with the coalescence invariant proton rapidity distribution extracted from preliminary HADES data.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Angular Momentum Eigenstates of the Isotropic 3-D Harmonic Oscillator: Phase-Space Distributions and Coalescence Probabilities

The isotropic 3-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential can serve as an approximate description of many systems in atomic, solid state, nuclear, and particle physics. In particular, the question of 2 particles binding (or coalescing) into angular momentum eigenstates in such a potential has interesting applications. We compute the probabilities for coalescence of two distinguishable, non-relativistic particles into such a bound state, where the initial particles are represented by generic wave packets of given average positions and momenta. We use a phase-space formulation and hence need the Wigner distribution functions of angular momentum eigenstates in isotropic 3-dimensional harmonic oscillators. These distribution functions have been discussed in the literature before but we utilize an alternative approach to obtain these functions. Along the way, we derive a general formula that expands angular momentum eigenstates in terms of products of 1-dimensional harmonic oscillator eigenstates.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Evolution of $Λ$ polarization in the hadronic phase of heavy-ion collisions

Using the AMPT + MUSIC+UrQMD hybrid model, we study the global and local spin polarizations of $Λ$ hyperons as functions of the freeze-out temperature of the spin degree of freedom in the hadronic phase of Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=19.6$ GeV. Including contributions from both the thermal vorticity and thermal shear of the hadronic matter, we find that, with the spin freeze-out temperature dropping from the hadronization temperature of 160 MeV to 110 MeV at the kinetic freeze-out, both the global and local spin polarizations of $Λ$ hyperons due to the thermal vorticity decrease by a factor of two, while those due to the thermal shear decrease quickly and become negligibly small at 140 MeV. Our results suggest the importance of understanding the dynamical evolution of the spin degree of freedom in the hadronic stage in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Elliptic flow splittings in the Polyakov-looped Nambu-Jona Lasinio transport model

To incorporate the effect of gluons on the evolution dynamics of the quark matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, we extend the 3-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) transport model to include the contribution from the Polyakov loops. Imbedding the resulting pNJL partonic transport model in an extended multiphase transport (extended AMPT) model, we then study the elliptic flow splittings between particles and their antiparticles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC-BES energies. We find that a weak quark vector interaction in the partonic phase is able to describe the elliptic flow splitting between protons and antiprotons in heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7$ to 39 GeV. Knowledge on the quark vector interaction is useful for understanding the equation of state of quark matter at large baryon chemical potentials and thus the location of the critical point in the QCD phase diagram.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Multiplicity Scaling of Light Nuclei Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Using the nucleon coalescence model based on kinetic freeze-out nucleons from the 3D MUSIC+UrQMD and the 2D VISHNU hybrid model with a crossover equation of state, we study the multiplicity dependence of deuteron ($d$) and triton ($t$) production from central to peripheral Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=$ 7.7, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV and Pb+Pb at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=2.76$ TeV, respectively. It is found that the ratio $N_t N_p/N_d^2$ of the proton yield $N_p$, deuteron yield $N_d$ and triton yield $N_t$ exhibits a scaling behavior in its multiplicity dependence, i.e., decreasing monotonically with increasing charged-particle multiplicity. A similar multiplicity scaling of this ratio is also found in the nucleon coalescence calculation based on kinetic freeze-out nucleons from a multiphase transport (AMPT) model. The scaling behavior of $N_t N_p/N_d^2$ can be naturally explained by the interplay between the sizes of light nuclei and the nucleon emission source. We further argue that the multiplicity scaling of $N_t N_p/N_d^2$ can be used to validate the production mechanism of light nuclei, and the collision energy dependence of this yield ratio can further serve as a baseline in the search for the QCD critical point in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Relativistic kinetic approach to light nuclei production in high-energy nuclear collisions

Understanding the production mechanism of light (anti-)nuclei in high-energy nuclear collisions and cosmic rays has been a long-standing problem in nuclear physics. In the present study, we develop a stochastic method to solve the relativistic kinetic equations for light nuclei production from many-body reactions with the inclusion of their finite sizes. The present approach gives an excellent description of the deuteron and helium-3 data from central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ $=$ $200~\rm GeV$ ($2.76~\rm TeV$). It can also naturally explain their suppressed production in $pp$ collisions at 7 TeV as a result of their finite sizes.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Comparison of Heavy-Ion Transport Simulations: Mean-field Dynamics in a Box

Within the transport model evaluation project (TMEP) of simulations for heavy-ion collisions, the mean-field response is examined here. Specifically, zero-sound propagation is considered for neutron-proton symmetric matter enclosed in a periodic box, at zero temperature and around normal density. The results of several transport codes belonging to two families (BUU-like and QMD-like) are compared among each other and to exact calculations. For BUU-like codes, employing the test particle method, the results depend on the combination of the number of test particles and the spread of the profile functions that weight integration over space. These parameters can be properly adapted to give a good reproduction of the analytical zero-sound features. QMD-like codes, using molecular dynamics methods, are characterized by large damping effects, attributable to the fluctuations inherent in their phase-space representation. Moreover, for a given nuclear effective interaction, they generally lead to slower density oscillations, as compared to BUU-like codes. The latter problem is mitigated in the more recent lattice formulation of some of the QMD codes. The significance of these results for the description of real heavy-ion collisions is discussed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Enhanced production of strange baryons in high energy nuclear collisions from a multiphase transport model

We introduce additional coalescence factors for the production of strange baryons in a multiphase transport (AMPT) model in order to describe the enhanced production of multistrange hadrons observed in Pb-Pb collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV at the Large hadron Collider (LHC) and Au+Au collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC).This extended AMPT model is found to also give a reasonable description of the multiplicity dependence of the strangeness enhancement observed in high multiplicity events in $pp$ collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and $p$-Pb collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV. We find that the coalescence factors depend on the system size but not much on whether the system is produced from A+A or p+A collisions. The extended AMPT model thus provides a convenient way to model the mechanism underlying the observed strangeness enhancement in collisions of both small and large systems at RHIC and LHC energies.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Symmetry energy investigation with pion production from Sn+Sn systems

In the past two decades, pions created in the high density regions of heavy ion collisions have been predicted to be sensitive at high densities to the symmetry energy term in the nuclear equation of state, a property that is key to our understanding of neutron stars. In a new experiment designed to study the symmetry energy, the multiplicities of negatively and positively charged pions have been measured with high accuracy for central $^{132}$Sn+$^{124}$Sn, $^{112}$Sn+$^{124}$Sn, and $^{108}$Sn+$^{112}$Sn collisions at $E/A=270~\mathrm{MeV}$ with the S$π$RIT Time Projection Chamber. While the uncertainties of individual pion multiplicities are measured to 4\%, those of the charged pion multiplicity ratios are measured to 2\%. We compare these data to predictions from seven major transport models. The calculations reproduce qualitatively the dependence of the multiplicities and their ratios on the total neutron to proton number in the colliding systems. However, the predictions of the transport models from different codes differ too much to allow extraction of reliable constraints on the symmetry energy from the data. This finding may explain previous contradictory conclusions on symmetry energy constraints obtained from pion data in Au+Au system. These new results call for better understanding of the differences among transport codes, and new observables that are more sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2020

Beam Energy dependence of Light Nuclei Production in Au+Au Collisions

We study the collision energy dependence of (anti-)deuteron and (anti-)triton production in the most central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=$ 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV, using the nucleon coalescence model. The needed phase-space distribution of nucleons at the kinetic freeze-out is generated from a new 3D hybrid dynamical model (\texttt{iEBE-MUSIC}) by using a smooth crossover equation of state (EoS) without a QCD critical point. Our model calculations predict that the coalescence parameters of (anti-)deuteron ($B_2(d)$ and $B_2(\bar{d})$) decrease monotonically as the collision energy increases, and the light nuclei yield ratio $N_t N_p/N_d^2$ remains approximately a constant with respect to the collision energy. These calculated observables fail to reproduce the non-monotonic behavior of the corresponding data from the STAR Collaboration. Without including any effects of the critical point in our model, our results serve as the baseline predictions for the yields of light nuclei in the search for the possible QCD critical points from the experimental beam energy scan of heavy ion collisions.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Probing the partonic degrees of freedom in high multiplicity p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 5.02 TeV

We investigate the role of partonic degrees of freedom in high multiplicity p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 5.02 TeV carried out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by studying the production and collective flow of identified hadrons at intermediate $p_T$ via the coalescence of soft and hard partons generated from viscous hydrodynamics (VISH2+1) and the energy loss model (LBT), respectively. We find that combining the intermediate $p_T$ hadrons from the coalescence with the low $p_T$ hadrons from hydrodynamics and high $p_T$ hadrons from the jet fragmentation, our Hydro-Coal-Frag model provides a nice description of the measured $p_T$-spectra and the differential elliptic flow $v_2(p_T)$ of pions, kaons and protons over the $p_T$ range from 0 to 6 GeV. We further demonstrate the necessity of including the quark coalescence contribution to reproduce the experimentally observed approximate number of constituent quark scaling of hadron $v_2$ at intermediate $p_T$. Our results thus indicate the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and also hint at the possible formation of quark-gluon plasma in high multiplicity p+Pb collisions at the LHC.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Effects of QCD critical point on light nuclei production

Using the nucleon coalescence model, which can naturally take into account the correlations in the nucleon density distribution, we study the effects of QCD critical point on light nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the yield ratio $N_tN_p/N_d^2$ of proton ($p$), deuteron ($d$) and triton ($t$) increases monotonically with the nucleon density correlation length, which is expected to increase significantly near the critical point in the QCD phase diagram. Our study thus demonstrates that the yield ratio $N_tN_p/N_d^2$ can be used as a sensitive probe of the QCD critical phenomenon. We further discuss the relation between the QCD phase transitions in heavy-ion collisions and the possible non-monotonic behavior of \pdt~in its collision energy dependence.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Spin Polarizations in a Covariant Angular-Momentum-Conserved Chiral Transport Model

Using a covariant and angular-momentum-conserved chiral transport model, which takes into account the spin-orbit interactions of chiral fermions in their scatterings via the side jumps, we study the quark spin polarization in quark matter. For a system of rotating and unpolarized massless quarks in an expanding box, we find that side jumps can dynamically polarize the quark spin and result in a final quark spin polarization consistent with that of thermally equilibrated massless quarks in a self-consistent vorticity field. For the quark matter produced in noncentral relativistic heavy ion collisions, we find that in the medium rest frame both the quark local spin polarizations in the direction perpendicular to the reaction plane and along the longitudinal beam direction show an azimuthal angle dependence in the transverse plane similar to those observed in experiments for the Lambda hyperon.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2020

Constraining the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section from the width of nuclear giant dipole resonance

We develop a new lattice Hamiltonian method for solving the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) equation. Adopting the stochastic approach to treat the collision term and using the GPU parallel computing to carry out the calculations allows for a rather high accuracy in evaluating the collision term, especially its Pauli blocking, leading thus to a new level of precision in solving the BUU equation. Applying this lattice BUU method to study the width of giant dipole resonance (GDR) in nuclei, where the accurate treatment of the collision term is crucial, we find that the obtained GDR width of $^{208}{\rm Pb}$ shows a strong dependence on the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section $σ_{\rm NN}^*$. A very large medium reduction of $σ_{\rm NN}^*$ is needed to reproduce the measured value of the GDR width of $^{208}{\rm Pb}$ at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics in Osaka, Japan.

nucl-th↗