No abstract

This writeup is a compilation of the predictions for the forthcoming Heavy Ion Program at the Large Hadron Collider, as presented at the CERN Theory Institute ‘Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC—Last Call for Predictions’, held from 14th May to 10th June 2007.

A new method for evaluating spectra and correlations in the hydrodynamic approach is proposed. It is based on an analysis of the Boltzmann equations (BE) in terms of probabilities for constituent particles to escape from the interacting system. The conditions of applicability of the Cooper-Frye freeze-out prescription are considered within the method. The results are illustrated with a nonrelativistic exact solution of BE for an expanding spherical fireball as well as with approximate solutions for ellipsoidally expanding ones.

Single-particle spectra and two-particle Bose-Einstein correlation functions are determined analytically utilizing a self-similar solution of non-relativistic hydrodynamics for ellipsoidally-symmetric, expanding fireballs, by assuming that the symmetry axes of the ellipsoids are tilted in the frame of the observation. The directed, elliptic and third flows are calculated analytically. The mass dependences of the slope parameters in the principal directions of the expansion, together with the mass and angular dependences of the HBT radius parameters, reflect directly the ellipsoidal properties of the flow.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

We develop a combined hydro-kinetic approach which incorporates a hydrodynamical expansion of the systems formed in \textit{A}+\textit{A} collisions and their dynamical decoupling described by escape probabilities. The method corresponds to a generalized relaxation time ($\tau_{\text{rel}}$) approximation for the Boltzmann equation applied to inhomogeneous expanding systems; at small $\tau_{\text{rel}}$ it also allows one to catch the viscous effects in hadronic component - hadron-resonance gas. We demonstrate how the approximation of sudden freeze-out can be obtained within this dynamical picture of continuous emission and find that hypersurfaces, corresponding to a sharp freeze-out limit, are momentum dependent. The pion $m_{T}$ spectra are computed in the developed hydro-kinetic model, and compared with those obtained from ideal hydrodynamics with the Cooper-Frye isothermal prescription. Our results indicate that there does not exist a universal freeze-out temperature for pions with different momenta, and support an earlier decoupling of higher $p_{T}$ particles. By performing numerical simulations for various initial conditions and equations of state we identify several characteristic features of the bulk QCD matter evolution preferred in view of the current analysis of heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, minor corrections in accordance with the proof copy of the forthcoming article in PR