The Time-Delay Signature of Quark-Gluon-Plasma Formation in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

Abstract

The hydrodynamic expansion of quark-gluon plasmas with spherical and longitudinally boost-invariant geometries is studied as a function of the initial energy density. The sensitivity of the collective flow pattern to uncertainties in the nuclear matter equation of state is explored. We concentrate on the effect of a possible finite width, $\Delta T\sim 0.1T_c$, of the transition region between quark-gluon plasma and hadronic phase. Although slow deflagration solutions that act to stall the expansion do not exist for $\Delta T>0.08T_c$, we find, nevertheless, that the equation of state remains sufficiently soft in the transition region to delay the propagation of ordinary rarefaction waves for a considerable time. We compute the dependence of the pion-interferometry correlation function on $\Delta T$, since this is the most promising observable for time-delayed expansion. The signature of time delay, proposed by Pratt and Bertsch, is an enhancement of the ratio of the inverse width of the pion correlation function in out-direction to that in side-direction. One of our main results is that this generic signature of quark-gluon plasma formation is rather robust to the uncertainties in the width of the transition region. Furthermore, for longitudinal boost-invariant geometries, the signal is likely to be maximized around RHIC energies, $\sqrt{s}\sim 200$ AGeV.

27 pages, 18 figures

References in corpus (2)

• The Maximum Lifetime of the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Relativistic Hydrodynamics for Heavy--Ion Collisions: Freeze--Out and Particle Spectra

Cited by in corpus (160)

• Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
• A Multi-Phase Transport Model for Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
• Conformal Relativistic Viscous Hydrodynamics: Applications to RHIC results at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Flow at the SPS and RHIC as a Quark Gluon Plasma Signature
• Femtoscopy in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions: Two Decades of Progress
• New Developments in Relativistic Viscous Hydrodynamics
• Collective flow and two-pion correlations from a relativistic hydrodynamic model with early chemical freeze out
• Mapping the Phases of Quantum Chromodynamics with Beam Energy Scan
• Particle Interferometry for Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Chiral Phase Transition within Effective Models with Constituent Quarks
• Hydrodynamic Models for Heavy Ion Collisions
• Observable implications of geometrical and dynamical aspects of freeze-out in heavy ion collisions
• Pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathrm{s}}_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200 GeV
• Dynamics of Hot Bulk QCD Matter: from the Quark-Gluon Plasma to Hadronic Freeze-Out
• Signatures of Quark-Gluon-Plasma formation in high energy heavy-ion collisions: A critical review
• Massive gluons and quarks and the equation of state obtained from SU(3) lattice QCD
• Transport Coefficients of Hadronic Matter near $T_c$
• Pion Interferometry of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=130$ GeV Au+Au Collisions at RHIC
• Results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
• Description of the RHIC p_T-spectra in a thermal model with expansion
• Partonic Effects on Pion Interferometry at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
• Transverse mass dependence of two-pion correlations in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV
• Resolving the HBT Puzzle in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collision
• Pion Interferometry at RHIC: Probing a thermalized Quark-Gluon-Plasma?
• Probing QCD critical fluctuations from light nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Observation of the critical end point in the phase diagram for hot and dense nuclear matter
• Last Call for RHIC Predictions
• Strange particle production at RHIC in a single-freeze-out model
• Non-Equilibrium Phase Transition in Rapidly Expanding Matter
• Beam Energy and Centrality Dependence of Two-Pion Bose-Einstein Correlations at SPS Energies
• Azimuthally sensitive Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometry in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV
• Bulk Viscosity driven clusterization of quark-gluon plasma and early freeze-out in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Hadronic freeze-out following a first order hadronization phase transition in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• The equation of state for two flavor QCD at N_t=6
• Causal Viscous Hydrodynamics for Central Heavy-Ion Collisions II: Meson Spectra and HBT Radii
• Jet Quenching and the p-bar >= pi- Anomaly at RHIC
• Hot Spots and Turbulent Initial Conditions of Quark-Gluon Plasmas in Nuclear Collisions
• An unusual space-time evolution for heavy ion collisions at high energies due to the QCD phase transition
• First-Order Chiral Phase Transition in High-Energy Collisions: Can Nucleation Prevent Spinodal Decomposition?
• Explosive Decomposition in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collision
• Nonequilibrium fluid-dynamics in the early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• The initial state of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collision
• Flow and interferometry results from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{{\text{s}}_{NN}}$ = 4.5 GeV
• The QCD phase diagram and Beam Energy Scan physics: a theory overview
• Bose-Einstein correlations of pion pairs in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies
• Fluid Dynamics for Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• Equilibration and relaxation times at the chiral phase transition including reheating
• Collective dynamics in highly relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Phase transition of a finite quark-gluon plasma
• The effect of "pre-formed" hadron potentials on the dynamics of heavy ion collisions and the HBT puzzle
• Entropy Production at RHIC
• Effects of a phase transition on HBT correlations in an integrated Boltzmann+Hydrodynamics approach
• Pion femtoscopy in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
• Squeezed Correlations and Spectra for Mass-Shifted Bosons
• Rapid hydrodynamic expansion in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Comparison of space-time evolutions of hot/dense matter in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=17 and 130 GeV relativistic heavy ion collisions based on a hydrodynamical model
• System, centrality, and transverse mass dependence of two-pion correlation radii in heavy ion collisions at 11.6 and 14.6 A-GeV
• Hydrodynamical analysis of hadronic spectra in the 130 GeV/nucleon Au+Au collisions
• Quantum Opacity, the RHIC HBT Puzzle, and the Chiral Phase Transition
• Stress Tensor and Bulk Viscosity in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• Space-time evolution and HBT analysis of relativistic heavy ion collisions in a chiral SU(3) x SU(3) model
• Femtoscopy in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions and its Relation to Bulk Properties of QCD Matter
• Chemical equilibration of quarks and gluons at RHIC and LHC energies
• Kaon Interferometry: A Sensitive Probe of the QCD Equation of State?
• Thermal analysis of production of resonances in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Kaon Interferometry at RHIC from AMPT Model
• Pion Interferometry for a Granular Source of Quark-Gluon Plasma Droplets
• Transverse Momentum and Rapidity Dependence of HBT Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV
• Effects of a phase transition on two-pion interferometry in heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.4-7.7$ GeV
• Surprises from the search for quark-gluon plasma? When was quark-gluon plasma seen?
• Differential freezeout and pion interferometry at RHIC from covariant transport theory
• Viscous evolution of the rapidity distribution of matter created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Analyzing Correlation Functions with Tesseral and Cartesian Spherical Harmonics
• Analysis of pion elliptic flows and HBT interferometry in a granular quark-gluon plasma droplet model
• A model comparison of resonance lifetime modifications, a soft equation of state and non-Gaussian effects on $\pi -\pi$ correlations at FAIR/AGS energies
• Hanbury-Brown-Twiss Interferometry with Identical Bosons in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions: Comparisons with Hadronic Scattering Models
• The directed flow maximum near c_s=0
• Quark recombination and elliptic flow
• Light cluster production at NICA
• Energy dependence of pion interferometry scales in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Shape analysis of strongly-interacting systems: the heavy ion case
• Review of HBT or Bose-Einstein correlations in high energy heavy ion collisions
• Correlations and Fluctuations, A Summary of Quark Matter 2002
• Predictions for the LHC heavy ion programme
• Characteristic quantities of pion-emitting sources extracted by model-independent analysis in relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Correspondence between HBT radii and the emission zone in non-central heavy ion collisions
• Results of the Hydrodynamics Approach to Heavy Ion Collisions
• Intensity Interferometry for a Chaotic Source with a Collective Flow and Multiple Scattering
• Numerical analysis of two-pion correlation based on a hydrodynamical model
• Squeezed correlations of $\varphi$ meson pairs for hydrodynamic sources in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
• Transport model study of the $m_T$-scaling for $\Lambda$, K, and $\pi$ HBT-correlations
• Correlation femtoscopy study at NICA and STAR energies within a viscous hydrodynamic plus cascade model
• Coulomb Effects in Femtoscopy
• Inflation of fireballs, the gluon wind and the homogeneity of the HBT radii at RHIC
• Signals in Single-Event Pion Interferometry for Granular Sources of Quark-Gluon Plasma Droplets
• Signature of Granular Structures by Single-Event Intensity Interferometry
• Transport model analysis of particle correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions at femtometer scales
• Hydrodynamic source with continuous emission in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV
• Calculation of the expansion rate of the three-volume measure in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
• Emission source functions in heavy ion collisions
• Analytical Solutions of Landau (1+1)-Dimensional Hydrodynamics
• Kaon Interferometry as Signal for the QCD Phase Transition at RHIC
• Global observables and secondary interactions in central Au+Au reactions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ AGeV
• First results from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{(}{s}_{NN})$ = 9.2 GeV in STAR
• Domain Growth in Chiral Phase Transitions
• Predictions for squeezed back-to-back correlations of $\varphi \varphi$ and $K^{+}{K}^{-}$ in high-energy heavy-ion collisions by event-by-event hydrodynamics
• Polishing the Lens: I Pionic Final State Interactions and HBT Correlations- Distorted Wave Emission Function (DWEF) Formalism and Examples
• Hadron and hadron-cluster production in a hydrodynamical model including particle evaporation
• Pion Interferometry for Hydrodynamical Expanding Source with a Finite Baryon Density
• Interferometry radii in heavy-ion collisions at 200GeV and 2.76TeV
• A novel method for calculating Bose-Einstein correlation functions with Coulomb final-state interaction
• The reconstructed final state of Au + Au collisions from PHENIX and STAR data at sqrt{s}=130 AGeV - indication for quark deconfinement at RHIC
• Flavoring the Quark-Gluon Plasma with Charm
• Indications for a critical point in the phase diagram for hot and dense nuclear matter
• Two-particle interferometry for the sources undergoing first-order QCD phase transition in high energy heavy ion collisions
• Evaluating Results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider with Perturbative QCD and Hydrodynamics
• Imaging of granular sources in high energy heavy ion collisions
• (Strange) Meson Interferometry at RHIC
• Effect of bulk viscosity on interferometry correlations in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Detection of source inhomogeneity through event-by-event two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations
• HBT interferometry with quantum transport of the interfering pair
• Explanation of the RHIC HBT Puzzle by a Granular Source of Quark-Gluon Plasma Droplets
• Particle Correlations at RHIC - Scrutiny of a Puzzle
• Space-time analysis: HBT at SPS and RHIC
• Partonic Effects in Heavy Ion Collisions at RHIC
• Shocks in Quark-Gluon Plasmas
• Exploring Lifetime Effects in Femtoscopy
• Effects of mean-field and the softening of equation of state on elliptic flow in Au+Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5 GeV from JAM model
• Evolution of collectivity as a signal of quark gluon plasma formation in heavy ion collisions
• Azimuthal-sensitive three-dimensional HBT radius in Au-Au collisions at $E_{beam}=1.23$$A$ GeV by the IQMD model
• Beam energy dependence of the expansion dynamics in relativistic heavy ion collisions: Indications for the critical end point?
• Can supercooling explain the HBT puzzle?
• Expansion dynamics of Pb-Pb collisions at 40 A GeV/c viewed by negatively charged hadrons
• PHENIX measurements of 3D emission source functions in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV
• Two-pion interferometry for the granular sources in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions
• Klein-Gordon Equation in Hydrodynamical Form
• Understanding the Optical Potential in HBT Interferometry
• Beam energy dependent two-pion interferometry and the freeze-out eccentricity of pions in heavy ion collisions at STAR
• Chiral Hadronic Mean Field Model including Quark Degrees of Freedom
• Effects of hadronic mean-field potentials on Hanbury-Brown-Twiss correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Thermal description of transverse-momentum spectra at RHIC
• Fluctuations of pion flow harmonics and HBT correlation functions in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions
• HBT: A (mostly) experimental overview
• Two-pion interferometry for viscous hydrodynamic sources
• The Decoupling Problem at RHIC
• Absence of Thermophoretic Flow in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions as an Indicator for the Absence of a Mixed Phase
• Equation of state of strongly interacting matter: spectra for thermal particles and intensity correlation of thermal photons
• Characterizing quark gluon plasma by dilepton interferometry
• Nonequilibrium effects in hadronic fireball expansion
• Puzzles, Progress, Prospects: pre-Summary for the Quark Matter 2009 Conference
• Interferometry signatures for QCD first-order phase transition in heavy ion collisions at GSI-FAIR energies
• Locating fixed points in the phase plane
• Pion transverse-momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry in a viscous granular source model
• Towards reliable calculations of the correlation function
• Lepton interferometry in relativistic heavy ion collisions - a case study
• HBT radii : Comparative studies on collision systems and beam energies
• Analysis of one- and two-particle spectra at RHIC based on a hydrodynamical model
• Probing the Three-dimension Emission Source and Neutron Skin via $\pi$-$\pi$ Correlations in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Two Photon Correlation in Anisotropic Quark-gluon plasma (aQGP)
• A General Signal of a Phase Transition from Single-Particle Momentum Distributions