arXiv subjects

Zhe Xu

Publications and source records attributed to Zhe Xu.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Production, elliptic flow and energy loss of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma

Production, elliptic flow and the nuclear modification factor of charm and bottom quarks are studied in central and non-central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC using the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). Employing an initial heavy quark yield obtained with PYTHIA the full space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is carried out with BAMPS, taking also secondary production in the QGP into account. Only elastic collisions of heavy quarks with particles from the medium cannot describe the experimentally observed elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor. However, using an improved Debye screening and the running coupling yields a result which is much closer to data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Heavy quark production at RHIC and LHC within a partonic transport model

The production and space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC are investigated with the partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings). Heavy quarks, produced in primary hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, are sampled using the Monte Carlo event generator PYTHIA or the leading order mini-jet model in conjunction with the Glauber model, revealing a strong sensitivity on the parton distribution functions, scales, and heavy quark mass. In a comprehensive study exploring different charm masses, K factors, and possible initial gluon conditions, secondary production and the evolution of heavy quarks are examined within a fully dynamic BAMPS simulation for central heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. Although charm production in the quark-gluon plasma can be neglected at RHIC, it is significant at LHC but very sensitive to the initial conditions and the charm mass. Bottom production in the quark-gluon plasma, however, is negligible both at RHIC and LHC.

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arXiv2010

A relativistic dissipative hydrodynamic description for systems including particle number changing processes

Relativistic dissipative hydrodynamic equations are extended by taking into account particle number changing processes in a gluon system, which expands in one dimension boost-invariantly. Chemical equilibration is treated by a rate equation for the particle number density based on Boltzmann equation and Grad's ansatz for the off-equilibrium particle phase space distribution. We find that not only the particle production, but also the temperature and the momentum spectra of the gluon system, obtained from the hydrodynamic calculations, are sensitive to the rates of particle number changing processes. Comparisons of the hydrodynamic calculations with the transport ones employing the parton cascade BAMPS show the inaccuracy of the rate equation at large shear viscosity to entropy density ratio. To improve the rate equation, the Grad's ansatz has to be modified beyond the second moments in momentum.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2010

Relativistic Shock Waves and Mach Cones in Viscous Gluon Matter

To investigate the formation and the propagation of relativistic shock waves in viscous gluon matter we solve the relativistic Riemann problem using a microscopic parton cascade. We demonstrate the transition from ideal to viscous shock waves by varying the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio $η/s$. Furthermore we compare our results with those obtained by solving the relativistic causal dissipative fluid equations of Israel and Stewart (IS), in order to show the validity of the IS hydrodynamics. Employing the parton cascade we also investigate the formation of Mach shocks induced by a high-energy gluon traversing viscous gluon matter. For $η/s = 0.08$ a Mach cone structure is observed, whereas the signal smears out for $η/s \geq 0.32$.

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arXiv2010

Third-order dissipative hydrodynamics from the entropy principle

We review the entropy based derivation of third-order hydrodynamic equations and compare their solutions in one-dimensional boost-invariant geometry with calculations by the partonic cascade BAMPS. We demonstrate that Grad's approximation, which underlies the derivation of both Israel-Stewart and third-order equations, describes the transverse spectra from BAMPS with high accuracy. At the same time solutions of third-order equations are much closer to BAMPS results than solutions of Israel-Stewart equations. Introducing a resummation scheme for all higher-oder corrections to one-dimensional hydrodynamic equation we demonstrate the importance of higher-order terms if the Knudsen number is large.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Production and elliptic flow of heavy quarks at RHIC and LHC within a partonic transport model

Production and elliptic flow of heavy quarks are investigated in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC within the Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). The initial heavy quark yield is estimated with the leading order mini-jet model and compared to PYTHIA for several parton distribution functions. Secondary production of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma is examined within the full 3+1 dimensional BAMPS simulation of heavy ion collisions. At RHIC this yield is negligible, but for LHC charm production in the QGP plays a significant role. In addition, we study the elliptic flow of charm quarks at RHIC with the result that leading order processes are not sufficient to describe the experimental data.

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arXiv2010

Investigation of jet quenching and elliptic flow within a pQCD-based partonic transport model

The partonic transport model BAMPS (a Boltzmann approach to multiparton scatterings) is employed to investigate different aspects of heavy ion collisions within a common framework based on perturbative QCD. This report focuses on the joint investigation of the collective behavior of the created medium and the energy loss of high-pT gluons traversing this medium. To this end the elliptic flow and the nuclear modification factor of gluons in heavy ion collisions at 200 AGeV are simulated with BAMPS. The mechanism for the energy loss of high energy gluons within BAMPS is studied in detail. For this, purely elastic interactions are compared to radiative processes, gg -> ggg, that are implemented based on the matrix element by Gunion and Bertsch. The latter are found to be the dominant source of energy loss within the framework employed in this work.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Energy loss in a partonic transport model including bremsstrahlung processes

A detailed investigation of the energy loss of gluons that traverse a thermal gluonic medium simulated within the perturbative QCD--based transport model BAMPS (a Boltzmann approach to multiparton scatterings) is presented in the first part of this work. For simplicity the medium response is neglected in these calculations. The energy loss from purely elastic interactions is compared to the case where radiative processes are consistently included based on the matrix element by Gunion and Bertsch. From this comparison gluon multiplication processes gg -> ggg are found to be the dominant source of energy loss within the approach employed here. The consequences for the quenching of gluons with high transverse momentum in fully dynamic simulations of Au+Au collisions at the RHIC energy of sqrt(s) = 200 AGeV are discussed in the second major part of this work. The results for central collisions as discussed in a previous publication are revisited and first results on the nuclear modification factor R_AA for non-central Au+Au collisions are presented. They show a decreased quenching compared to central collisions while retaining the same shape. The investigation of the elliptic flow v2 is extended up to non-thermal transverse momenta of 10 GeV, exhibiting a maximum v2 at roughly 4 to 5 GeV and a subsequent decrease. Finally the sensitivity of the aforementioned results on the specific implementation of the effective modeling of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect via a formation time based cut-off is explored.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Bulk matter evolution and extraction of jet transport parameter in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC

Within the picture of jet quenching induced by multiple parton scattering and gluon bremsstrahlung, medium modification of parton fragmentation functions and therefore the suppression of large transverse momentum hadron spectra are controlled by both the value and the space-time profile of the jet transport parameter along the jet propagation path. Experimental data on single hadron suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions at the RHIC energy are analyzed within the higher-twist (HT) approach to the medium modified fragmentation functions and the next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD (pQCD) parton model. Assuming that the jet transport parameter $\hat q$ is proportional to the particle number density in both QGP and hadronic phase, experimental data on jet quenching in deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off nuclear targets can provide guidance on $\hat q_{h}$ in the hot hadronic matter. One can then study the dependence of extracted initial value of jet quenching parameter $\hat q_{0}$ at initial time $τ_{0}$ on the bulk medium evolution. Effects of transverse expansion, radial flow, phase transition and non-equilibrium evolution are examined. The extracted values are found to vary from $\hat q_{0}τ_{0}= 0.54$ GeV$^{2}$ in the (1+3)d ideal hydrodynamic model to 0.96 GeV$^{2}$ in a cascade model, with the main differences coming from the initial non-equilibrium evolution and the later hadronic evolution. The overall contribution to jet quenching from the hadronic phase, about 22-44%, is found to be significant. Therefore, realistic description of the early non-equilibrium parton evolution and later hadronic interaction will be critical for accurate extraction of the jet transport parameter in the strongly interacting QGP phase in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

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arXiv2010

Dependence of elliptic flow on number of parton degrees of freedom

We calculate the elliptic flow parameter $v_2$ for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV employing the parton cascade BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach of Multiparton Scatterings). Besides gluon interactions including the bremsstrahlung process, interactions with quarks are considered in an effective, but approximate way to investigate the dependence of the collective flow on the number of parton degrees of freedom. We find that $v_2$ as a function of the transverse momentum $p_T$ is sensitive to the number of parton degrees of freedom, whereas the $p_T$ averaged $v_2$ does not. When including quarks, $v_2(p_T)$ shifts to lower $p_T$, the parton transverse momentum spectra become softer and the mean parton transverse momenta decrease.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Shear viscosity and out of equilibrium dynamics

Using Grad's method, we calculate the entropy production and derive a formula for the second-order shear viscosity coefficient in a one-dimensionally expanding particle system, which can also be considered out of chemical equilibrium. For a one-dimensional expansion of gluon matter with Bjorken boost invariance, the shear tensor and the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio $η/s$ are numerically calculated by an iterative and self-consistent prescription within the second-order Israel-Stewart hydrodynamics and by a microscopic parton cascade transport theory. Compared with $η/s$ obtained using the Navier-Stokes approximation, the present result is about 20% larger at a QCD coupling $α_s \sim 0.3$(with $η/s\approx 0.18$) and is a factor of 2-3 larger at a small coupling $α_s \sim 0.01$. We demonstrate an agreement between the viscous hydrodynamic calculations and the microscopic transport results on $η/s$, except when employing a small $α_s$. On the other hand, we demonstrate that for such small $α_s$, the gluon system is far from kinetic and chemical equilibrium, which indicates the break down of second-order hydrodynamics because of the strong noneqilibrium evolution. In addition, for large $α_s$ ($0.3-0.6$), the Israel-Stewart hydrodynamics formally breaks down at large momentum $p_T\gtrsim 3$ GeV but is still a reasonably good approximation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Elliptic flow of gluon matter in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Employing a perturbative QCD based parton cascade we calculate the elliptic flow $v_2$ and its transverse momentum dependence $v_2(p_T)$ for the gluon matter created in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV. To make comparisons with the experimental data at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), parton-hadron duality is assumed. We find that whereas the integrated $v_2$ matches the experimental data, the gluon (or pion) $v_2(p_T)$ is about 20-50% smaller than the experimental data. Hadronization via gluon fragmentation and quark recombination seems to be the key to explaining the necessary jump of $v_2(p_T)$ from the partonic to the hadronic phase. We also show that the elliptic flow values moderately depend on the chosen freezeout condition, which will thus constrain the shear viscosity to the entropy density ratio of the quark gluon plasma created at RHIC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

QCD Matter Thermalization at RHIC and LHC

Employing the perturbative QCD inspired parton cascade, we investigate kinetic and chemical equilibration of the partonic matter created in central heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. Two types of initial conditions are chosen. One is generated by the model of wounded nucleons using the PYTHIA event generator and Glauber geometry. Another is considered as a color glass condensate. We show that kinetic equilibration is almost independent on the chosen initial conditions, whereas there is a sensitive dependence for chemical equilibration. The time scale of thermalization lies between 1 and 1.5 fm/c. The final parton transverse energy obtained from BAMPS calculations is compared with the RHIC data and is estimated for the LHC energy.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Review of the "Bottom-Up" scenario

Thermalization of a longitudinally expanding color glass condensate with Bjorken boost invariant geometry is investigated within parton cascade BAMPS. Our main focus lies on the detailed comparison of thermalization, observed in BAMPS with that suggested in the Bottom-Up scenario. We demonstrate that the tremendous production of soft gluons via $gg \to ggg$, which is shown in the Bottom-Up picture as the dominant process during the early preequilibration, will not occur in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, because the back reaction $ggg\to gg$ hinders the absolute particle multiplication. Moreover, contrary to the Bottom-Up scenario, soft and hard gluons thermalize at the same time. The time scale of thermal equilibration in BAMPS calculations is of order $\as^{-2} (\ln \as)^{-2} Q_s^{-1}$. After this time the gluon system exhibits nearly hydrodynamic behavior. The shear viscosity to entropy density ratio has a weak dependence on $Q_s$ and lies close to the lower bound of the AdS/CFT conjecture.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

QCD plasma equilibration, elliptic flow and jet-quenching - phenomena of common origin

Fast thermalization, a subsequent strong buildup of elliptic flow of QCD matter and jet-quenching as found at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are understood as the consequence of perturbative QCD (pQCD) interactions within the 3+1 dimensional parton cascade BAMPS. The main contributions stem from pQCD inspired bremsstrahlung. Comparisons to Au+Au data of the flow parameter v_2 as a function of participation number as well as the gluonic contribution to the nuclear modification factor R_AA for most central collisions are given. Also the shear viscosity to entropy ratio is dynamically extracted, which lies in the range of 0.08-0.15, depending on the chosen coupling constant.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Thermalization of a color glass condensate and review of the "Bottom-Up" scenario

Thermalization of a longitudinally expanding color glass condensate with Bjorken boost invariant geometry is investigated within microscopical parton cascade BAMPS. Our main focus lies on the detailed comparison of thermalization, observed in BAMPS with that suggested in the \BUp scenario. We demonstrate that the tremendous production of soft gluons via $gg \to ggg$, which is shown in the \BUp picture as the dominant process during the early preequilibration, will not occur in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, because the back reaction $ggg\to gg$ hinders the absolute particle multiplication. Moreover, different from the \BUp scenario, soft and hard gluons thermalize at the same time. The time scale of thermal equilibration obtained from BAMPS calculations is of order $\as^{-2} (\ln \as)^{-2} Q_s^{-1}$. After this time the gluon system exhibits nearly hydrodynamical behavior. The shear viscosity to entropy density ratio has weak dependence on $Q_s$ and lies close to the lower bound from the AdS/CFT conjecture.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Perturbative QCD Calculations of Elliptic Flow and Shear Viscosity in Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV

The elliptic flow $v_2$ and the ratio of the shear viscosity over the entropy density, $η/s$, of gluon matter are calculated from the perturbative QCD (pQCD) based parton cascade Boltzmann approach of multiparton scatterings. For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$A GeV the gluon plasma generates large $v_2$ values measured at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Standard pQCD yields $η/s\approx 0.08-0.15$ as small as the lower bound found from the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory conjecture.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2008

QCD plasma thermalization, collective flow and extraction of shear viscosity

Fast thermalization and elliptic flow of QCD matter found at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are understood as the consequence of perturbative QCD (pQCD) interactions within a (3+1) dimensional parton cascade. The main contributions stem from pQCD-inspired bremsstrahlung. We extract the shear viscosity to entropy ratio, which is between 0.08 and 0.15.

hep-ph↗