No Arabic abstract
We review the charged particle and photon multiplicity, and transverse energy production in heavy-ion collisions starting from few GeV to TeV energies. The experimental results of pseudorapidity distribution of charged particles and photons at different collision energies and centralities are discussed. We also discuss the hypothesis of limiting fragmentation and expansion dynamics using the Landau hydrodynamics and the underlying physics. Meanwhile, we present the estimation of initial energy density multiplied with formation time as a function of different collision energies and centralities. In the end, the transverse energy per charged particle in connection with the chemical freeze-out criteria is discussed. We invoke various models and phenomenological arguments to interpret and characterize the fireball created in heavy-ion collisions. This review overall provides a scope to understand the heavy-ion collision data and a possible formation of a deconfined phase of partons via the global observables like charged particles, photons and the transverse energy measurement.
We study the charged particle and transverse energy production mechanism from AGS, SPS, RHIC to LHC energies in the framework of nucleon and quark participants. At RHIC and LHC energies, the number of nucleons-normalized charged particle and transverse energy density in pseudorapidity, which shows a monotonic rise with centrality, turns out to be an almost centrality independent scaling behaviour when normalized to the number of participant quarks. A universal function which is a combination of logarithmic and power-law, describes well the charged particle and transverse energy production both at nucleon and quark participant level for the whole range of collision energies. Energy dependent production mechanisms are discussed both for nucleonic and partonic level. Predictions are made for the pseudorapidity densities of transverse energy, charged particle multiplicity and their ratio (the barometric observable, $frac{dE_{rm{T}}/deta}{dN_{rm{ch}}/deta} ~equiv frac{E_{rm{T}}}{N_{rm{ch}}}$) at mid-rapidity for Pb+Pb collisions at $sqrt{s_{rm{NN}}}=5.5$ TeV. A comparison with models based on gluon saturation and statistical hadron gas is made for the energy dependence of $frac{E_{rm{T}}}{N_{rm{ch}}}$.
Charged-particle spectra associated with direct photon ($gamma_{dir} $) and $pi^0$ are measured in $p$+$p$ and Au+Au collisions at center-of-mass energy $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC. A hower-shape analysis is used to partially discriminate between $gamma_{dir}$ and $pi^0$. Assuming no associated charged particles in the $gamma_{dir}$ direction (near side) and small contribution from fragmentation photons ($gamma_{frag}$), the associated charged-particle yields opposite to $gamma_{dir}$ (away side) are extracted. At mid-rapidity ($|eta|<0.9$) in central Au+Au collisions, charged-particle yields associated with $gamma_{dir}$ and $pi^0$ at high transverse momentum ($8< p_{T}^{trig}<16$ GeV/$c$) are suppressed by a factor of 3-5 compared with $p$ + $p$ collisions. The observed suppression of the associated charged particles, in the kinematic range $|eta|<1$ and $3< p_{T}^{assoc} < 16$ GeV/$c$, is similar for $gamma_{dir}$ and $pi^0$, and independent of the $gamma_{dir}$ energy within uncertainties. These measurements indicate that the parton energy loss, in the covered kinematic range, is insensitive to the parton path length.
The large values and the constituent-quark-number (NCQ) scaling of the elliptic flow of low-$p_T$ $D$ mesons imply that charm quarks, initially produced through hard processes, might be partially thermalized through the strong interactions with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. To quantify the degree of thermalization of low-$p_T$ charm quarks, we compare the $D^0$ meson spectra and elliptic flow from a hydrodynamic model to the experimental data as well as transport model simulations. We use an effective charm chemical potential at the freeze-out temperature to account for the initial charm quark production from hard processes and assume that they are thermalized in local comoving frame of the medium before freeze-out. $D^0$ mesons are sampled statistically from the freeze-out hyper-surface of the expanding QGP as described by the event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model CLVisc. Both hydrodynamic and transport model can describe the elliptic flow of $D^0$ mesons at $p_T<3$ GeV/$c$ as measured in Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV. Though the experimental data on $D^0$ spectra are consistent with the hydrodynamic result at small $p_Tsim 1$ GeV/$c$, they deviate from the hydrodynamic model at high transverse momentum $p_T>2$ GeV/$c$. The diffusion and parton energy loss mechanisms in the transport model can describe the measured spectra reasonably well within the theoretical uncertainty. Our comparative study indicates that charm quarks only approach to local thermal equilibrium at small $p_T$ even though they acquire sizable elliptic flow that is comparable to light-quark hadrons at both small and intermediate $p_T$.
In relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions the transverse energy per charged particle, E_T/N_ch, increases rapidly with beam energy and remains approximately constant at about 800 MeV for beam energies from SPS to RHIC. It is shown that the hadron resonance gas model describes the energy dependence, as well as the lack of centrality dependence, qualitatively. The values of E_T/N_ch are related to the chemical freeze-out criterium E/N about 1 GeV valid for primordial hadrons.
The ultra-relativistic heavy-ion programs at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider have evolved into a phase of quantitative studies of Quantum Chromodynamics at very high temperatures. The charm and bottom hadron production offer unique insights into the remarkable transport properties and the microscopic structure of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) created in these collisions. Heavy quarks, due to their large masses, undergo Brownian motion at low momentum, provide a window on hadronization mechanisms at intermediate momenta, and are expected to merge into a radiative-energy loss regime at high momentum. We review recent experimental and theoretical achievements on measuring a variety of heavy-flavor observables, characterizing the different regimes in momentum, extracting pertinent transport coefficients and deducing implications for the inner workings of the QGP medium.