arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Wenbin Zhao.
We review recent theoretical progress in describing collective effects in photon+nucleus collisions. The approaches considered range from the color glass condensate where correlations are encoded in the initial state, to hydrodynamic frameworks, where a strong final state response to the initial geometry of the collision is the key ingredient to generate momentum-space correlations.
We propose new classes of inflation models based on the modular symmetry, where the modulus field $τ$ serves as the inflaton. We establish a connection between modular inflation and modular stabilization, wherein the modulus field rolls towards a fixed point along the boundary of the fundamental domain. We find the modular symmetry strongly constrain the possible shape of the potential and identify some parameter space where the inflation predictions agree with cosmic microwave background observations. The tensor-to-scalar ratio is predicted to be smaller than $10^{-6}$ in our models, while the running of spectral index is of the order of $10^{-4}$.
We perform high-statistics simulations to study the impacts of nuclear structure on the ratios of anisotropic flow observables in $^{208}$Pb+$^{208}$Pb and $^{129}$Xe+$^{129}$Xe collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Even with $40\%$ difference in atomic numbers between $^{208}$Pb and $^{129}$Xe nuclei, the ratios of anisotropic flow in the same centrality class between the two collision systems are strongly affected by the nuclear structure inputs in the initial state. The ratios of $v_2\{4\}/v_2\{2\}$ in these collisions are sensitive to the nuclear skin thickness of the colliding nuclei, providing indirect constraints on the nuclei's neutron skin. Our model predictions serve as a benchmark to compare with experimental measurements.
We calculate exclusive vector meson photoproduction within the Color Glass Condensate framework in high-energy photon-nucleus scattering probed experimentally in ultra peripheral heavy ion collisions at RHIC and at the LHC. When the free parameters are constrained by the $γ+p$ data from HERA, we predict significant nuclear suppression for both the coherent and incoherent photoproduction cross section in the TeV range. Our results indicate that the LHC data prefers even stronger saturation effects at the highest collision energies. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the linear polarization of photons in ulra peripheral collisions generates azimuthal modulations in the decay products of the exclusively produced vector meson. We show how these measurements can probe details of the nuclear geometry, specifically the deformed structure of the uranium nuclei.
We present a comprehensive review of the theoretical and experimental progress in the investigation of novel high-temperature quantum chromodynamics phenomena in small systems at both the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider. We highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with studying small systems, by which we generally mean collision systems that involve at least one light ion or even a photon projectile. We discuss perspectives on possible future research directions to better understand the underlying physics at work in the collisions of small systems.
We review model calculations of exclusive vector meson production in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions. We highlight differences and similarities between different dipole models and leading twist shadowing calculations. Recent color glass condensate calculations are presented with focus on effects from nuclear structure and azimuthal anisotropies driven by interference effects.
The transverse momentum $j_{\rm T}$-dependent jet fragmentation functions have been investigated in proton+proton (p $+$ p) and proton+lead (p $+$ Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02~{\rm TeV}$ with a multiphase transport model containing both a simple quark coalescence mechanism and a new hybrid hadronization mechanism with coalescence and fragmentation processes. Hadronized by the new hadronization mechanism, the AMPT model achieves a quantitative description of the $j_{\rm T}$-dependent jet fragmentation functions measured by ALICE. Besides, no obvious jet-medium interaction and cold nuclear matter effects on the $j_{\rm T}$-dependent jet fragmentation functions in p $+$ Pb collisions were observed. We found the $j_{\rm T}$-dependent jet fragmentation functions are dominated by the quark coalescence contribution for the new hadronization mechanism, which can be decomposed into narrow and wide parts. The root mean square value of the wide part depends on the jet radius $R$ and jet transverse momentum $p_{\rm{T, jet}}$, which is sensitive to different hadronization mechanisms and their components. Therefore, the $j_{\rm T}$-dependent jet fragmentation functions are proposed as a sensitive probe to study the non-perturbative hadronization effect of jets in small colliding systems.
Using the Hydro-Coal-Frag model that combines hydrodynamics at low $p_{\rm T}$, quark coalescence at intermediate $p_{\rm T}$, and the LBT transport model at high $p_{\rm T}$, we study the spectra and elliptic flow of identified hadrons in high multiplicity p--Pb and p--p collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In p--Pb collisions, the Hydro-Coal-Frag model gives a good description of the differential elliptic flow over the $p_{\rm T}$ range from 0 to 6 GeV and the approximate number of constituent quark (NCQ) scaling at intermediate $p_{\rm T}$. Although Hydro-Coal-Frag model can also roughly describe the elliptic flow in high multiplicity p--p collisions with the quark coalescence process, the larger contribution from the string fragmentations leads to a notable violation of the NCQ scaling of $v_2$ at intermediate $p_{\rm T}$ as observed in the experiment. Comparison runs of the Hydro-Frag model without the coalescence process demonstrate that regardless the parameter adjustments, the Hydro-Frag model cannot simultaneously describe the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra and the elliptic flow of identified hadrons in either p--Pb collisions or p--p collisions. The calculations in this paper thus provide support for the existence of partonic degrees of freedom and the possible formation of the QGP in the small systems created at the LHC.
Considerable information about the early-stage dynamics of heavy-ion collisions is encoded in the rapidity dependence of measurements. To leverage the large amount of experimental data, we perform a systematic analysis using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of multiple collision systems -- large and small, symmetric and asymmetric. Specifically, we perform fully 3D multi-stage hydrodynamic simulations initialized by a parameterized model for rapidity-dependent energy deposition, which we calibrate on the hadron multiplicity and anisotropic flow coefficients. We utilize Bayesian inference to constrain properties of the early- and late- time dynamics of the system, and highlight the impact of enforcing global energy conservation in our 3D model.
Within a (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model we compute anisotropic flow in small system collisions as performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and measured by the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations. We emphasize the importance of the rapidity dependence of the geometry for interpreting the differences encountered in measurements by the two collaborations.
This proceeding highlights the effects of pseudorapidity-dependent charged hadron observables $dN^\mathrm{ch}/dη$ and $v_2^{\rm ch}(η)$ in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV on constraining the initial-state nuclear stopping for the beam remnants and the effective QGP specific shear viscosity in a recent Bayesian inference analysis using an event-by-event (3+1)D hydrodynamics + hadronic transport theoretical framework.
Within the Color Glass Condensate framework, we demonstrate that exclusive vector meson production at high energy is sensitive to the geometric deformation of the target nucleus and subnucleon scale fluctuations. Deformation of the nucleus enhances the incoherent cross section in the small $|t|$ region. Subnucleon scale fluctuations increase the incoherent cross section in the large $|t|$ region. In ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs), larger deformation leads to a wider distribution of the minimal impact parameter $B_{min}$ required to produce a UPC. This, together with larger incoherent cross sections for larger deformation, results in smaller extracted radii. Our results demonstrate great potential for future studies of nuclear structure in UPCs and electron-ion collisions.
In this article, we consider a class of the contact discontinuity for the full compressible Euler equations, namely the entropy wave, where the velocity is continuous across the interface while the density and the entropy can have jumps. The nonlinear stability of entropy waves is a longstanding open problem in multi-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws. The rigorous treatments are challenging due to the characteristic discontinuity nature of the problem (G.-Q. Chen and Y.-G. Wang in \textit{Nonlinear partial differential equations}, Volume 7 of \textit{Abel Symp.}(2012)). In this article, we discover that the Taylor sign condition plays an essential role in the nonlinear stability of entropy waves. By deriving the evolution equation of the interface in the Eulerian coordinates, we relate the Taylor sign condition to the hyperbolicity of this evolution equation, which reveals a stability condition of the entropy wave. With the optimal regularity estimates of the interface, we can derive the a priori estimates without loss of regularity.
In this talk we review jet production in a large variety of collision systems using the JETSCAPE event generator and Hybrid Hadronization. Hybrid Hadronization combines quark recombination, applicable when distances between partons in phase space are small, and string fragmentation appropriate for dilute parton systems. It can therefore smoothly describe the transition from very dilute parton systems like $e^++e^-$ to full $A+A$ collisions. We test this picture by using JETSCAPE to generate jets in various systems. Comparison to experimental data in $e^++e^-$ and $p+p$ collisions allows for a precise tuning of vacuum baseline parameters in JETSCAPE and Hybrid Hadronization. Proceeding to systems with jets embedded in a medium, we study in-medium hadronization for jet showers. We quantify the effects of an ambient medium, focusing in particular on the dependence on the collective flow and size of the medium. Our results clarify the effects we expect from in-medium hadronization of jets on observables like fragmentation functions, hadron chemistry and jet shape.
Understanding the modification of jets and high-$p_T$ probes in small systems requires the integration of soft and hard physics. We present recent developments in extending the JETSCAPE framework to build an event generator, which includes correlations between soft and hard partons, to study jet observables in small systems. The multi-scale physics of the collision is separated into different stages. Hard scatterings are first sampled at binary collision positions provided by the Glauber geometry. They are then propagated backward in space-time following an initial-state shower to obtain the initiating partons' energies and momenta before the collision. These energies and momenta are then subtracted from the incoming colliding nucleons for soft-particle production, modeled by the 3D-Glauber + hydrodynamics + hadronic transport framework. This new hybrid approach (X-SCAPE) includes non-trivial correlations between jet and soft particle productions in small systems. We calibrate this framework with the final state hadrons' $p_T$-spectra from low to high $p_T$ in $p$-$p$, and and then compare with the spectra in $p$-$Pb$ collisions from the LHC. We also present results for additional observables such as the distributions of event activity as a function of the hardest jet $p_T$ in forward and mid-rapidity for both $p$-$p$ and $p$-$Pb$ collisions.
We study diffractive vector meson production in ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs) of heavy nuclei, utilizing a theoretical framework based on the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism. We focus on Au+Au, U+U, Ru+Ru, Zr+Zr, and Pb+Pb collisions, examining the transverse momentum dependence of vector meson production cross-sections and ${\rm cos(2ΔΦ)}$ asymmetries in the decay product distributions to explore the role of nuclear geometry. The angular modulation is due to the linear polarization of the incoming photons and quantum interference effects. We extract nuclear radii and find them to be consistent with experimental data from the STAR collaboration. The amplitudes of the ${\rm cos(2ΔΦ)}$ modulation in the cross-section and the extracted radii depend on the nuclear geometry. This dependence is dominated by the geometry-dependent variation of the minimum impact parameter required for ultra-peripheral collisions.
This work presents the first Bayesian inference study of the (3+1)D dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) viscosities using an event-by-event (3+1)D hydrodynamics + hadronic transport theoretical framework and data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Beam Energy Scan program. Robust constraints on initial state nuclear stopping and the baryon chemical potential-dependent shear viscosity of the produced quantum chromodynamic (QCD) matter are obtained. The specific bulk viscosity of the QCD matter is found to exhibit a preferred maximum around $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 19.6$ GeV. This result allows for the alternative interpretation of a reduction (and/or increase) of the speed of sound relative to that of the employed lattice-QCD based equation of state (EOS) for net baryon chemical potential $μ_B \sim 0.2\, (0.4)$ GeV.
We present (3+1)D dynamical simulations of asymmetric nuclear collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Employing a dynamical initial state model coupled to (3+1)D viscous relativistic hydrodynamics, we explore the rapidity dependence of anisotropic flow in the RHIC small system scan at 200 GeV center of mass energy. We calibrate parameters to describe central $^3$He+Au collisions and make extrapolations to d+Au and p+Au collisions. Our calculations demonstrate that approximately 50% of the $v_3(p_T)$ difference between the measurements by the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations can be explained by the use of reference flow vectors from different rapidity regions. This emphasizes the importance of longitudinal flow decorrelation for anisotropic flow measurements in asymmetric nuclear collisions, and the need for (3+1)D simulations. We also present results for the beam energy dependence of particle spectra and anisotropic flow in d+Au collisions.