arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J. -Y. Ollitrault.
A comparison is made between results obtained using smooth initial conditions and event-by-event initial conditions in the hydrodynamical description of relativistic nuclear collisions. Some new results on directed flow are also included.
We predict dilepton invariant-mass spectra for central 5.5 ATeV Pb-Pb collisions at LHC. Hadronic emission in the low-mass region is calculated using in-medium spectral functions of light vector mesons within hadronic many-body theory. In the intermediate-mass region thermal radiation from the Quark-Gluon Plasma, evaluated perturbatively with hard-thermal loop corrections, takes over. An important source over the entire mass range are decays of correlated open-charm hadrons, rendering the nuclear modification of charm and bottom spectra a critical ingredient.
If the matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions reaches thermal equilibrium, its subsequent evolution follows the laws of ideal fluid dynamics. We show that general predictions can be made on this basis alone, irrespective of the details of the hydrodynamical model. We derive several scaling rules for momentum spectra and anisotropic flow (in particular the elliptic flow, v2, and the hexadecupole flow, v4) of identified particles. Comparison with existing data is briefly discussed, and qualitative predictions are made for LHC.
We argue that RHIC data, in particular those on the anisotropic flow coefficients v_2 and v_4, suggest that the matter produced in the early stages of nucleus-nucleus collisions is incompletely thermalized. We interpret the parameter (1/S)(dN/dy), where S is the transverse area of the collision zone and dN/dy the multiplicity density, as an indicator of the number of collisions per particle at the time when elliptic flow is established, and hence as a measure of the degree of equilibration. This number serves as a control parameter which can be varied experimentally by changing the system size, the centrality of the collision, or the beam energy. We provide predictions for Cu-Cu collisions at RHIC as well as for Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC.
We define a set of model-independent observables which generally characterize the azimuthal dependence of two-particle correlations in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We explain how they can be analyzed, and show to what extent such analyses are model dependent. We discuss specific applications to the anisotropic flow of decaying particles, azimuthally sensitive HBT, and correlations between particles at large transverse momentum. A quantitative prediction is made for jet quenching with respect to the reaction plane.
Directed flow in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed using the reaction plane from elliptic flow, which reduces the bias from nonflow effects. We combine this method with the determination of elliptic flow from Lee-Yang zeroes. The resulting method is more consistent and somewhat easier to implement than the previously used method based on three-particle cumulants, and is also less biased by nonflow correlations. Error terms from residual nonflow correlations are carefully estimated, as well as statistical errors. We discuss the application of the method at RHIC and LHC.
We present a new method to analyze anisotropic flow from the genuine correlation among a large number of particles, focusing on the practical implementation of the method.
We propose to use the theory of phase transitions of Lee and Yang as a practical tool to analyze long-range correlations in a finite-size system. We apply it to the analysis of anisotropic flow in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and show that this method is more reliable than any other used so far.
We present a new method to extract anisotropic flow in heavy ion collisions from the genuine correlation among a large number of particles. Anisotropic flow is obtained from the zeroes in the complex plane of a generating function of azimuthal correlations, in close analogy with the theory of phase transitions by Lee and Yang. Flow is first estimated globally, i.e., averaged over the phase space covered by the detector, and then differentially, as a function of transverse momentum and rapidity for identified particles. The corresponding estimates are less biased by nonflow correlations than with any other method. The practical implementation of the method is rather straightforward. Furthermore, it automatically takes into account most corrections due to azimuthal anisotropies in the detector acceptance. The main limitation of the method is statistical errors, which can be significantly larger than with the ``standard'' method of flow analysis if the flow and/or the event multiplicities are too small. In practice, we expect this to be the most accurate method to analyze directed and elliptic flow in fixed-target heavy-ion collisions between 100 MeV and 10 GeV per nucleon (at the Darmstadt SIS synchrotron and the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron), and elliptic flow at ultrarelativistic energies (at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and the forthcoming Large Hadron Collider at CERN).
Directed and elliptic flow are reported for charged pions and protons as a function of transverse momentum, rapidity, and centrality in 40 and 158 AGeV Pb + Pb collisions. The standard method of correlating particles with an event plane is used. The directed flow of protons is small and shows little variation near to midrapidity, but rises fast towards projectile rapidity in the 40 AGeV data. For most peripheral collisions the flat region becomes negative resulting in $v_1$ changing sign three times. Elliptic flow doesn't seem to change very much from 40 AGeV to 158 AGeV. The difference is smaller than anticipated from the overall energy dependence from AGS to RHIC.
We present a new method for analysing directed flow, based on a three-particle azimuthal correlation. It is less biased by nonflow correlations than two-particle methods, and requires less statistics than four-particle methods. It is illustrated on NA49 data.
We present a general method for taking into account correlations due to momentum conservation in the analysis of anisotropic flow, either by using the two-particle correlation method or the standard flow vector method. In the latter, the correlation between the particle and the flow vector is either corrected through a redefinition (shift) of the flow vector, or subtracted explicitly from the observed flow coefficient. In addition, momentum conservation contributes to the reaction plane resolution. Momentum conservation mostly affects the first harmonic in azimuthal distributions, i.e., directed flow. It also modifies higher harmonics, for instance elliptic flow, when they are measured with respect to a first harmonic event plane such as one determined with the standard transverse momentum method. Our method is illustrated by application to NA49 data on pion directed flow.
The directed flow of particles produced in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC is so small that currently available methods of analysis are at the border of applicability. Standard two-particle and flow-vector methods are biased by large nonflow correlations. On the other hand, cumulants of four-particle correlations, which are free from this bias, are plagued by large statistical errors. Here, we present a new method based on three-particle correlations, which uses the property that elliptic flow is large at these energies. This method may also be useful at intermediate energies, near the balance energy where directed flow vanishes.