Interferometry signatures for QCD first-order phase transition in heavy ion collisions at GSI-FAIR energies

TL;DR

This study uses quantum interferometry techniques to analyze HBT signatures in heavy ion collisions at GSI-FAIR energies, revealing how source sizes and lifetimes vary with initial energy density and phase transition conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum transport approach with path-integral formalism to calculate two-particle correlations considering decay and scattering effects in heavy ion collisions.

Findings

HBT radii of kaons are smaller than those of pions.

HBT radii increase with initial energy density.

HBT lifetimes are prolonged near the QGP phase boundary.

Abstract

Using the technique of quantum transport of the interfering pair we examine the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry signatures for the particle-emitting sources of pions and kaons produced in the heavy ion collisions at GSI-FAIR energies. The evolution of the sources is described by relativistic hydrodynamics with the system equation of state of the first-order phase transition from quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to hadronic matter. We use quantum probability amplitudes in a path-integral formalism to calculate the two-particle correlation functions, where the effects of particle decay and multiple scattering are taken into consideration. We find that the HBT radii of kaons are smaller than those of pions for the same initial conditions. Both the HBT radii of pions and kaons increase with the system initial energy density. The HBT lifetimes of the pion and kaon sources are sensitive to the initial energy density. They are significantly prolonged when the initial energy density is tuned to the phase boundary between the QGP and mixed phase. This prolongations of the HBT lifetimes of pions and kaons may likely be observed in the heavy ion collisions with an incident energy in the GSI-FAIR energy range.