Squeezed States for K+K- pairs in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

• Grant number: 07/02350-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2008
• End date: February 28, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Nuclear Physics
• Principal Investigator: Sandra dos Santos Padula
• Grantee: Danuce Marcele Dudek
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 04/10619-9 - Study of high energy hadronic interactions, AP.TEM

Abstract

The Research Project described here aims at investigating a new kind of quantum correlation between particle-antiparticle pairs, whose existence was theoretically predicted in the early nineties by I. V. Andreev, M. Plümer and R. Weiner. The correct treatment of this phenomenon, however, was only established in 1999, by M. Asakawa, T. Csörgö and M. Gyulassy. At that time, it was shown that masses shifted in a dense medium, like the one that is formed in high energy heavy ion collisions, could lead to large Back-to-Back Correlations (BBC) between boson-antiboson pairs. In 2001, P. K. Panda, G. I. Krein, T. Csörgö, Y. Hama, and S. S. Padula showed that fermion-antifermion pairs could also show Back-to-Back Correlations, if their masses were modified in a hot and dense medium, prior to being emitted. One of the surprises of this finding was that the behavior of the fermionic Back-to-Back Correlation function (fBBC) was very similar to that of the bosonic Back-to-Back Correlation function (bBBC), both having unlimited strength, differently from what is observed in femtoscopy of two identical particles. More recently, the above collaboration also studied the effects of moderate flow and finite sizes on the particle squeezing and on Back-to-Back Correlations. It was observed that such effects would reduce the BBC signal, even though this would still survive with significant strength. Nevertheless, although well-established theoretically, this effect has not yet been observed experimentally. Thus, one of the goals of the current work is to investigate the means to optimize the BBC signal, in order to probe the presence of particle squeezing and of Back-to-Back Correlations in high energy collisions. The experimental observation of the BBC in relativistic heavy ion collisions constitutes unequivocal signature of hadronic mass-modification in hot and dense media. Three complementary approaches, planned to be pursued, are described in the sub-section "Specific Studies", as part of the Working Schedule, at the end of this Research Project for Mater Degree.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

DUDEK, Danuce Marcele. Correlação hadrônica comprimida para pares K+K− em colisões de íons pesados relativísticos. 2009. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT). São Paulo São Paulo.