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The standard model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and electromagnetic tomography

Shen, Chun
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405931790

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Physics.
This thesis focuses on developing a standard theoretical framework to study the bulk dynamics and electromagnetic probes of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, which are presently studied experimentally at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We developed a modular numerical package with different (exchangeable) modular describing different evolution stages of the expanding fireball created in these collisions. For each stage of the collisions, we will give a detailed description of the theoretical model and its corresponding numerical implementation, supplemented with code checking tests. With this framework, we then perform a broad range of phenomenological studies of the bulk dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions from RHIC to LHC energies. Our simulations are compared with various soft hadronic observables, in which the transverse momenta of the hadrons are less than 3 GeV/c. (This includes more than 99% of all particles created in the collision.) These comparisons help us to tightly constrain our theoretical modeling of the fireball evolution and to extract information about the transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) as well as about the initial state fluctuation spectrum. We also explore the sensitivity of the hadronic observables to a possible temperature dependence of the QGP specific shear viscosity. The collision energy dependences of hadron spectra and elliptic flow coefficients are studied with our model, providing a qualitative baseline for comparison with recent data from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan (BES) program. Due to the smallness of the electromagnetic coupling compared to the strong interaction, electromagnetic probes in relativistic heavy-ion collisions can provide us with early dynamical evolution information complementary to that obtained from hadronic observables. The emission of direct photons from relativistic heavy-ion collisions is studied. We derive the off-equilibrium corrections to thermal photon emission rates at leading order in O(pi^{mn}/(e + P)), where pi^{mn}, e, and P are the system's shear stress tensor, local energy density, and pressure, respectively. We perform event-by-event simulations for direct as well as hadronic decay photons for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and compare our results with experimental measurements. We map out the space-time structure of thermal photon emission and find that the slope of the measured direct photon spectrum is strongly blue-shifted by the hydrodynamic radial flow. The anisotropic flows of direct photons show a larger sensitivity to the shear pressure tensor of the system than the analogous hadronic observables. This can be used as a sensitive viscometer for the QGP medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
Ulrich Heinz (Advisor)
Michael Lisa (Committee Member)
Robert Perry (Committee Member)
Mohit Randeria (Committee Member)
524 p.
Nuclear Physics; Physics; Theoretical Physics
relativistic heavy-ion collisions, event-by-event, viscous hydrodynamics, particle spectra, anisotropic flow, specific shear viscosity, Cooper-Frye, thermal photon emission

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shen, C. (2014). The standard model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and electromagnetic tomography [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405931790

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shen, Chun. The standard model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and electromagnetic tomography. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405931790.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shen, Chun. "The standard model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and electromagnetic tomography." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1405931790

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1405931790
935
© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The standard model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions and electromagnetic tomography by Chun Shen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.