No Arabic abstract
A review is presented of dilepton and real photon measurements in relativistic heavy ion collisions over a very broad energy range from the low energies of the BEVALAC up to the highest energies available at RHIC. The dileptons cover the invariant mass range mll = 0 - 2.5 GeV/c$^2$, i.e. the continuum at low and intermediate masses and the light vector mesons, $rho, omega, phi$. The review includes also measurements of the light vector mesons in elementary reactions.
We investigate the properties of the QCD matter across the deconfinement phase transition in the scope of the parton-hadron string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. We present here in particular the results on the electromagnetic radiation, i.e. photon and dilepton production, in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. By comparing our calculations for the heavy-ion collisions to the available data, we determine the relative importance of the various production sources and address the possible origin of the observed strong elliptic flow $v_2$ of direct photons. We argue that the different centrality dependence of the hadronic and partonic sources for direct photon production in nucleus-nucleus collisions can be employed to shed some more light on the origin of the photon $v_2$ puzzle. While the dilepton spectra at low invariant mass show in-medium effects like an enhancement from multiple baryonic resonance formation or a collisional broadening of the vector meson spectral functions, the dilepton yield at high invariant masses (above 1.1 GeV) is dominated by QGP contributions for central heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. This allows to have an independent view on the parton dynamics via their electromagnetic massive radiation.
We propose to build the Electromagnetic calorimeter for the HADES di-lepton spectrometer. It will enable to measure the data on neutral meson production from nucleus-nucleus collisions, which are essential for interpretation of dilepton data, but are unknown in the energy range of planned experiments (2-10 GeV per nucleon). The calorimeter will improve the electron-hadron separation, and will be used for detection of photons from strange resonances in elementary and HI reactions. Detailed description of the detector layout, the support structure, the electronic readout and its performance studied via Monte Carlo simulations and series of dedicated test experiments is presented. The device will cover the total area of about 8 m^2 at polar angles between 12 and 45 degrees with almost full azimuthal coverage. The photon and electron energy resolution achieved in test experiments amounts to 5-6%/sqrt(E[GeV]) which is sufficient for the eta meson reconstruction with S/B ratio of 0.4% in Ni+Ni collisions at 8 AGeV. A purity of the identified leptons after the hadron rejection, resulting from simulations based on the test measurements, is better than 80% at momenta above 500 MeV/c, where time-of-flight cannot be used.
To relate constraints from nuclear physics to the tidal deformabilities of neutron stars, we construct a neutron star model that accepts input from a large collection of Skyrme density functions to calculate properties of 1.4 solar-mass neutron stars. We find that restricting this set of Skyrme to density functions that describe nuclear masses, isobaric analog states, and low energy nuclear reactions does not sufficiently restrict the predicted neutron-star radii and the tidal deformabilities. However, pressure constraints on the EoS around twice saturation density ($2times2.74times10^{14}g/cm^3$), obtained from high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, does constrain predicted tidal deformabilities with uncertainties smaller than those obtained from the analysis of GW170817. We also found that the density-pressure constraint on the EoS obtained from a recent analysis of the neutron-star merger event agree very well with the density pressure constraints obtained from nuclear physics experiments published in 2002.
Electromagnetic transitions from deformed structures based on $alpha$ configurations or on heavier clusters are discussed, drawing the link between multiparticle-multihole excited bands and cluster structures. Enhanced E2 and E1 transitions are reviewed in the light nuclei, $^8$Be, $^{10}$Be, $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{18}$O and heavier ones like $^{212}$Po. Connections between cluster structures and superdeformed configurations in $^{36}$Ar and $^{40}$Ca are discussed. What the cluster states based on heavier substructures like $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O are concerned, recent results on the resonant radiative capture reaction $^{12}$C($^{16}$O,$gamma$)$^{28}$Si are presented, in particular the strong decay mode involving the feeding of low-lying $^{28}$Si 1$^+$ and 2$^+$ T=1 states by enhanced M1 isovector transitions.
The LIGO discoveries have rekindled suggestions that primordial black holes (BHs) may constitute part to all of the dark matter (DM) in the Universe. Such suggestions came from 1) the observed merger rate of the BHs, 2) their unusual masses, 3) their low/zero spins, and 4) also from the independently uncovered cosmic infrared background (CIB) fluctuations signal of high amplitude and coherence with unresolved cosmic X-ray background (CXB). Here we summarize the prospects to resolve this important issue with electromagnetic observations using the instruments and tools expected in the 2020s. These prospects appear promising to make significant, and potentially critical, advances. We demonstrate that in the next decade, new space- and ground-borne electromagnetic instruments, combined with concurrent theoretical efforts, should shed critical light on the long-considered link between primordial BHs and DM. Specifically the new data and methodologies under this program will involve: I) Probing with high precision the spatial spectrum of source-subtracted CIB with Euclid and WFIRST, and its coherence with unresolved cosmic X-ray background using eROSITA and Athena, II) Advanced searches for microlensing of Galactic stars by the intervening Galactic Halo BHs with OGLE, Gaia, LSST and WFIRST, III) Supernovae (SNe) lensing in the upcoming surveys with WFIRST, LSST and also potentially with Euclid and JWST, IV) Advanced theoretical work to understand the details of PBH accretion and evolution and their influence on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in light of the next generation CMB experiments, V) Better new samples and theoretical understanding involving stability and properties of ultra faint dwarf galaxies, pulsar timing, and cosmological quasar lensing.