Simulations of momentum correlation functions of light (anti)nuclei in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39 GeV

TL;DR

This study uses the AMPT model and analytical methods to simulate and analyze momentum correlation functions of light (anti)nuclei in various heavy-ion collisions at 39 GeV, revealing insights into emission sources and sequences.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation and analysis of light (anti)nuclei momentum correlations across multiple collision systems and centralities at 39 GeV.

Findings

Emission sources are smaller in more peripheral collisions.

System size affects the momentum correlation functions.

Protons and neutrons are emitted on similar time scales, earlier than deuterons and tritons.

Abstract

Momentum correlation functions of light (anti)nuclei formed by the coalescence mechanism of (anti)nucleons are calculated for several central heavy-ion collision systems, namely $_{5}^{10}\textrm{B}+_{5}^{10}\textrm{B}$, $_{8}^{16}\textrm{O}+_{8}^{16}\textrm{O}$, $_{20}^{40}\textrm{Ca}+_{20}^{40}\textrm{Ca}$ as well as $_{79}^{197}\textrm{Au}+_{79}^{197}\textrm{Au}$ in different centralities at center of mass energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39 GeV within the framework of A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model complemented by the Lednick$\acute{y}$ and Lyuboshitz analytical method. Momentum correlation functions for identical or nonidentical light (anti)nuclei are constructed and analyzed for the above collision systems. The Au + Au results demonstrate that emission of light (anti)nuclei occurs from a source with smaller space extent in more peripheral collisions. The effect of system-size on the momentum correlation functions of identical or nonidentical light (anti)nuclei is also explored by several collision system in central collisions. The results indicate that the emission source-size of light (anti)nuclei pairs deduced from their momentum correlation functions and system-size is self-consistent. Momentum correlation functions of nonidentical light nuclei pairs gated on velocity are applied to infer the average emission sequence of them. The results illustrate that protons are emitted in average on a similar time scale with neutrons but earlier than deuterons or tritons in the small relative momentum region. In addition, larger interval of the average emission order among them is exhibited for smaller collision systems or at more peripheral collisions.