Longitudinal Dynamics of High Baryon Density Matter in High Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of high baryon density matter in high energy heavy-ion collisions, revealing baryon diffusion from fragmentation regions to the central region and implications for QCD critical point searches.

Contribution

It introduces a 1+1D hydrodynamic simulation including baryon diffusion, connecting high baryon densities in fragmentation regions with the central rapidity region.

Findings

Baryons diffuse from fragmentation to central rapidity regions.

Baryon chemical potential increases monotonically from center to fragmentation regions.

Rapid baryon density variation suggests potential for QCD critical point detection.

Abstract

In high energy heavy-ion collisions, the two colliding nuclei pass through each other leaving behind an almost baryon free central rapidity region. Most of the baryons are carried away by the nuclear remnants and are located in the so-called fragmentation regions. In previous papers \cite{Li:2016wzh,Li:2018ini}, it has been argued that very high baryon densities, more than ten times larger than the normal nuclear density, can be achieved in these fragmentation regions. In this paper, we assume the high baryon density matter is thermalized at the same time as the baryon-free quark-gluon plasma in the central rapidity region. We perform a 1+1D (temporal + longitudinal) hydrodynamic simulation covering both the fragmentation regions and the central rapidity region with the baryon diffusion equation included. Baryons are found to diffuse from the fragmentation regions to the central rapidity region driven by fugacity gradients. The baryon chemical potential at freezeout monotonically increases from the central rapidity region to the fragmentation regions, suggesting a rapidity scan in high energy heavy-ion collisions might be helpful in searching for the critical point of the QCD phase diagram.