Lévy-stable two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in s NN =200 GeV Au+Au collisions

PHENIX Collaboration

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Abstract

We present a detailed measurement of charged two-pion correlation functions in 0-30% centrality sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The data are well described by Bose-Einstein correlation functions stemming from Lévy-stable source distributions. Using a fine transverse momentum binning, we extract the correlation strength parameter λ, the Lévy index of stability α, and the Lévy length scale parameter R as a function of average transverse mass of the pair mT. We find that the positively and the negatively charged pion pairs yield consistent results, and their correlation functions are represented, within uncertainties, by the same Lévy-stable source functions. The λ(mT) measurements indicate a decrease of the strength of the correlations at low mT. The Lévy length scale parameter R(mT) decreases with increasing mT, following a hydrodynamically predicted type of scaling behavior. The values of the Lévy index of stability α are found to be significantly lower than the Gaussian case of α=2, but also significantly larger than the conjectured value that may characterize the critical point of a second-order quark-hadron phase transition.

Original languageEnglish
Article number064911
JournalPhysical Review C
Volume97
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 14 2018

Funding

We thank the staff of the Collider-Accelerator and Physics Departments at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the staff of the other PHENIX participating institutions for their vital contributions. We also thank S. Hegyi for enlightening discussions. We acknowledge support from the Office of Nuclear Physics in the Office of Science of the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Abilene Christian University Research Council, Research Foundation of SUNY, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vanderbilt University (USA); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Japan); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil); Natural Science Foundation of China (People's Republic of China); Croatian Science Foundation and Ministry of Science and Education (Croatia); Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Czech Republic); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (France); Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Germany); J. Bolyai Research Scholarship, EFOP, the New National Excellence Program (ÚNKP), NKFIH, and OTKA (Hungary); Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology (India); Israel Science Foundation (Israel); Basic Science Research Program through NRF of the Ministry of Education (Korea); Physics Department, Lahore University of Management Sciences (Pakistan); Ministry of Education and Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Agency of Atomic Energy (Russia); VR and Wallenberg Foundation (Sweden); the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union; the Hungarian American Enterprise Scholarship Fund; the US-Hungarian Fulbright Foundation; and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation.

FundersFunder number
Abilene Christian University Research Council
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology
Research Foundation of SUNY
US Civilian Research and Development Foundation
US-Hungarian Fulbright Foundation
Wallenberg Foundation
National Science Foundation1712953
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
Nuclear Physics
Vanderbilt University
Lahore University of Management Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University
Department of Physics, Harvard University
Hungarian-American Enterprise Scholarship Fund
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science15H03664
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Russian Academy of Sciences
Ministry of Education
Haridus- ja Teadusministeerium
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
National Research Foundation of Korea
Israel Science Foundation
Vetenskapsrådet
Hrvatska Zaklada za Znanost
Ministry of Education and Science
Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal
Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
Federal Agency of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation

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