REVIEW 47 cited by
Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.
SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event
T0 review · schema-true
One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.
pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp
read the original abstract
We review the most important experimental results from the first three years of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory. The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes, invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.
Forward citations
Cited by 47 Pith papers
-
Spin Femtoscopy: A Framework for Revealing Genuine Spin Correlations
Spin femtoscopy is proposed to separate genuine two-particle spin correlations from quantum statistics and final-state interaction effects via spin-sensitive correlation functions on Lambda pairs.
-
Observation of the centrality-dependent difference in directed flow between charged kaons and $K^{*0}$ resonances in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 14.6, 19.6 and 27 GeV
First measurement of K*0 directed flow shows a centrality-dependent difference from charged kaons that hydro+UrQMD models attribute to asymmetric hadronic rescattering relative to the event plane.
-
Observation of suppressed charged-particle production in ultrarelativistic oxygen-oxygen collisions
First measurement of the nuclear modification factor R_AA in OO collisions at 5.36 TeV shows suppression with a minimum of 0.69 at p_T around 6 GeV, favoring models with parton energy loss.
-
Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.36$ TeV $^{16}$O$+^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne$+^{20}$Ne collisions with the ATLAS detector
First measurements of v_n (n=2-4) in 5.36 TeV O+O and Ne+Ne collisions show enhanced v2 in central neon collisions consistent with prolate nuclear deformation.
-
High-order fluctuations of temperature in hot QCD matter
Introduces a new thermodynamic state function enabling computation of high-order temperature fluctuations in hot QCD matter from heavy-ion collision data, predicting strong suppression and negative skewness in the QGP phase.
-
Visualizing How the Structure of Large-Radius Jets Shapes Their Wakes
Hybrid Model simulations show ATLAS large-radius jet data rule out fully coherent jet energy loss, and low-pT jet-shape observables can visualize merging subjet wakes.
-
Hydrodynamic attractors, initial state energy and particle production in relativistic nuclear collisions
A hydrodynamic-attractor relation between initial-state energy and final charged-particle multiplicity explains the centrality dependence of yields and lets the authors estimate pre-equilibrium energy densities.
-
Observable Dependence of Viscous Corrections in QGP: Heavy Quarks and Dileptons in Chapman--Enskog Theory
Second-order Chapman-Enskog viscous corrections suppress heavy-quark drag, induce nontrivial transverse diffusion, and boost early-time dilepton yields relative to first-order or Grad corrections, with the size of the...
-
Production of muonic kaon atoms at high-energy colliders
Muonic kaon atoms form in D0 decays with branching ratio 2.29×10^{-10} and via QGP coalescence, with projected yields at LHC and RHIC sufficient for first observation and secondary-vertex reconstruction.
-
Relative transverse activity as a probe of collectivity-like long-range correlations in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV
In PYTHIA 8 pp collisions at 13 TeV, the highest-RT events develop a long-range near-side ridge in R2^CI, while P2^CI and charge-dependent correlators do not.
-
Rotating synchrotron radiation: Photon emission from magnetized and rotating quark-gluon plasma
Rotation enhances synchrotron photon emission from negatively charged quarks in a magnetized QGP, producing a low-transverse-momentum v2 that can reduce the direct photon puzzle tension.
-
Longitudinal Dynamics of Large and Small Systems from a 3D Bayesian Calibration of RHIC Top-energy Collision Data
A 3D Bayesian calibration of RHIC Au-Au and d-Au data constrains the longitudinal initial state and QGP viscosity, and its posterior predicts p-Au and 3He-Au flow measurements.
-
Constraining the Resolution Length of Quark-Gluon Plasma with New Jet Substructure Measurements
Jet substructure measurements from ALICE and ATLAS, modeled with the Hybrid Model, disfavor both fully coherent and fully incoherent energy loss, implying a finite QGP resolution length near 1/(pi T).
-
Two-particle number and transverse momentum balance function with event-topology in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV
In PYTHIA8 and EPOS-LHC simulations of pp collisions, charge balance function widths narrow with multiplicity, are narrower in jet-like than isotropic events, and EPOS core-on/off differences point to radial flow as t...
-
Electric, thermal and thermoelectric response of a hot pion gas in a time dependent background magnetic field
The transport coefficients of a hot pion gas are recalculated under exponentially decaying background magnetic fields, showing that the field lifetime changes conductivities, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck and Nern...
-
Medium-induced modification of azimuthal correlations of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays with charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}} = 5.02}$ TeV
First Pb-Pb measurement of heavy-flavor electron-charged particle azimuthal correlations shows a near-side low-pT enhancement hint (1.27 sigma) and an away-side high-pT suppression (2.5 sigma) in central collisions.
-
Energy loss and theoretical uncertainties in small quark-gluon plasmas
A pQCD energy loss model with short-pathlength corrections shows the large formation time approximation fails self-consistently and, after a one-parameter fit, describes RHIC small systems while failing LHC small systems.
-
The Gilbert Damping Factor of Heavy Quark Spin Polarization in the Magnetic Field
The paper derives an expression for the heavy quark Gilbert damping factor from linear response theory and a screened Coulomb potential, finding alpha below 0.1 for charm quarks.
-
Neural network biased corrections: Cautionary study in background corrections for quenched jets
Neural network jet background corrections trained on unquenched jets are systematically biased for quenched jets, causing simulated RAA measurements to be up to 47% too low.
-
Non-extensive Hard Thermal Loop Resummation and Its Applications: Analysis in Zero and Finite Magnetic Fields
Non-extensive HTL corrections increase the Debye mass, weaken the heavy quark potential, and lower the predicted melting temperatures of J/Ψ and Υ, with a magnetic field opposing the effect.
-
A Brief Introduction to PACIAE 4.0
PACIAE 4.0 is a new public release of an event generator that adds PYTHIA 8.3 support, heavy-quark mass corrections, an improved coalescence model, and new hadron channels, but no validation is shown.
-
Measurement of $\Lambda$(1520) production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
The Lambda(1520) resonance is measured in pp and p-Pb collisions; its yield relative to Lambda stays constant with multiplicity and its pT shape matches a Blast-Wave prediction.
-
Study the Longitudinal Entropy Deposition using d+Au Collision
A 3D entropy deposition model with β≈0.35 and n_BC-dependent rapidity loss, plus ab initio deuteron sampling, reproduces d+Au dNch/dη, spectra, and vn and transfers to p+Au, 3He+Au, and Au+Au.
-
Investigation of hadronic effects on resonance productions in small collision systems using the EPOS4 model
In EPOS4, resonance yields and mean transverse momenta are governed by a species-dependent balance between hadronic rescattering and regeneration even in pp, p-O, and O-O collisions.
-
Short-Range Correlations Between Partons in a Proton
Proposes EIC jet-pion-electron measurements to detect and quantify short-range quark pair correlations in protons, expecting ud pairs to dominate due to diquark attraction.
-
Towards a topological data analysis for heavy-ion collisions
Persistent homology Betti curves and persistence distributions for Trajectum Pb-Pb and O-O events are robust and reflect known flow and multiplicity phenomenology, with no enhanced parameter sensitivity over standard ...
-
Exploring Data-Driven Corrections for $\phi$-Meson Global Spin Alignment Measurements
A data-driven correction built from combinatorial kaon pairs inside the phi mass window is tested with toy Monte Carlo, showing partial success and clear shortcomings.
-
Probing Gluon Shadowing in Heavy Nuclei through Bayesian Reweighting of J/$\psi$ Photoproduction in Ultra-Peripheral Collisions
Bayesian reweighting of nuclear parton distributions with coherent J/psi photoproduction data yields a lead gluon modification factor of about 0.60 at x=1e-4, implying strong gluon shadowing.
-
An MLE analysis on the relationship between the initial-state granularity and final-state flow factorization
Flow factorization, but not differential flow, responds strongly to initial-state granularity in peripheral-tube hydrodynamic simulations, and MLE and cumulant estimators disagree on these correlators.
-
Effect of chiral imbalance on the electrical conductivity of hot and dense quark matter using Green-Kubo Method within the 2-flavour gauged NJL model
Electrical conductivity to temperature ratio in quark matter decreases with increasing chiral chemical potential in the NJL model, most strongly at low temperature.
-
Beam-energy dependence of correlations between mean transverse momentum and anisotropic flow of charged particles in Au+Au collisions at RHIC
STAR reports energy-dependent variances and covariances of [p_T] and v_n^2 in Au+Au collisions from 14.6 to 200 GeV, with the dimensionless ratio remaining similar across energies.
-
Investigating forward-backward asymmetry in D-meson production and anisotropic flow in p-Pb collisions at the LHC
AMPT model calculations indicate that forward-backward asymmetry in D0 meson RpPb and v2 in 8.16 TeV p-Pb collisions arises from initial-state cold nuclear effects and final-state partonic interactions, with coalescen...
-
Holographic light-quark energy loss in a spinning plasma
Holographic calculation in a spinning Myers-Perry black brane shows that higher temperature or rotation parameter a shortens light-quark stopping distance and increases instantaneous energy loss, with stronger anisotr...
-
Mass-Dependent Non-Extensivity in Tsallis Blast-Wave Fits to Identified Hadron $p_T$ Spectra at RHIC and LHC
Mass-dependent parameterizations of the non-extensivity parameter q improve Tsallis Blast-Wave fits to identified hadron pT spectra from RHIC and LHC collisions.
-
CNN-Based Online Trigger for QGP Event Selection
CNN trigger for QGP events reaches 83.7% accuracy on reconstructed Au+Au events at 30 AGeV after training on PHSD and cross-validation on UrQMD, with deployment via lightweight C++ package.
-
Open charm production and $\Lambda_{c}^{+}/D^{0}$ ratio in pp and Au+Au collisions at the RHIC
In an AMPT simulation with a hybrid coalescence+fragmentation scheme, the enhanced Lambda_c+/D0 ratio in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV is reproduced only when coalescence is included, implicating coalescence as the domi...
-
AI-Powered Assistant for Long-Term Access to RHIC Knowledge
A RAG-based AI assistant with a custom web crawler provides natural-language access to RHIC's internal documentation, and initial qualitative tests suggest it outperforms public LLMs on proprietary, unpublished knowledge.
-
Impact of particle production mechanisms on pseudorapidity distribution and directed flow in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 19.6 GeV using AMPT model
String fragmentation parameters in the AMPT model change proton directed flow and its system-size dependence at 19.6 GeV, while leaving pions nearly unaffected.
-
Model Comparisons of Transverse Energy and Charged-Particle Multiplicity in A+A Collisions at Midrapidity from $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ $=$ 7.7 to 200~GeV
A broad model-data comparison shows that PYTHIA, AMPT, HIJING, and SMASH all fail to reproduce PHENIX transverse energy and multiplicity at low beam energies and in peripheral collisions.
-
Dynamics of Hot QCD Matter 2024 -- Hard Probes
Proceedings volume summarizing hard probe studies of quark-gluon plasma, with preliminary new results on non-Markovian quarkonium evolution, jet transport simulations, and machine learning taggers.
-
Charmonia Production in Hot QCD Matter and Electromagnetic Fields
The paper explains the measured rise of charmonium nuclear modification factor above unity at pT<0.1 GeV/c in peripheral Pb-Pb collisions as coherent photoproduction from strong electromagnetic fields.
-
Few is different: deciphering many-body dynamics in mesoscopic quantum gases
A workshop report mapping the size, equilibrium, and interaction frontiers of hydrodynamic behavior in mesoscopic quantum systems, connecting few-atom Fermi gases and high-energy small collision systems.
-
Experimental Search for the Chiral Magnetic Effect in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions: A Perspective
The chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions remains unconfirmed, with current data giving a 2.9-sigma hint in Au+Au and an upper limit near 10% in isobar collisions.
-
QGP@50: More than Four Decades of Jet Quenching
A historical and technical review of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions, covering four decades of theory, the RHIC discovery, and modern Bayesian extractions of the jet transport parameter qhat.
-
Ultra-peripheral Collisions
Ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions are reviewed as the energy frontier for photon physics; the paper consolidates a decade of LHC/RHIC results and proposes no new measurement.
-
Towards factorization of jet observables in dense media : An EFT approach
A review of the SCET plus Glauber open quantum system framework for factorizing medium-modified jet observables, using projected nu-point energy correlators as the worked example.
-
The equation of state for neutron stars
A textbook-style review of the neutron-star equation of state covering the models, experimental and observational constraints, and open questions, with no new result claimed or derived.
Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.