No Arabic abstract
We investigate the measurement of the sixth order cumulant and its ratio to the second order cumulant ($C_6/C_2$) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The influence of statistics and different methods of centrality bin width correction on $C_6/C_2$ of net-proton multiplicity distributions is demonstrated. There is no satisfactory method to extract $C_6/C_2$ with the current statistics recorded at lower energies by STAR at RHIC. With statistics comparable to the expected statistics at the planned future RHIC Beam Energy Scan II (BES II), no energy dependence of $C_6/C_2$ is observed in central collisions using the UrQMD model. We find if the transition signal is as strong as predicted by the PQM model, then it is hopefully observed at the upcoming RHIC BES II.
Higher-order cumulants of the net-baryon multiplicity distributions are predicted to be sensitive to the properties of the nuclear matter created in high-energy nuclear collisions. In this talk, we present the collision centrality and acceptance (rapidity and transverse momentum) dependence of the ratio of the 6$^{{rm th}}$- to the 2$^{rm nd}$-order cumulant ratio ($C_{6}/C_{2}$) of net-proton in Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{rm NN}}=54.4$ and 200 GeV measured by the STAR detector at RHIC. The new results are compared to hadron transport model and lattice QCD calculations.
According to first principle Lattice QCD calculations, the transition from quark-gluon plasma to hadronic matter is a smooth crossover in the region $mu_{rm B}leq T_{c}$. As a result, higher-order cumulants and their ratios are predicted to be negative, $C_{6}/C_{2}<0$, for example. In this paper, we report the first measurement of the midrapidity net-proton $C_{6}/C_{2}$ from 27, 54.4 and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The dependence on collision centrality and kinematic acceptance in ($p_{T}$, $y$) are analyzed. While for 27 and 54.4 GeV collisions the $C_{6}/C_{2}$ values are close to zero within uncertainties, it is observed that for 200 GeV collisions, the $C_{6}/C_{2}$ ratio becomes progressively negative from peripheral to central collisions. Transport model calculations without critical dynamics predict values around zero. These observations seem to favor a smooth crossover in the high energy nuclear collisions at RHIC.
We report the first measurements of a complete second-order cumulant matrix of net-charge, net-proton and net-kaon multiplicity distributions for the first phase of the beam energy scan program at RHIC. This includes the centrality and, for the first time, the pseudorapidity window dependence of both diagonal and off-diagonal cumulants in Au+Au collisions at sNN~= 7.7-200 GeV. Within the available acceptance of $|eta|<0.5$, the cumulants grow linearly with the pseudorapidity window. Relative to the corresponding measurements in peripheral collisions, the ratio of off-diagonal over diagonal cumulants in central collisions indicates an excess correlation between net-charge and net-kaon, as well as between net-charge and net-proton. The strength of such excess correlation increases with the collision energy. The correlation between net-proton and net-kaon multiplicity distributions is observed to be negative at sNN~= 200 GeV and change to positive at the lowest collision energy. Model calculations based on non-thermal (UrQMD) and thermal (HRG) production of hadrons cannot explain the data. These measurements will help map the QCD phase diagram, constrain hadron resonance gas model calculations and provide new insights on the energy dependence of baryon-strangeness correlations.
We report a systematic measurement of cumulants, $C_{n}$, for net-proton, proton and antiproton multiplicity distributions, and correlation functions, $kappa_n$, for proton and antiproton multiplicity distributions up to the fourth order in Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{mathrm {NN}}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4, 62.4 and 200 GeV. The $C_{n}$ and $kappa_n$ are presented as a function of collision energy, centrality and kinematic acceptance in rapidity, $y$, and transverse momentum, $p_{T}$. The data were taken during the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program (2010 -- 2017) at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity ($|y| <$ 0.5) and transverse momentum 0.4 $<$ $p_{rm T}$ $<$ 2.0 GeV/$c$, using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe a non-monotonic energy dependence ($sqrt{s_{mathrm {NN}}}$ = 7.7 -- 62.4 GeV) of the net-proton $C_{4}$/$C_{2}$ with the significance of 3.1$sigma$ for the 0-5% central Au+Au collisions. This is consistent with the expectations of critical fluctuations in a QCD-inspired model. Thermal and transport model calculations show a monotonic variation with $sqrt{s_{mathrm {NN}}}$. For the multiparticle correlation functions, we observe significant negative values for a two-particle correlation function, $kappa_2$, of protons and antiprotons, which are mainly due to the effects of baryon number conservation. Furthermore, it is found that the four-particle correlation function, $kappa_4$, of protons plays a role in determining the energy dependence of proton $C_4/C_1$ below 19.6 GeV, which cannot be understood by the effect of baryon number conservation.
We calculate the second order viscous correction to the kinetic distribution, $delta f_{(2)}$, and use this result in a hydrodynamic simulation of heavy ion collisions to determine the complete second order correction to the harmonic spectrum, $v_n$. At leading order in a conformal fluid, the first viscous correction is determined by one scalar function, $chi_{0p}$. One moment of this scalar function is constrained by the shear viscosity. At second order in a conformal fluid, we find that $delta f(p)$ can be characterized by two scalar functions of momentum, $chi_{1p}$ and $chi_{2p}$. The momentum dependence of these functions is largely determined by the kinematics of the streaming operator. Again, one moment of these functions is constrained by the parameters of second order hydrodynamics, $tau_pi$ and $lambda_1$. The effect of $delta f_{(2)}$ on the integrated flow is small (up to $v_4$), but is quite important for the higher harmonics at modestly-large $p_T$. Generally, $delta f_{(2)}$ increases the value of $v_n$ at a given $p_T$, and is most important in small systems.