arXiv subjects

V. Vovchenko

Publications and source records attributed to V. Vovchenko.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Phase transition amplification of proton number fluctuations in nuclear collisions from a transport model approach

The time evolution of particle number fluctuations in nuclear collisions at intermediate energies ($E_{\rm lab} = 1.23-10A$ GeV) is studied by means of the UrQMD-3.5 transport model. The transport description incorporates baryonic interactions through a density-dependent potential. This allows for an implementation of a first order phase transition including a mechanically unstable region at large baryon density. The scaled variance of the baryon and proton number distributions is calculated in the central cubic spatial volume of the collisions at different times. A significant enhancement of fluctuations associated with the unstable region is observed. This enhancement persists to late times reflecting a memory effect for the fluctuations. The presence of the phase transition has a much smaller influence on the observable event-by-event fluctuations of protons in momentum space.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

QCD Phase Structure and Interactions at High Baryon Density: Continuation of BES Physics Program with CBM at FAIR

We advocate for an active US participation in the international collaboration of the CBM experiment that will allow the US nuclear physics program to build on its successful exploration of the QCD phase diagram, use the expertise gained at RHIC to make complementary measurements at FAIR, and contribute to achieving the scientific goals of the beam energy scan (BES) program.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2022

Enhanced dilepton emission from a phase transition in dense matter

It is demonstrated that the presence of a phase transition in heavy ion collisions, at beam energies that probe dense QCD matter, leads to a significant enhancement of the dilepton yield per produced pion due to the extended emission time. In addition, the temperature of low mass dileptons shows a modest decrease due to the mixed phase. The emission of dileptons in the SIS18-SIS100 beam energies range is studied by augmenting the UrQMD transport model with a realistic density dependent equation of state, as well as two different phase transitions. This is achieved by extending the molecular dynamics interaction part of the UrQMD model to a density dependent interaction potential with a high density minimum leading to a phase transition and metastable coexisting high density states. Together with a high precision measurement these simulations will be able to constrain the existence of a phase transition in QCD up to densities of several times nuclear saturation density.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Phase diagram of interacting pion matter and isospin charge fluctuations

Equation of state and electric (isospin) charge fluctuations are studied for matter composed of interacting pions. The pion matter is described by self interacting scalar fields via a $ϕ^4-ϕ^6$ type Lagrangian. The mean-field approximation is used, and interaction parameters are fixed by fitting lattice QCD results on the isospin density as a function of the isospin chemical potential at zero temperature. Two scenarios for fixing the model parameters -- with and without the first order phase transition -- are considered, both yielding a satisfactory description of the lattice data. Thermodynamic functions and isospin charge fluctuations are studied and systematically compared for these two scenarios, yielding qualitative differences in the behavior of isospin charge susceptibilities. These differences can be probed by lattice simulations at temperatures $T \lesssim 100$ MeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of critical fluctuations: Theory -- phenomenology -- heavy-ion collisions

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions during the Rapid Reaction Task Force "Dynamics of critical fluctuations: Theory -- phenomenology -- heavy-ion collisions", which was organized by the ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI and held at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany in April 2019. We address the current understanding of the dynamics of critical fluctuations in QCD and their measurement in heavy-ion collision experiments. In addition, we outline what might be learned from studying correlations in other physical systems, such as cold atomic gases.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2019

Chemical freeze-out conditions and fluctuations of conserved charges in heavy-ion collisions within quantum van der Waals model

The chemical freeze-out parameters in central nucleus-nucleus collisions are extracted consistently from hadron yield data within the quantum van der Waals (QvdW) hadron resonance gas model. The beam energy dependences for skewness and kurtosis of net baryon, net electric, and net strangeness charges are predicted. The QvdW interactions in asymmetric matter, $Q/B \neq 0.5$, between (anti)baryons yield a non-congruent liquid-gas phase transition, together with a nuclear critical point (CP) with critical temperature of $T_c=19.5$ MeV. The nuclear CP yields the collision energy dependence of the skewness and the kurtosis to both deviate significantly from the ideal hadron resonance gas baseline predictions even far away, in $(T,μ_B)$-plane, from the CP. These predictions can readily be tested by STAR and NA61/SHINE Collaborations at the RHIC BNL and the SPS CERN, respectively, and by HADES at GSI. The results presented here offer a broad opportunity for the search for signals of phase transition in dense hadronic matter at the future NICA and FAIR high intensity facilities.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Hadron yields and fluctuations at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron: system size dependence from Pb+Pb to p+p collisions

The kaon to pion ratio $K^+/π^+$ and the scaled variance $ω^-$ for fluctuations of negatively charged particles are studied within the statistical hadron resonance gas (HRG) model and the Ultra relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) transport model. The calculations are done for p+p, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, and Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron energy range to reveal the system size dependence of hadron production. For the HRG calculations the canonical ensemble is imposed for all conserved charges. In the UrQMD simulations the centrality selection in nucleus-nucleus collisions is done by calculating the forward energy $E_{\rm F}$ deposited in the Projectile Spectator Detector, and the acceptance maps of the NA61/SHINE detectors are used. A comparison of the HRG and UrQMD results with the data of the NA61/SHINE Collaboration is done. To understand a difference of the event-by-event fluctuations in p+p and heavy ion collisions the centrality selection procedure in the sample of all inelastic p+p events is proposed and analyzed within the UrQMD simulations.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2018

Statistical hadron-gas treatment of systems created in proton-proton interactions at CERN SPS

We analyze the newest data from the NA61/SHINE collaboration which, in addition to previous results on pions and kaons, include mean multiplicities of $p$, $Λ$, and $ϕ$-mesons produced in inelastic proton-proton (p+p) interactions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=6.3-17.3$~GeV. The canonical ensemble formulation of the ideal hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is used with exact conservation of net baryon number $B=2$, electric charge $Q=2$, and strangeness $S=0$. The chemical freeze-out parameters in p+p interactions are obtained and compared to those in central nucleus-nucleus collisions. Several features of p+p interactions at the CERN SPS within a statistical model are studied: 1) the inclusion of the $ϕ$-meson yields in thermal fits worsens significantly the fit quality; 2) the data show large event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations in inelastic p+p interactions which can not be explained by a single fireball described by a statistical model; 3) the fits within the canonical ensemble formulation of HRG do not give any improvement over the fits within the grand canonical ensemble formulation, i.e., there are no indications for existence of a single statistical system in p+p inelastic interactions in the considered energy range.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2018

Phase transitions and Bose-Einstein condensation in alpha-nucleon matter

The equation of state and phase diagram of isospin-symmetric chemically equilibrated mixture of alpha particles and nucleons are studied in the mean-field approximation. The model takes into account the effects of Fermi and Bose statistics for nucleons and alphas, respectively. We use Skyrme-like parametrization of the mean-field potentials as functions of partial densities, which contain both attractive and repulsive terms. Parameters of these potentials are chosen by fitting known properties of pure nucleon- and pure alpha matter at zero temperature. The sensitivity of results to the choice of the alpha-nucleon attraction strength is investigated. The phase diagram of the alpha-nucleon mixture is studied with a special attention paid to the liquid-gas phase transitions and the Bose-Einstein condensation of alpha particles. We have found two first-order phase transitions, stable and metastable, which differ significantly by the fractions of alpha particles. It is shown that states with alpha condensate are metastable.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2018

Lattice-based QCD equation of state at finite baryon density: Cluster Expansion Model

The QCD equation of state at finite baryon density is studied in the framework of a Cluster Expansion Model (CEM), which is based on the fugacity expansion of the net baryon density. The CEM uses the two leading Fourier coefficients, obtained from lattice simulations at imaginary $μ_B$, as the only model input and permits a closed analytic form. Excellent description of the available lattice data at both $μ_B = 0$ and at imaginary $μ_B$ is obtained. We also demonstrate how the Fourier coefficients can be reconstructed from baryon number susceptibilities.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2018

Flavor-dependent eigenvolume interactions in a hadron resonance gas

Eigenvolume effects in the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model are studied for experimental hadronic yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions. If particle eigenvolumes are different for different hadron species, the excluded volume HRG (EV-HRG) improves fits to multiplicity data. In particular, using different mass~-~volume relations for strange and non-strange hadrons we observe a remarkable improvement in the quality of the fits. This effect appears to be rather insensitive to other details in the schemes employed in the EV-HRG. We show that the parameters found from fitting the data of the ALICE Collaboration in central Pb+Pb collisions at the collision energy $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$~TeV entail the same improvement for all centralities at the same collision energy, and for the RHIC and SPS data at lower collision energies. Our findings are put in the context of recent fits of lattice QCD results.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Conserved charge fluctuations are not conserved during the hadronic phase

We study the correlation between the distributions of the net-charge, net-kaon, net-baryon and net-proton number at hadronization and after the final hadronic decoupling by simulating ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions with the hybrid version of the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model. We find that due to the hadronic rescattering these distributions are not strongly correlated. The calculated change of the correlation, during the hadronic expansion stage, does not support the recent paradigm, namely that the measured final moments of the experimentally observed distributions do give directly the values of those distributions at earlier times, when the system had been closer to the QCD crossover.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2017

Quantum van der Waals and Walecka models of nuclear matter

A comparable study of the quantum van der Waals and Walecka models of nuclear matter is presented. Each model contains two parameters which characterize the repulsive and attractive interactions between nucleons. These parameters are fixed in order to reproduce the known properties of the nuclear ground state. Both models predict a first-order liquid-gas phase transition and a very similar behavior in the vicinity of the critical point. Critical exponents of the quantum van der Waals model are studied both analytically and numerically. There are important differences in the behavior of the thermodynamical functions of the considered models at large values of the nucleon number density. At the same time both models fall into the universality class of mean-field theory.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2017

Bose-Einstein condensation and liquid-gas phase transition in alpha-matter

Systems of Bose particles with both repulsive and attractive interactions are studied using the Skyrme-like mean-field model. The phase diagram of such systems exhibits two special lines in the chemical potential-temperature plane: one line which represents the first-order liquid-gas phase transition with the critical end point, and another line which represents the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation. The calculations are made for strongly-interacting matter composed of alpha particles. The phase diagram of this matter is qualitatively similar to that observed for the atomic He4 liquid. The sensitivity of the results to the model parameters is studied. For weak interaction coupling the critical point is located at the Bose-condensation line.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

New scenarios for hard-core interactions in a hadron resonance gas

The equation of state of a baryon-symmetric hadronic matter with hard-sphere interactions is studied. It is assumed that mesons are point-like, but baryons and antibaryons have the same hard-core radius rB. Three possibilities are considered: 1) the baryon-baryon and antibaryon-baryon interactions are the same; 2) baryons do not interact with antibaryons; 3) the baryon-antibaryon and meson-(anti)baryon interactions are negligible. By choosing the parameter rB=0.3-0.6 fm, we calculate the nucleon to pion ratio as a function of temperature and perform the fit of hadron yields measured in central Pb+Pb collisions at the bombarding energy Ecm=2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. New nontrivial effects in the interacting hadron resonance gas at temperatures 150-200 MeV are found.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Critical fluctuations in models with van der Waals interactions

Particle number fluctuations are considered within the van der Waals (VDW) equation, which contains both attractive (mean-field) and repulsive (eigenvolume) interactions. The VDW equation is used to calculate the scaled variance of particle number fluctuations in generic Boltzmann VDW system and in nuclear matter. The strongly intensive measures $Δ[E^*,N]$ and $Σ[E^*,N]$ of the particle number and excitation energy fluctuations are also considered, and, similarly, show singular behavior near the critical point. The $Δ[E^*,N]$ measure is shown to attain both positive and negative values in the vicinity of critical point. Based on universality argument, similar behavior is expected to occur in the vicinity of the QCD critical point.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Updates to the p+p and A+A chemical freeze-out lines from the new experimental data

We show that the new data on mean multiplicities measured in p+p and A+A collisions together with the updated list of resonances lead to the significant changes of the obtained freeze-out lines. The new A+A line gives much smaller temperatures at high collision energies and agrees with the values obtained at the LHC. The newly obtained p+p line is much closer to the A+A line than previously expected, and even touches it in the region where the $K^+/π^+$ horn appears in the data. It indicates that the temperatures that will be obtained in the beam energy and system size scan by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration might be very close. However, our analysis shows that the chemical potentials could be very different for the same energies in A+A and p+p. It adds more puzzles to the set of surprising coincidences at the energies close to the possible onset of deconfinement.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Limiting temperature of pion gas with the van der Waals equation of state

The grand canonical ensemble formulation of the van der Waals equation of state that includes the effects of Bose statistics is applied to an equilibrium system of interacting pions. If the attractive interaction between pions is large enough, a limiting temperature $T_0$ emerges, i.e., no thermodynamical equilibrium is possible at $T>T_0$. The system pressure $p$, particle number density $n$, and energy density $\varepsilon$ remain finite at $T=T_0$, whereas for $T$ near $T_0$ both the specific heat $C=d\varepsilon/dT$ and the scaled variance of particle number fluctuations $ω[N]$ are proportional to $(T_0-T)^{-1/2}$ and, thus, go to infinity at $T\rightarrow T_0$. The limiting temperature corresponds also to the softest point of the equation of state, i.e., the speed of sound squared $c_s^2=dp/d\varepsilon$ goes to zero as $(T_0-T)^{1/2}$. Very similar thermodynamical behavior takes place in the Hagedorn model for the special choice of a power, namely $m^{-4}$, in the pre-exponential factor of the mass spectrum $ρ(m)$.

nucl-th↗