Search for Squeezed-Pair Correlations at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental search method for squeezed-pair correlations, specifically Back-to-Back Correlations, in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC, focusing on phi-meson pairs and their momentum correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a non-relativistic approach to detect squeezed correlations in phi-meson pairs using the average momentum variable at RHIC energies.

Findings

Squeezed correlations are predicted to appear if hadron masses are modified in hot dense media.

A promising search method involves analyzing the squeezed correlation function of phi-meson pairs.

The paper discusses the effects of squeezing on the HBT correlation function.

Abstract

Squeezed correlations of particle-antiparticle pairs, also called Back-to-Back Correlations, are predicted to appear if the hadron masses are modified in the hot and dense hadronic medium formed in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Although well-established theoretically, the squeezed-particle correlations have not yet been searched for experimentally in high energy hadronic or heavy ion collisions, clearly requiring optimized forms to experimentally search for this effect. Within a non-relativistic treatment developed earlier we show that one promising way to search for the BBC signal is to look into the squeezed correlation function of pairs of phi-mesons at RHIC energies, plotted in terms of the average momentum of the pair, K12=(k1+k2)/2. This variable's modulus, 2|K12|, is the non-relativistic limit of the variable Q_bbc, introduced herewith. The squeezing effects on the HBT correlation function are also discussed.