arXiv subjects

Christoph Herold

Publications and source records attributed to Christoph Herold.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Separating Equation-of-State Dynamics from Hadronic Rescattering in Low-Mass Dileptons

We investigate low-mass dilepton emission as a probe of the QCD equation of state and phase structure within non-equilibrium chiral fluid dynamics, comparing first-order phase-transition and crossover scenarios at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.20-6.20$~GeV. To disentangle effects of the macroscopic equation-of-state dynamics from conventional hadronic in-medium modifications, the $ρ$ and $ω$ meson self-energies are calculated from the same resonance-driven forward-scattering amplitudes in both scenarios. We find two temporally distinct signatures of the first-order phase transition: an early enhancement in the vector-meson pole region associated with the non-equilibrium evolution through the phase transition, and a later enhancement of the low-mass continuum driven by reheating and the prolonged fireball evolution. Both effects survive integration over the complete space-time evolution, with the pole-mass region retaining the strongest sensitivity to the phase structure. Across the investigated beam energies, the pole-mass excitation function retains a pronounced sensitivity to first-order transition dynamics at low collision energies, identifying this mass region as a promising target for future dilepton beam-energy scans.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Hypernucleus production in p+Au reactions at the FAIR facility

We explore the production of hypernuclei in p+Au reactions using the UrQMD model accompanied by a standard phase space coalescence model. We focus on the proton beam energy range of $E_{\rm lab}= 5 - 30$ GeV as this energy range will be investigated by the CBM-experiment at the upcoming FAIR facility. Starting from proton, $Λ$, $Σ$, $Ξ$ and $Ω$ production, we predict the yields, rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of $^{3}_ΛH$, $^{4}_ΛH$, $Ξ$N and $Ξ$NN hypernuclei. We conclude that the production rates of novel multi-strange hypernuclei are well within the reach of the CBM-experiment.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Systematic study of exotic $1^{-+}$ tetraquark spectroscopy

The masses of exotic quantum-number $1^{-+}$ compact tetraquark states are calculated in a constituent quark model, where a Cornell-like potential is employed as the central potential, spin-spin and spin-orbit coupling derived from the Breit-Fermi interaction are treated as hyperfine corrections, and model parameters are taken from previous works. The ground state $1^{-+}$ P-wave tetraquarks are predicted at 1.9, 4.2, and 6.6~GeV for the light, charmonium-like, and fully-charm sectors, respectively. The decay width ratios of $1^{-+}$ tetraquark states are calculated for two-body strong decay channels within the rearrangement mechanism, including $ωh_1$ and $ηf_1$ for isospin $I=0$ light tetraquarks, $ρh_1$ and $πf_1$ for isospin $I=1$ light tetraquarks, $π/η+χ_{c1}$ and $ρ/ω+ h_c$ for charmonium-like tetraquarks, and $η_c χ_{c1}$ and $J/ψh_c$ for fully-charm tetraquarks. The theoretical results are compared with the observed exotic $1^{-+}$ states, and promising search channels for $1^{-+}$ tetraquarks are discussed. The work suggests that $η_1(1855)$ is unlikely to be a compact tetraquark state.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Charmed nuclei and exotic charmed meson production at CBM@FAIR and ALICE@LHC

We make predictions for the expected multiplicities of exotic charmed hadrons and charmed nuclei in Au+Au collisions at SIS100 and LHC beam energies, using input on light hadron and charm production from the UrQMD transport model, and applying the Thermal-FIST model. We demonstrate that the CBM experiment has the capability to explore these states with production rates of one per 3 seconds for $χ_{c0}(1P)$ and $χ_{c1}(1P)$, and one every 3 minutes for $X(3872)$ at the expected data taking rates. Due to the higher baryon density at CBM compared to the LHC, charmed nuclei, if they exist, will be equally abundant at CBM as at the LHC, even though the total charm production at CBM is much lower.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Electromagnetic probes as signatures for a first-order QCD phase transition

We investigate dimuon production in the context of a first-order phase transition in QCD matter using a chiral fluid dynamics model. This approach incorporates non-equilibrium effects such as entropy production and reheating, which emerge during the dynamical evolution through a first-order phase transition. By comparing equilibrium and non-equilibrium scenarios across a range of beam energies ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.2-6.2$~GeV), we analyze the resulting invariant mass spectra. Our results reveal a substantial enhancement of dilepton yields in the non-equilibrium scenario, particularly pronounced at lower beam energies, where reheating leads to a prolonged lifetime of the fireball and increased emission. The enhancement persists even after normalizing to pion multiplicities, indicating sensitivity beyond effects of entropy production.

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arXiv2025

The structure of the f_0(980) from system size dependent hadronic resonance ratios in p+p, p+Pb, and Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC

It is shown that the hadronic phase in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions can be used to understand the properties of the $f_0(980)$ resonance. In particular it is shown that the centrality dependence of the $f_0(980)/π$ and $f_0(980)/ϕ$ ratios depends strongly on the $f_0(980)\rightarrow \overline{K}+K$ branching ratio and whether the $f_0(980)$ is produced as a $\left | \overline{q}q \right \rangle$ or $\left | \overline{s}s \right \rangle$ state. These conclusions are drawn from calculations within the partial chemical equilibrium of the HRG model within Thermal-FIST as well as with the fully non-equilibrium hybrid-transport approach UrQMD. Our findings show how the hadronic phase in heavy ion collisions can be used for studies of exotic hadron properties otherwise possible only in dedicated experiments such as PANDA.

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arXiv2024

The time evolution of light nuclei cumulants and ratios with a first-order phase transition in the UrQMD transport model

The UrQMD model with a density dependent equation of state, including a first-order phase transition, is used to study the time dependence of baryon number and proton number susceptibilities up to third order in heavy ion reactions of $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=2-3 A$ GeV. A significant deviation from the Gaussian fluctuations of the baryon number fluctuation in coordinate space is observed. The proton number fluctuations are always suppressed as they constitute only a small fraction of the total baryon number during the dense phase of the collision. It is found that the only measurable, but small, signal would be an enhancement of the third order (or higher) proton cumulant in a finite rapidity window $Δy$ that is larger than one unit of rapidity. In addition, it is found that the coordinate fluctuations will lead to an enhancement of cluster production due to the correlations in coordinate space. However, this enhancement is small and mainly occurs during the dense part of the collision before the system actually freezes out.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Production of nuclei and hypernuclei in pion-induced reactions near threshold energies

The Ultra-relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model is employed to simulate $π^-+\mathrm{C}$ and $π^-+\mathrm{W}$ collisions at p$_\mathrm{lab}=1.7$ GeV motivated by the recent HADES results. By comparing the proton and $Λ$ transverse momentum spectra, it was observed that the data and transport model calculation show a good agreement, if cluster formation is included to obtain the free proton spectra. Predictions of light cluster ($d$, $t$, $^3$He, $^4$He, as well as ${}^{3}_Λ$H and $Ξ$N) multiplicities and spectra are made using a coalescence mechanism. The resulting multiplicities suggest that the pion beam experiment can produce a substantial amount of ${}^{3}_Λ$H, especially in $π^-+\mathrm{W}$ collisions due to the stopping of the $Λ$ inside the large tungsten nucleus. The findings are supplemented by a statistical multi-fragmentation analysis suggesting that even larger hyper-fragments are produced copiously. It is suggested that even double strange hypernuclei are in reach and might be studied in more detail using a slightly higher pion beam momentum.

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arXiv2023

Practical Trustworthiness Model for DNN in Dedicated 6G Application

Artificial intelligence (AI) is considered an efficient response to several challenges facing 6G technology. However, AI still suffers from a huge trust issue due to its ambiguous way of making predictions. Therefore, there is a need for a method to evaluate the AI's trustworthiness in practice for future 6G applications. This paper presents a practical model to analyze the trustworthiness of AI in a dedicated 6G application. In particular, we present two customized Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to solve the Automatic Modulation Recognition (AMR) problem in Terahertz communications-based 6G technology. Then, a specific trustworthiness model and its attributes, namely data robustness, parameter sensitivity, and security covering adversarial examples, are introduced. The evaluation results indicate that the proposed trustworthiness attributes are crucial to evaluate the trustworthiness of DNN for this 6G application.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2023

Investigating the cluster production mechanism with isospin triggering: Thermal models versus coalescence models

Isospin triggering allows to distinguish coalescence from thermal production of light clusters in heavy ion collisions. Triggering on $Y(π^-) - Y(π^+)$ allows to select very neutron or proton rich final states. The deuteron (cluster) production with coalescence ($d \propto n \cdot p$) leads then to an inverse parabolic dependence of the deuteron yield on $ΔY_π$. In contrast, in a thermal model, cluster production is independent on $ΔY_π$. The observation of a maximum deuteron (cluster) yield as function of $ΔY_π$ provides confirmation of the coalescence mechanism.

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arXiv2023

Harmonic flow correlations in Au+Au reactions at 1.23 AGeV: A new testing ground for the Equation-of-State and expansion geometry

Correlations between the harmonic flow coefficients $v_1$, $v_2$, $v_3$ and $v_4$ of nucleons in semi-peripheral Au+Au collisions at a beam energy of 1.23~AGeV are investigated within the hadronic transport approach Ultra-relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD). In contrast to ultra-relativistic collision energies (where the flow coefficients are evaluated with respect to the respective event plane), we predict strong correlations between the flow harmonics with respect to the reaction plane. Based on an event-by-event selection of the midrapidity final state elliptic flow of protons we show that as a function of rapidity, I) the sign of the triangular flow changes, II) that the shape of $v_4$ changes from convex to concave, and III) that $v_3\propto v_1v_2$ and $v_4\propto v_2^2$ for all different event classes, indicating strong correlations between all investigated harmonic flow coefficients.

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arXiv2022

Enhanced pion-to-proton ratio at the onset of the QCD phase transition

The pion-to-proton ratio is identified as a potential signal for a non-equilibrium first-order chiral phase transition in heavy-ion collisions, as the pion multiplicity is directly related to entropy production. To showcase this effect, a non-equilibrium Bjorken expansion starting from realistic initial conditions along a Taub adiabat is used to simulate the entropy production. Different dynamical criteria to determine the final entropy-per-baryon number are investigated and matched to a hadron resonance gas model along the chemical freeze out curve to obtain the final pion and proton numbers. We detect a strong enhancement of their multiplicity ratio at the energies where the system experiences a strong phase transition as compared to a smooth crossover which shows almost no enhancement.

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arXiv2022

Correcting the $B_A$ coalescence factor at GSI-HADES and RHIC-BES energies

We investigate the coalescence factors $B_2$ and $B_3$ at low collision energies ($\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}<6$ GeV) with special focus on the HADES and RHIC-BES experiments. It is shown that, in order to properly interpret the coalescence factors $B_A$, two important corrections are necessary: I) $B_2$ has to be calculated using the proton $\times$ neutron yields in the denominator, instead of the square of the proton yield, and II) the primordial proton (neutron) densities have to be used for the normalization and not the final state (free) protons (neutrons). Both effects lead to a drastic reduction of $B_2$ and $B_3$ at low energies. This reduction decreases the discrepancy between the volumes extracted from HBT measurements and the volumes extracted from the coalescence factor ($V\propto 1/B_2$). While at HADES and low RHIC-BES energies these corrections are substantial, they become irrelevant above $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}>6$ GeV. The proposed correction method is model independent and is only based on the measurement of protons, clusters and charged pions.

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arXiv2022

Net-proton number cumulant ratios as function of beam energy from an expanding nonequilibrium chiral fluid

The beam energy scan program at RHIC provides data on net-proton number fluctuations with the goal to detect the QCD critical end point and first-order phase transition. Interpreting these experimental signals requires a vital understanding of the interplay of critical phenomena and the nonequilibrium dynamics of the rapidly expanding fireball. We study these aspects with a fluid dynamic expansion coupled to the explicit propagation of the chiral order parameter sigma via a Langevin equation. Assuming a sigma-proton coupling through an effective proton mass, we relate cumulants of the order parameter and the net-proton number at freeze-out and obtain observable cumulant ratios as a function of beam energy. We emphasize the role of the nonequilibrium first-order phase transition where a mixed phase with gradual freeze-out can significantly alter the cumulants. We find that the presence of a critical end point is clearly visible in the cumulant ratios for a relatively wide range of center-of-mass energies.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Cumulants of the chiral order parameter at lower RHIC energies

We study cumulants of the chiral order parameter as function of beam energy as a possible signal for the presence of a critical end point and first-order phase transition in the QCD phase diagram. We model the expansion of a heavy-ion collision by a fluid dynamic expansion coupled to the explicit propagation of the chiral order parameter sigma via a Langevin equation. We evolve the medium until a parametrized freeze-out condition is met where we calculate event-by-event fluctuations and cumulants of sigma which are expected to follow the trend of net-proton number cumulants. We emphasize the role of a nonequilibrium first-order phase transition: The presence of an unstable phase causes the well-known bending of the trajectories in the space of temperature and baryochemical potential. For these cases at lower beam energies, the system crosses the freeze-out line more than once, allowing us to calculate a range of cumulants for each initial condition which are overall enhanced for the second hit of the freeze-out line. We thus find not only the critical end point but also the phase transition of the underlying model clearly reflected in the cumulants. The impact of volume fluctuations is demonstrated to play a measurable role for fluid dynamical evolutions that last significantly long.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Performance Analysis of MDPC and RS codes in Two-channel THz Communication Systems

We analyze whether a multidimensional parity check (MDPC) or a Reed-Solomon (RS) code in combination with an auxiliary channel can improve the throughput and extend the THz transmission distance. While channel quality is addressed by various coding approaches, and an effective THz system configuration is enabled by other approaches with additional channels, their combination is new with the potential for significant improvements in quality of the data transmission. Our specific solution is designed to correct data bits at the physical layer by using a low complexity erasure code (MDPC or RS), whereby original and parity data are transferred over two separate and parallel THz channels, including one main channel and one additional channel. The results are theoretically analyzed to see that our new solution can improve throughput, support higher modulation levels and transfer data over the longer distances with THz communications.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

Deuteron production from phase-space coalescence in the UrQMD approach

UrQMD phase-space coalescence calculations for the production of deuterons are compared with available data for various reactions from the GSI/FAIR energy regime up to LHC. It is found that the production process of deuterons, as reflected in their rapidity and transverse momentum distributions in p+p, p+A and A+A collisions at a beam energies starting from the GSI energy regime around 1 AGeV and up to the LHC, are in good agreement with experimental data. We further explore the energy and centrality dependence of the d/p ratios. Finally, we discuss anti-deuteron production for selected systems. Overall, a good description of the experimental data is observed. The results are also compatible with thermal model estimates. Most importantly this good description is based only on a single set of coalescence parameters that is independent of energy system size and can also be applied for anti-deuterons.

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arXiv2021

Modeling (anti)deuteron formation at RHIC with a geometric coalescence model

We study (anti)deuteron formation rates in heavy-ion collisions in the framework of a wave-function based coalescence model. The main feature of our model is that nucleons are emitted from the whole spherically symmetric fireball volume, while antinucleons are emitted only from a spherical shell close to the surface. In this way, the model accounts for nucleon-antinucleon annihilations in the center of the reaction at lower beam energies. Comparison with experimental data on the coalescence parameter in the range $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 4.7-200$ GeV allows us to extract radii of the respective source geometries. Our results are qualitatively supported by data from the UrQMD transport model which shows a comparable trend in the geometric radii as a function of beam energy. In line with our expectations, we find that at lower energies, the central region of the fireball experiences stronger annihilation than at higher energies.

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