Hawking radiation from acoustic black holes in relativistic heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where the quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions acts as an analogue gravity system, potentially emitting Hawking radiation detectable through particle momentum distributions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of acoustic Hawking radiation in relativistic heavy ion collisions and demonstrates conditions under which a conformally static acoustic metric can produce observable thermal flux.

Findings

Hawking temperature estimated at 4-5 MeV for low-energy collisions

Presence of a sonic horizon during plasma evolution

Potential experimental signatures in particle momentum distributions

Abstract

We propose a new analogue model of gravity - the evolving quark gluon plasma (QGP) produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions. This quark gluon plasma is the "most inviscid" fluid known. Such low kinematic viscosity is believed to reflect strongly correlated nature for QGP in these experiments. Hence, it may provide a good example of a quantum fluid naturally suited to studies of acoustic Hawking radiation. Due to rapid longitudinal expansion, presence of a sonic horizon is also naturally guaranteed here, though, in general, this horizon is not static. Using Ultra relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) simulations, we show that, under certain conditions, the longitudinal velocity of the plasma, near the sonic horizon, can become time independent for a short span during the evolution of the system. During this period, we can have a conformally static acoustic metric with a (conformal) Killing horizon coinciding with the apparent horizon. An asymptotic observer will then see a thermal flux of phonons, constituting the Hawking radiation, coming from the horizon. For the relatively low energy collision considered here, where the resulting QCD system is governed by non-relativistic hydrodynamics, we estimate the Hawking temperature to be about 4-5 MeV (with the temperature of the QCD fluid being about 135 MeV). We discuss the experimental signatures of this Hawking radiation in terms of a thermal component in the rapidity dependence of the transverse momentum distribution of detected particles. We also discuss extension to ultra-relativistic case which should lead to a higher Hawking temperature, along with the effects of dynamical horizon leading to blue/red shift of the temperature.