Determination of the Quark Content of Scalar Mesons Using Hydrodynamical Flow in Heavy Ion Collisions

Abstract

We study the possibility of determining the quark content of the scalar mesons a0(980) and f0(980) through their hydrodynamical flow signature in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Utilizing the constituent quark scaling of hydrodynamic flow, we find that the tetraquark a0(980) or f0(980) mesons will have a v_2 of 0.38 at transverse momentum of 6 GeV/c in 20-60% central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The feasibility of measuring a0(980)-->pi0 + eta and f0(980)-->pi+ + pi- into the PHENIX and STAR detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is also discussed. Even though the mid-rapidity cross sections for these mesons at high-pT are non-negligible, their broad mass range will make them difficult to detect in both p+p and Au+Au collisions.

6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (16)

• Glauber Modeling in High Energy Nuclear Collisions
• Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Observation of a resonance-like structure in the pi^+- psi' mass distribution in exclusive B-->K pi^+- psi' decays
• Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Centrality dependence of charged hadron and strange hadron elliptic flow from sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions
• Measurement of neutral mesons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV and scaling properties of hadron production
• Partonic flow and $\varphi$-meson production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV
• Elliptic flow for phi mesons and (anti)deuterons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Azimuthal anisotropy of neutral pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV: Path-length dependence of jet quenching and the role of initial geometry
• Charm elliptic flow at RHIC
• Quark Coalescence based on a Transport Equation
• Measurement of the Bottom contribution to non-photonic electron production in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV
• Threshold effect and π^\pm ψ(2S) peak
• Transverse momentum dependence of eta meson suppression in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Scaling of Elliptic Flow, Recombination and Sequential Freeze-Out of Hadrons in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Resonance Recombination Model and Quark Distribution Functions in the Quark-Gluon Plasma