Cluster and anti-cluster production in heavy-ion collisions and pA reactions

TL;DR

This paper uses the PHQMD microscopic transport model to study light cluster and anti-cluster production in heavy-ion and pA collisions across a wide energy range, providing new insights into their formation mechanisms and system size dependence.

Contribution

It introduces novel PHQMD simulation results for cluster production, including excitation functions and transverse momentum spectra, with a focus on system size effects in pA and asymmetric heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

PHQMD reproduces excitation functions of deuterons, anti-deuterons, and tritons.

Cluster yields depend on system size and collision energy.

Results highlight the dynamical formation of clusters in heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract

We investigate light cluster and anti-cluster production in heavy-ion collisions from SIS to RHIC energies within the Parton-Hadron-Quantum-Molecular Dynamics (PHQMD) microscopic transport approach which propagates (anti-)baryons using n-body QMD dynamics. In PHQMD the clusters are formed dynamically by potential interactions between baryons - and recognized by the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) algorithm - as well as by kinetic reactions in case of deuterons. We present the novel PHQMD results for different observables such as excitation functions of the multiplicity of deuterons, anti-deuterons and tritons, as well as their transverse momentum spectra. Moreover, we investigate the system size dependence of proton and deuteron production in p+A collisions and show the PHQMD results for p+A collisions (A = Be, Al, Cu, Au) at 14 AGeV/c, as well as for asymmetric Au+A collisions (A = Al, Cu, Pb) at a bombarding energy of about 10 AGeV.