Thermal Effects for Quark and Gluon Distributions in Heavy-Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper explores how thermal effects influence quark and gluon distributions in heavy-ion collisions, proposing a duality principle linking thermal spectra to quantum scattering theory, and analyzing energy-dependent transverse momentum behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a duality principle connecting thermal spectra with quantum scattering theory and models the energy dependence of transverse momentum in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Mean square transverse momentum grows and saturates with energy

Energy dependence of hadron spectra matches experimental observations

Thermal effects significantly impact parton distributions in collisions

Abstract

In-medium effects for distributions of quarks and gluons in central A+A collisions are considered. We suggest a duality principle, which means similarity of thermal spectra of hadrons produced in heavy-ion collisions and inclusive spectra which can be obtained within the dynamic quantum scattering theory. Within the suggested approach we show that the mean square of the transverse momentum for these partons grows and then saturates when the initial energy increases. It leads to the energy dependence of hadron transverse mass spectra which is similar to that observed in heavy ion collisions.