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K. Redlich

Publications and source records attributed to K. Redlich.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Net-proton probability distribution in heavy ion collisions

We compute net-proton probability distributions in heavy ion collisions within the hadron resonance gas model. The model results are compared with data taken by the STAR Collaboration in Au-Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN})= 200 GeV for different centralities. We show that in peripheral Au-Au collisions the measured distributions, and the resulting first four moments of net-proton fluctuations, are consistent with results obtained from the hadron resonance gas model. However, data taken in central Au-Au collisions differ from the predictions of the model. The observed deviations can not be attributed to uncertainties in model parameters. We discuss possible interpretations of the observed deviations.

hep-ph

The thermal model on the verge of the ultimate test: particle production in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

We investigate the production of hadrons in nuclear collisions within the framework of the thermal (or statistical hadronization) model. We discuss both the ligh-quark hadrons as well as charmonium and provide predictions for the LHC energy. Even as its exact magnitude is dependent on the charm production cross section, not yet measured in Pb-Pb collisions, we can confidently predict that at the LHC the nuclear modification factor of charmonium as a function of centrality is larger than that observed at RHIC and compare the experimental results to these predictions.

nucl-th

Fluctuations as probe of the QCD phase transition and freeze-out in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC

We discuss the relevance of higher order moments of net baryon number fluctuations for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC. Using properties of O(4) scaling functions, we discuss the generic structure of these higher moments at vanishing baryon chemical potential and apply chiral model calculations to explore their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. We show that the ratios of the sixth to second and eighth to second order moments of the net baryon number fluctuations change rapidly in the transition region of the QCD phase diagram. Already at vanishing baryon chemical potential they deviate considerably from the predictions of the hadron resonance gas model which reproduce the second to fourth order moments of the net proton number fluctuations at RHIC. We point out that the sixth order moments of baryon number and electric charge fluctuations remain negative at the chiral transition temperature. Thus, they offer the possibility to probe the proximity of the thermal freeze-out to the crossover line.

hep-ph

Antimatter production in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies

One of the striking features of particle production at high beam energies is the near equal abundance of matter and antimatter in the central rapidity region. In this paper we study how this symmetry is reached as the beam energy is increased. In particular, we quantify explicitly the energy dependence of the approach to matter/antimatter symmetry in proton-proton and in heavy-ion collisions. Expectations are presented also for the production of more complex forms of antimatter like antihypernuclei.

hep-ph

Chiral condensate and chemical freeze-out

We consider a chemical freeze-out mechanism which is based on a strong medium dependence of the rates for inelastic flavor-equilibrating collisions based on the delocalization of hadronic wave functions and growing hadronic radii when approaching the chiral restoration. We investigate the role of mesonic (pion) and baryonic (nucleon) fluctuations for melting the chiral condensate in the phase diagram in the (T,mu)-plane. We apply the PNJL model beyond mean-field and present an effective generalization of the chiral perturbation theory result which accounts for the medium dependence of the pion decay constant while preserving the GMOR relation. We demonstrate within a schematic resonance gas model consisting of a variable number of pionic and nucleonic degrees of freedom that within the above model a quantitative explanation of the hadonic freeze-out curve and its phenomenological conditions can be given.

nucl-th

Viscosities of the quasigluon plasma

We investigate bulk and shear viscosities of the gluon plasma within relaxation time approximation to an effective Boltzmann-Vlasov type kinetic theory by viewing the plasma as describable in terms of quasigluon excitations with temperature dependent self-energies. The found temperature dependence of the transport coefficients agrees fairly well with available lattice QCD results. The impact of some details in the quasigluon dispersion relation on the specific shear viscosity is discussed.

hep-ph

The influence of fluctuations on thermodynamics near chiral phase transition

We discuss the influence of fluctuations on thermodynamics near the chiral phase transition within Polyakov loop extended quark--meson model based on the functional renormalization group (FRG) method. We include the gluon fields in the FRG flow equation self-consistently on the mean-field level. We focus on the properties of the phase diagram and net-baryon number fluctuations.

hep-ph

The renormalization group and quark number fluctuations in the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model at finite baryon density

Thermodynamics and the phase structure of the Polyakov loop-extended two flavors chiral quark--meson (PQM) model is explored beyond the mean-field approximation. The analysis of the PQM model is based on the functional renormalization group (FRG) method. We formulate and solve the renormalization group flow equation for the scale-dependent thermodynamic potential in the presence of the gluonic background field at finite temperature and density. We determine the phase diagram of the PQM model in the FRG approach and discuss its modification in comparison with the one obtained under the mean-field approximation. We focus on properties of the net-quark number density fluctuations as well as their higher moments and discuss the influence of non-perturbative effects on their properties near the chiral crossover transition. We show, that with an increasing net-quark number density the higher order moments exhibit a peculiar structure near the phase transition. We also consider ratios of different moments of the net-quark number density and discuss their role as probes of deconfinement and chiral phase transitions.

hep-ph

Vacuum fluctuations and the thermodynamics of chiral models

We consider the thermodynamics of chiral models in the mean-field approximation and discuss the relevance of the (frequently omitted) fermion vacuum loop. Within the chiral quark-meson model and its Polyakov loop extended version, we show that the fermion vacuum fluctuations can change the order of the phase transition in the chiral limit and strongly influence physical observables. We compute the temperature-dependent effective potential and baryon number susceptibilities in these models, with and without the vacuum term, and explore the cutoff and the pion mass dependence of the susceptibilities. Finally, in the renormalized model the divergent vacuum contribution is removed using the dimensional regularization.

hep-ph

Meson fluctuations and thermodynamics of the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model

Thermodynamics and the phase structure of the Polyakov loop-extended two flavor chiral quark-meson model (PQM) are explored. The analysis of the PQM model is based on the functional renormalization group (FRG) method. An appropriate truncation of the effective action with quarks coupled to background gluonic fields is introduced. Within this scheme, we derive the renormalization group flow equation for the scale-dependent thermodynamic potential at finite temperature and density in the presence of a symmetry breaking external field. The influence of fluctuations and of the background gluon field on the properties of net-quark number density fluctuations and their higher moments is explored. We study the dependence of the kurtosis of quark number fluctuations on the pion mass and show that, in the presence of a symmetry breaking term, the fluctuations lead to a smoothing of observables near the crossover transition.

hep-ph

Heavy quark(onium) at LHC: the statistical hadronization case

We discuss the production of charmonium in nuclear collisions within the framework of the statistical hadronization model. We demonstrate that the model reproduces very well the availble data at RHIC. We provide predictions for the LHC energy where, dependently on the charm production cross section, a dramatically different behaviour of charmonium production as a function of centrality might be expected. We discuss also the case in elementary collisions, where clearly the statistical model does not reproduce the measurements.

nucl-th

Hadron Production in Ultra-relativistic Nuclear Collisions: Quarkyonic Matter and a Triple Point in the Phase Diagram of QCD

We argue that features of hadron production in relativistic nuclear collisions, mainly at CERN-SPS energies, may be explained by the existence of three forms of matter: Hadronic Matter, Quarkyonic Matter, and a Quark-Gluon Plasma. We suggest that these meet at a triple point in the QCD phase diagram. Some of the features explained, both qualitatively and semi-quantitatively, include the curve for the decoupling of chemical equilibrium, along with the non-monotonic behavior of strange particle multiplicity ratios at center of mass energies near 10 GeV. If the transition(s) between the three phases are merely crossover(s), the triple point is only approximate.

hep-ph

Prospects for Strangeness Production in pp Collisions at LHC

Prospects for strangeness production in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are discussed within the statistical model. Firstly, the system size and the energy dependence of the model parameters are extracted from existing data and extrapolated to LHC energy. Particular attention is paid to demonstrate that the chemical decoupling temperature is independent of the system size. In the energy regime investigated so far, strangeness production in pp interactions is strongly influenced by the canonical suppression effects. At LHC energies, this influence might be reduced. Particle ratios with particular sensitivity to canonical effects are indicated. Secondly, the relation between the strangeness production and the charged-particle multiplicity in pp interactions is investigated. In this context the multiplicity dependence studied at Tevatron is of particular interest. There, the trend in relative strangeness production known from centrality dependent heavy-ion collisions is not seen in multiplicity selected pp interactions. However, the conclusion from the Tevatron measurements is based on rather limited data samples with low statistics and number of observables. We argue, that there is an absolute need at LHC to measure strangeness production in events with different multiplicities to possibly disentangle relations and differences between particle production in pp and heavy-ion collisions.

hep-ph

Fluctuations and isentropes near the chiral critical endpoint

Isentropic trajectories crossing the chiral phase transition near the critical endpoint (CEP) are studied for two light quark flavors. The calculations are performed within an effective chiral model with quark-meson interactions, belonging to the same universality class as QCD. We confront mean-field thermodynamics with the functional renormalization group approach, where fluctuations are properly taken into account. We establish a connection between modifications of the isentropic trajectories found in mean-field calculations at the crossover transition near the CEP and the order of the phase transition in the chiral limit. Furthermore, the isentropes obtained with the renormalization group are completely smooth at the crossover transition and do not in any way reflect the proximity of the CEP. In particular, our results do not show the recently conjectured focussing of isentropes from the crossover region towards the critical endpoint.

hep-ph

Strangeness Excitation Functions and Transition from Baryonic to Mesonic Freeze-Out

The sharp peak in the K+/pi+ ratio in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed in the framework of the Statistical Model. In this model a rapid change is expected as the hadronic gas undergoes a transition from a baryon-dominated to a meson-dominated gas. The maximum in the Lambda/π$ ratio is well reproduced by the Statistical Model, but the change in the K+/pi+ ratio is somewhat less pronounced than the one observed by the NA49 collaboration. The calculated smooth increase of the K-/pi ratio and the shape of the Xi-/pi+ and Omega-/pi+ ratios exhibiting maxima at different incident energies is consistent with the presently available experimental data. We conclude that the measured particle ratios with $20-30%$ deviations agree with a hadronic freeze-out scenario. These deviations seem to occur just in the transition from baryon-dominated to meson-dominated freeze-out.

hep-ph

Particle production in p-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 17 GeV within the statistical model

A thermal-model analysis of particle production of p-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 17 GeV using the latest available data is presented. The sensitivity of model parameters on data selections and model assumptions is studied. The system-size dependence of thermal parameters and recent differences in the statistical model analysis of p-p collisions at the super proton synchrotron (SPS) are discussed. It is shown that the temperature and strangeness undersaturation factor depend strongly on kaon yields which at present are still not well known experimentally. It is conclude, that within the presently available data at the SPS it is rather unlikely that the temperature in p-p collisions exceeds significantly that expected in central collisions of heavy ions at the same energy.

hep-ph

Statistical Model and the mesonic-baryonic transition region

The statistical model assuming chemical equilibriumand local strangeness conservation describes most of the observed features of strange particle production from SIS up to RHIC. Deviations are found as the maximum in the measured K+/pi+ ratio is much sharper than in the model calculations. At the incident energy of the maximum, the statistical model shows that freeze out changes regime from one being dominated by baryons at the lower energies toward one being dominated by mesons. It will be shown how deviations from the usual freeze-out curve influence the various particle ratios. Furthermore, other observables exhibit also changes just in this energy regime.

hep-ph