We investigate the consequences of a nonzero bulk viscosity coefficient on the transverse momentum spectra, azimuthal momentum anisotropy, and multiplicity of charged hadrons produced in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies. The agreement between a realistic 3D hybrid simulation and the experimentally measured data considerably improves with the addition of a bulk viscosity coefficient for strongly interacting matter. This paves the way for an eventual quantitative determination of several QCD transport coefficients from the experimental heavy ion and hadron-nucleus collision programs.

The ATLAS CollaborationDark matter particles, if sufficiently light, may be produced in decays of the Higgs boson. This Letter presents a statistical combination of searches for H → invisible decays where H is produced according to the Standard Model via vector boson fusion, Z( )H, and W/Z(had)H, all performed with the ATLAS detector using 36.1 fb −1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √ s = 13 TeV at the LHC. In combination with the results at √ s = 7 and 8 TeV, an exclusion limit on the H → invisible branching ratio of 0.26 (0.17 +0.07 −0.05 ) at 95% confidence level is observed (expected). 1 ATLAS uses a right-handed coordinate system with its origin at the nominal interaction point (IP) in the center of the detector and the z-axis along the beam pipe. The x-axis points to the center of the LHC ring, and the y-axis points upward. Cylindrical coordinates (r, φ) are used in the transverse plane, φ being the azimuthal angle around the z-axis. The pseudorapidity is defined in terms of the polar angle θ as η = − ln tan(θ/2). The distance between two objects in η-φ space is ∆R = (∆η) 2 + (∆φ) 2 . Transverse momentum is defined by p T = p sin θ.

We describe ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC with a hybrid model using the IP-Glasma model for the earliest stage and viscous hydrodynamics and microscopic transport for the later stages of the collision. We demonstrate that within this framework the bulk viscosity of the plasma plays an important role in describing the experimentally observed radial flow and azimuthal anisotropy simultaneously. We further investigate the dependence of observables on the temperature below which we employ the microscopic transport description.

Multi-particle cumulants and corresponding Fourier harmonics are measured for azimuthal angle distributions of charged particles in collisions at = 5.02 and 13 TeV and in  + Pb collisions at = 5.02 TeV, and compared to the results obtained for low-multiplicity collisions at = 2.76 TeV. These measurements aim to assess the collective nature of particle production. The measurements of multi-particle cumulants confirm the evidence for collective phenomena in  + Pb and low-multiplicity collisions. On the other hand, the results for four-particle cumulants do not demonstrate collective behaviour, indicating that they may be biased by contributions from non-flow correlations. A comparison of multi-particle cumulants and derived Fourier harmonics across different collision systems is presented as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity. For a given multiplicity, the measured Fourier harmonics are largest in , smaller in  + Pb and smallest in collisions. The results show no dependence on the collision energy, nor on the multiplicity.

No abstract

The stopping of baryons in heavy ion collisions at beam momenta of p lab = 20 − 160A GeV is lacking a quantitative description within theoretical calculations. Heavy ion reactions at these energies are experimentally explored at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and will be studied at future facilities such as FAIR and NICA. Since the net baryon density is determined by the amount of stopping, this is the pre-requisiste for any investigation of other observables related to structures in the QCD phase diagram such as a first-order phase transition or a critical endpoint. In this work we employ a string model for treating hadron-hadron interactions within a hadronic transport approach (SMASH, Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons). Free parameters of the string excitation and decay are tuned to match experimental measurements in elementary proton-proton collisions. Afterwards, the model is applied to heavy ion collisions, where the experimentally observed change of the shape of the proton rapidity spectrum from a single peak structure to a double peak structure with increasing beam energy is reproduced. Heavy ion collisions provide the opportunity to study the formation process of string fragments in terms of formation times and reduced interaction cross-sections for pre-formed hadrons. A good agreement with the measured rapidity spectra of protons and pions is achieved while insights on the fragmentation process are obtained. In the future, the presented approach can be used to create event-by-event initial conditions for hybrid calculations.

No abstract

Two particle azimuthal correlation functions are presented for charged hadrons produced in Au + Au collisions at RHIC ( √ s N N = 130 GeV). The measurements permit determination of elliptic flow without event-by-event estimation of the reaction plane. The extracted elliptic flow values (v2) show significant sensitivity to both the collision centrality and the transverse momenta of emitted hadrons, suggesting rapid thermalization and relatively strong velocity fields. When scaled by the eccentricity of the collision zone ε, the scaled elliptic flow shows little or no dependence on centrality for charged hadrons with relatively low pT . A breakdown of this ε scaling is observed for charged hadrons with pT > 1.0 GeV/c for the most central collisions.