arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jinfeng Liao.
We derive the set of kinetic equations that control the evolution of gluons in the presence of a condensate. We show that the dominant singularities remain logarithmic when the scattering involves particles in the condensate. This allows us to define a consistent small angle approximation.
The heavy ion collision provides a unique many-body environment where local domains of strongly interacting chiral medium may occur and in a sense allow environmental symmetry "violation" phenomena. For example certain anomalous transport processes, forbidden in usual medium, become possible in such domains. We briefly review recent progress in both the theoretical understanding and experimental search of various anomalous transport effects (such as the Chiral Magnetic Effect, Chiral Separation Effect, Chiral Electric Separation Effect, Chiral Electric/Magnetic Waves, etc) in the hot QCD fluid created by such collisions.
In this paper we introduce and compute a new transport coefficient for the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at very high temperature. This new coefficient $σ_{χe}$, the CESE (Chiral Electric Separation Effect) conductivity, quantifies the amount of axial current $\vec J_A$ that is generated in response to an externally applied electric field $e\vec E$: $\vec J_A = σ_{χe} (e\vec E)$. Starting with rather general argument in the kinetic theory framework, we show how a characteristic structure $σ_{χe}\propto μμ_5$ emerges, which also indicates the CESE as an anomalous transport effect occurring only in a parity-odd environment with nonzero axial charge density $μ_5\neq 0$. Using the Hard-Thermal-Loop framework the CESE conductivity for the QGP is found to be $σ_{χe} = (\#) T\frac{{\rm Tr}_{\rm f}Q_eQ_A}{g^4\ln(1/g)} \frac{μμ_5}{T^2}$ to the leading-log accuracy with the numerical constant (#) depending on favor content, e.g. (#)$=14.5163$ for $u,d$ light flavors.
Recent studies have shown that fluctuations of various types play important roles in the evolution of the fireball created in relativistic heavy ion collisions and bear many phenomenological consequences for experimental observables. The bulk dynamics of the fireball is well described by relativistic hydrodynamic expansion and the fluctuations on top of such expanding background can be studied within the linearized hydrodynamic framework. In this work we present complete and analytic sound wave solutions on top of both Bjorken flow and Hubble flow backgrounds. We also briefly discuss the applications of these solutions in heavy ion collisions.
In this contribution I discuss some recent progress in understanding the evolution of the pre-thermal quark-gluon matter, known as the glasma, during the early stage in heavy ion collisions, and the implication for early time photon and dilepton emissions.
In relativistic heavy ion collisions, a highly occupied gluonic matter is created shortly after initial impact, which is in a non-thermal state and often referred to as the Glasma. Successful phenomenology suggests that the glasma evolves rather quickly toward the thermal quark-gluon plasma and a hydrodynamic behavior emerges at very early time $\sim \hat{o}(1)$ fm/c. Exactly how such "apparent thermalization" occurs and connects the initial conditions to the hydrodynamic onset, remains a significant challenge for theory as well as phenomenology. We briefly review various ideas and recent progress in understanding the approach of the glasma to the thermalized quark-gluon plasma, with an emphasis on the kinetic theory description for the evolution of such far-from-equilibrium and highly overpopulated, thus weakly-coupled yet strongly interacting glasma.
[Background:] A significant quenching of high energy jets was observed in the heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility, and is now confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility. The RHIC plus LHC era provides a unique opportunity to study the jet-medium interaction that leads to the jet quenching, and the medium itself at different collision energies (medium temperatures). [Purpose:] We study the azimuthal anisotropy of jet quenching, to seek constraints on different models featuring distinct path-length and density dependences for jet energy loss, and to gain a better understanding of the medium. [Methods:] The models are fixed by using the RHIC data, and then applied to study the LHC case. A set of harmonic (Fourier) coefficients $v_{n}$ are extracted from the jet azimuthal anisotropy on a event-by-event basis. [Results:] The second harmonics $v_{2}$, mostly driven by the medium's geometry, can be used to differentiate jet quenching models. Other harmonics are also compared with the LHC (2.76 TeV) data. The predictions for future LHC (5.5 TeV) run are presented. [Conclusions:] We find that a too strong path-length dependence (e.g., cubic) is ruled out by the LHC $v_{2}$ data, while the model with a strong near-$T_c$ enhancement for the jet-medium interaction describes the data very well. It is worth pointing out that the latter model expects a less color-opaque medium at LHC.
The phase transition and jet quenching parameter ${\hat q}$ have been investigated in the framework of dynamical holographic QCD model. It is found that both the trace anomaly and the ratio of the jet quenching parameter over cubic temperature ${\hat q}/T^3$ show a peak around the critical temperature $T_c$, and the ratio of jet quenching parameter over entropy density ${\hat q}/s$ sharply rises at $T_c$. This indicates that the jet quenching parameter can characterize the phase transition. The effect of jet quenching parameter enhancement around phase transition on nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ and elliptic flow $v_2$ have also been analyzed, and it is found that the temperature dependent jet quenching parameter from dynamical holographic QCD model can considerably improve the description of jet quenching azimuthal anisotropy as compared with the conformal case.
We report our calculation of jet quenching and its azimuthal anisotropy in the high energy AA and high multiplicity pA and dA collisions. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, we improve our previous event-by-event studies, by properly implementing $p_t$ dependence in the modeling. We show that, within the jet "monography" scenario featuring a strong near-Tc-enhancement of jet energy loss, the computed high-$p_t$ nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ and the harmonic coefficients in its azimuthal anisotropy $v_{2,\,3,\,4}$, agree well with the available data from both Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Second, in light of current discussions on possible final state collective behavior in the high-multiplicity pPb and dAu collisions, we examine the implication of final state jet attenuation in such collisions, by applying the same model used in AA collisions and quantifying the corresponding $R_{pA}$ and $R_{dA}$ and their azimuthal anisotropy. The high-$p_t$ $V_n$ provide a set of clean indicators of final state energy loss. In particular we find in the most central pPb (5.02 TeV) and dAu (200 GeV) collisions, $V_2$ is on the order of $0.01$ and $0.1$ respectively, measurable with current experimental accuracy. In addition, our high-$p_t$ $R_{dA}$ is around $0.6$ which is compatible with preliminary dAu results from RHIC.
In this paper, we study the evolution of a dense system of gluons, such as those produced in the early stages of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. We describe the approach to thermal equilibrium using the small angle approximation for gluon scattering in a Boltzmann equation that includes the effects of Bose statistics. In the present study we ignore the effect of the longitudinal expansion, i.e., we restrict ourselves to spatially uniform systems, with spherically symmetric momentum distributions. Furthermore we take into account only elastic scattering, i.e., we neglect inelastic, number changing, processes. We solve the transport equation for various initial conditions that correspond to small or large initial gluon phase-space densities. For a small initial phase-space density, the system evolves towards thermal equilibrium, as expected. For a large enough initial phase-space density the equilibrium state contains a Bose condensate. We present numerical evidence that such over-populated systems reach the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation in a finite time. The approach to condensation is characterized by a scaling behavior that we briefly analyze.
In this paper we present with full details a systematic quantification, on an even-by-event basis, of the hard probe response to the geometry and fluctuations of the hot QCD matter created in heavy ion collisions at both the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The azimuthal anisotropy of jet quenching is extracted and decomposed as harmonic responses (for n=1,2,3,4,5,6) to the corresponding harmonics in the fluctuating initial condition. We show that such jet response harmonics are sensitive to the jet quenching models as well as to the bulk matter initial compositions. By studying these for all centralities at both RHIC and LHC energies we put a strong constraint on the path-length and medium-density dependence of jet energy loss. We also examine the hard-soft di-hadron correlation arising from the hard and soft sectors' responses to the common initial fluctuations. We demonstrate that the experimentally observed "hard-ridge" can be explained this way and that its dependence on the trigger-azimuthal-angle could also be qualitatively understood.
We study the conserved charge fluctuations, as quantified by the corresponding susceptibilities, in strongly interacting matter as motived by the quark-gluon plasma. Using the gauge-gravity correspondence approach, we study the patterns of conserved charge fluctuations in two types of holographic models for QCD, the D4/D8 and the D3/D7 models. We compute and compare the quark number susceptibilities in both models and find an interesting common feature of the two: at very strong coupling higher order susceptibilities are suppressed and the conserved charge fluctuations become purely Guassian. In light of the state-of-the-art lattice QCD results we also discuss what we can learn from these susceptibilities about the underlying degrees of freedom in the $1\sim 2T_c$ quark-gluon plasma and examine the viability of different ideas such as holography, quasi-particles, as well as bound states. From analyzes of second order susceptibilities we conclude that the bound states exist and are important in the $1\sim 2T_c$ region. We further construct and make predictions for several ratios of fourth-order susceptibilities that can sensitively reveal such bound states.
A number of recent progresses in the study of strong field effects in heavy ion collisions are discussed here: 1) the Chiral Magnetic Wave (CMW) and its experimental manifestation via splitting of positive/negative pions' elliptic flow; 2) the event-by-event azimuthal fluctuations of strong EM fields and its correlations with matter geometry; 3) a new mechanism for generating axial current in external electric field, the Chiral Electric Separation Effect (CESE).
We study a relativistic plasma containing charged chiral fermions in an external electric field. We show that with the presence of both vector and axial charge densities, the electric field can induce an axial current along its direction and thus cause chirality separation. We call it the Chiral Electric Separation Effect (CESE). On very general basis, we argue that the strength of CESE is proportional to $μ_Vμ_A$ with $μ_V$ and $μ_A$ the chemical potentials for vector charge and axial charge. We then explicitly calculate this CESE conductivity coefficient in thermal QED at leading-log order. The CESE can manifest a new gapless wave mode propagating along the electric field. Potential observable of CESE in heavy-ion collisions is also discussed.
The heavy-ion collisions can produce extremely strong transient magnetic and electric fields. We study the azimuthal fluctuation of these fields and their correlations with the also fluctuating matter geometry (characterized by the participant plane harmonics) using event-by-event simulations. A sizable suppression of the angular correlations between the magnetic field and the 2nd and 4th harmonic participant planes is found in very central and very peripheral collisions, while the magnitudes of these correlations peak around impact parameter b~8-10 fm for RHIC collisions. This can lead to notable impacts on a number of observables related to various magnetic field induced effects, and our finding suggests that the optimal event class for measuring them should be that corresponding to b~8-10 fm.
We study the production of photons and dileptons during the pre-equilibrium Glasma stage in heavy ion collisions and discuss the implications in light of the PHENIX data. We find that the measured distributions of such electromagnetic emissions, while having some features not well understood if hypothesized to entirely arise from a thermalized Quark-Gluon Plasma, have some qualitative features that might be described after including effects from a thermalizing Glasma. The shape and centrality dependence of the transverse momentum spectra of the so-called "thermal photons" are well described. The mass and transverse momentum dependence of intermediate mass dileptons also agree with our estimates. The low transverse momenta from which the excessive dileptons (in low to intermediate mass region) arise is suggestive of emissions from a Bose condensate. We also predict the centrality dependence of dilepton production. Uncertainties in the current approach and improvements in the future are discussed.
Dependence of the confinement transition parameters on the fermion content provides information on the mechanism of confinement. Recent progress in lattice gauge theories has allowed to study it for light flavor number $N_f\sim O(10)$ and found this transition to shift toward significantly stronger coupling. We propose an explanation for that: light fermions can occupy the chromo-magnetic monopoles, via zero modes, making them "distinguishable" and unsuitable for Bose-Einstein Condensation. Such dilution of unoccuplied monopoles is compensated by stronger coupling that makes them lighter and more numerous. We also suggest that flavor-carrying quark-monopole objects account for the density beyond quark Fermi sphere seen in cold dense phase of $N_c=2$ lattice QCD.
We report recent progress on understanding the thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma during the early stage in a heavy ion collision. The initially high overpopulation in the far-from-equilibrium gluonic matter ("Glasma") is shown to play a crucial role. The strongly interacting nature (and thus fast evolution) naturally arises as an {\em emergent property} of this pre-equilibrium matter where the intrinsic coupling is weak but the highly occupied gluon states coherently amplify the scattering. A possible transient Bose-Einstein Condensate is argued to form dynamically on a rather general ground. We develop a kinetic approach for describing its evolution toward thermalization, and based on that we find approximate scaling solutions as well as numerically study the onset of condensation.