Transition From Ideal To Viscous Mach Cones In A Kinetic Transport Approach

TL;DR

This study uses a microscopic transport model to analyze how Mach cones form and evolve in ultrarelativistic matter, examining the effects of energy deposition, viscosity, and interaction details on their structure.

Contribution

It provides a detailed kinetic transport analysis of Mach cone formation, highlighting the impact of energy deposition rates and viscosity on cone structure and correlations.

Findings

Mach cone angle depends on energy deposition details

Viscosity causes smearing of Mach cone profiles

No double peak structures observed in simulations

Abstract

Using a microscopic transport model we investigate the evolution of conical structures originating from the supersonic projectile moving through the hot matter of ultrarelativistic particles. Using different scenarios for the interaction between projectile and matter, and different transport properties of the matter, we study the formation and structure of Mach cones. Especially, a dependence of the Mach cone angle on the details and rate of the energy deposition from projectile to the matter is investigated. Furthermore, the two-particle correlations extracted from the numerical calculations are compared to an analytical approximation. We find that the propagation of a high energetic particle through the matter does not lead to the appearance of a double peak structure as observed in the ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. The reason is the strongly forward-peaked energy and momentum deposition in the head shock region. In addition, by adjusting the cross section we investigate the influence of the viscosity to the structure of Mach cones. A clear and unavoidable smearing of the profile depending on a finite ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density is clearly visible.