Heavy Ion Collisions

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "High Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 13511

Special Issue Editor

Department of Physics, University of Athens, Zografou Campus, GR-15784 Athens, Greece
Interests: heavy ion physics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The main goal of heavy ion collisions is to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at the highest energy densities that have been reached so far in the laboratory. In such a condition, an extreme phase of matter—called the quark-gluon plasma—is formed. Our universe is thought to have been in such a primordial state for the first few millionths of a second after the Big Bang. The properties of such a phase are key issues for quantum chromodynamics, the understanding of confinement–deconfinement, and chiral phase transitions.

In contrast to the expectations that the QGP would have properties similar to the almost ideal, weakly coupled gas of quarks and gluons, the experimental results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have shown that a hot, strongly interacting, nearly perfect, and almost opaque liquid was produced in central Au–Au collisions at the greatest RHIC energy.

The first collisions of lead nuclei, delivered by the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the end of 2010, at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair,  = 2.76 TeV, marked the beginning of a new era in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion physics. The study of the properties of the produced hot and dense strongly-interacting matter at these unprecedented energies is currently experimentally being pursued by all four big LHC experiments—ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. The aim of this Special Issue is to present the most recent results on the topic of heavy ion physics in both theory and experiment.

Prof. Dr. Maria Vasileiou
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • quark gluon plasma
  • quantum chromodynamics
  • confinement–deconfinement
  • RHIC
  • LHC
  • ALICE
  • ATLAS
  • CMS
  • LHCb
  • heavy ion physics
  • strongly interacting matter

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 319 KiB  
Article
Energy Dependent Chemical Potentials of Light Particles and Quarks from Yield Ratios of Antiparticles to Particles in High Energy Collisions
by Hai-Ling Lao, Ya-Qin Gao and Fu-Hu Liu
Universe 2019, 5(6), 152; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/universe5060152 - 14 Jun 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2069
Abstract
We collect the yields of charged pions ( π and π + ), charged kaons ( K and K + ), anti-protons ( p ¯ ), and protons (p) produced in mid-rapidity interval (in most cases) in central gold–gold [...] Read more.
We collect the yields of charged pions ( π and π + ), charged kaons ( K and K + ), anti-protons ( p ¯ ), and protons (p) produced in mid-rapidity interval (in most cases) in central gold–gold (Au–Au), central lead–lead (Pb–Pb), and inelastic or non-single-diffractive proton–proton ( p p ) collisions at different collision energies. The chemical potentials of light particles and quarks are extracted from the yield ratios, π / π + , K / K + , and p ¯ / p , of antiparticles to particles over an energy range from a few GeV to above 10 TeV. At a few GeV (∼4 GeV), the chemical potentials show, and the yield ratios do not show, different trends comparing with those at other energies, although the limiting values of the chemical potentials and the yield ratios at very high energy are 0 and 1, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Ion Collisions)
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12 pages, 552 KiB  
Article
Influence of Finite Volume Effect on the Polyakov Quark–Meson Model
by Niseem Magdy
Universe 2019, 5(4), 94; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/universe5040094 - 24 Apr 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2978
Abstract
In the current work, we study the influence of a finite volume on 2 + 1 S U ( 3 ) Polyakov Quark–Meson model (PQM) order parameters, (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges and the quark–hadron phase boundary. Our study of the PQM model [...] Read more.
In the current work, we study the influence of a finite volume on 2 + 1 S U ( 3 ) Polyakov Quark–Meson model (PQM) order parameters, (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges and the quark–hadron phase boundary. Our study of the PQM model order parameters and the (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges indicates a sizable shift of the quark–hadron phase boundary to higher values of baryon chemical potential ( μ B ) and temperature (T) for decreasing the system volume. The detailed study of such effect could have important implications for the extraction of the (fluctuations) correlations of conserved charges of the QCD phase diagram from heavy ion data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Ion Collisions)
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25 pages, 505 KiB  
Article
Perturbative Peculiarities of Quantum Field Theories at High Temperatures
by Ingolf Bischer, Thierry Grandou and Ralf Hofmann
Universe 2019, 5(3), 81; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/universe5030081 - 14 Mar 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2572
Abstract
Revisiting the fast fermion damping rate calculation in a thermalized QED and/or QCD plasma in thermal equilibrium at four-loop order, focus is put on a peculiar perturbative structure which has no equivalent at zero-temperature. Not surprisingly, and in agreement with previous [...] Read more.
Revisiting the fast fermion damping rate calculation in a thermalized QED and/or QCD plasma in thermal equilibrium at four-loop order, focus is put on a peculiar perturbative structure which has no equivalent at zero-temperature. Not surprisingly, and in agreement with previous C -algebraic analyses, this structure renders the use of thermal perturbation theory more than questionable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Ion Collisions)
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Review

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30 pages, 1801 KiB  
Review
Aspects of Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
by Georg Wolschin
Universe 2020, 6(5), 61; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/universe6050061 - 30 Apr 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3442
Abstract
The rapid thermalization of quarks and gluons in the initial stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is treated using analytic solutions of a nonlinear diffusion equation with schematic initial conditions, and for gluons with boundary conditions at the singularity. On a similarly short time [...] Read more.
The rapid thermalization of quarks and gluons in the initial stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is treated using analytic solutions of a nonlinear diffusion equation with schematic initial conditions, and for gluons with boundary conditions at the singularity. On a similarly short time scale of t 1 fm/c, the stopping of baryons is accounted for through a QCD-inspired approach based on the parton distribution functions of valence quarks, and gluons. Charged-hadron production is considered phenomenologically using a linear relativistic diffusion model with two fragmentation sources, and a central gluonic source that rises with ln 3 ( s N N ) . The limiting-fragmentation conjecture that agrees with data at energies reached at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) is found to be consistent with Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data for Pb-Pb at s N N = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. Quarkonia are used as hard probes for the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) through a comparison of theoretical predictions with recent CMS, ALICE and LHCb data for Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Ion Collisions)
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15 pages, 397 KiB  
Review
Review of Charmonium and Bottomonium Quark State Production via Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
by Leonard S. Kisslinger
Universe 2020, 6(1), 13; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/universe6010013 - 10 Jan 2020
Viewed by 1904
Abstract
This is a review of the production of heavy quark states via relativistic heavy ion collisions in RHIC. The heavy quarks here are c, charm quark, and b, bottom quark. The states are charmonium meson states [...] Read more.
This is a review of the production of heavy quark states via relativistic heavy ion collisions in RHIC. The heavy quarks here are c, charm quark, and b, bottom quark. The states are charmonium meson states Ψ ( n S ) , with n = 1,2 and upsilon meson states Υ ( m S ) , with m = 1,2,3. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) sum rules were used to derive the result that the Ψ ( 2 S ) and Υ ( 3 S ) are mixed hybrid states, which increase their production cross sections. We also review the Ψ ( n S ) and Υ ( m S ) production cross sections via Cu-Cu and Au-Au collisions, which are very important for this review of the production of heavy quark states in RHIC. The possible detection of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) is also reviewed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Ion Collisions)
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