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Pruneau, Claude A.

Publications and source records attributed to Pruneau, Claude A..

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Extraction of the specific shear viscosity of quark-gluon plasma from two-particle transverse momentum correlations

The specific shear viscosity, η/s, of the quark-gluon plasma formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC is estimated based on the progressive longitudinal broadening of transverse momentum two-particle correlators, G 2 , reported as a function of collision centrality by the STAR and ALICE experiments. Estimates are computed as a function of collision centrality using the Gavin ansatz which relates the G 2 longitudinal broadening to the specific shear viscosity. Freeze out times required for the use of the ansatz are computed using a linear fit of freeze out times reported as a function of the cubic root of the charged particle pseudorapidity density (dN ch /dη) 1/3 . Estimates of η/s based on ALICE data exhibit little to no dependence on collision centrality at LHC energy, while estimates obtained from STAR data hint that η/s might be a function of collision centrality at top RHIC energy.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Role of baryon number conservation in measurements of fluctuations

Here, I discuss the role and impact of net-baryon number conservation in measurements of net-proton fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions. I show that the magnitude of the fluctuations is entirely determined by the strength of two particle correlations. At LHC and top RHIC energy, this implies the fluctuations are proportional to the integral of the balance function (BF), B pp¯ of protons and antiprotons, while in the context of the RHIC beam energy scan (BES), one must also account for correlations of stopped protons. The integral of B pp¯ measured in a 4π detector depends on the relative cross sections of processes yielding pp¯ and those balancing the proton baryon number via the production of other antibaryons. The accepted integral of B pp¯ further depends on the shape and width of the BF relative to the width of the acceptance. The magnitude of the measured second-order cumulant of net-proton fluctuations thus has much less to do with QCD susceptibilities than with the creation/transport of baryons and antibaryons in heavy-ion collisions, and most particularly the impact of radial flow on the width of the BF. I thus advocate that net-proton fluctuations should be studied by means of differential BF measurements rather than with integral correlators. I also derive an expression of net-baryon fluctuations in terms of integrals of balance functions of identified baryon pairs and argue that measurements of such balance functions would enable a better understanding of the collision system expansion dynamics, the hadronization chemistry, and an experimental assessment of the strength of net-baryon fluctuations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Effect of centrality bin width corrections on two-particle number and transverse momentum differential correlation functions

Two-particle number and transverse momentum differential correlation functions are powerful tools for unveiling the detailed dynamics and particle production mechanisms involved in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Measurements of transverse momentum correlators P 2 and G 2 , in particular, provide added information not readily accessible with better known number correlation functions R 2 . However, it is found that the R 2 and G 2 correlators are somewhat sensitive to the details of the experimental procedure used to measure them. They exhibit, in particular, a dependence on the collision centrality bin width, which may have a rather detrimental impact on their physical interpretation. A technique to correct these correlators for collision centrality bin-width averaging is presented. The technique is based on the hypothesis that the shape of single- and pair-probability densities vary slower with collision centrality than the corresponding integrated yields. In conclusion, the technique is tested with Pb-Pb simulations based on the HIJING and ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics models and shown to enable a precision better than 1% for particles in the kinematic range 0.2 ≤ p T ≤ 2.0 GeV/c.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗