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To assess the degree of equilibration of the matter created in heavy-ion reactions at low to intermediate beam energies, a hadronic transport approach (SMASH) is employed. By using a coarse-graining method, we compute the energy momentum tensor of the system at fixed time steps and evaluate the degree of isotropy of the diagonal terms and the relative magnitude of the off-diagonal terms. This study focuses mostly on Au+Au collisions in the energy range s NN = 2.4–7.7 GeV, but central collisions of lighter ions like C+C, Ar+KCl and Ag+Ag are considered as well. We find that the conditions concerning local equilibration for a hydrodynamic description are reasonably satisfied in a large portion of the system for a significant amount of time (several fm/c) when considering the average evolution of many events, yet they are rarely fulfilled on an event by event basis. This is relevant for the application of hybrid approaches at low beam energies as they are or will be reached by the HADES experiment at GSI, the future CBM experiment at FAIR as well as the beam energy scan program at RHIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the emergence of the collisional broadening of hadrons under the influence of different media using the hadronic transport approach SMASH (Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly interacting Hadrons), which employs vacuum properties and contains no a priori information about in-medium effects. In this context, we define collisional broadening as a decrease in the lifetime of hadrons, and it arises from an interplay between the cross-sections for inelastic processes and the available phase space. We quantify this effect for various hadron species, in both a thermal gas in equilibrium and in nuclear collisions. Furthermore, we distinguish the individual contribution of each process and verify the medium response to different vacuum assumptions; we see that the decay width that depends on the resonance mass leads to a larger broadening than a mass-independent scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review aims at providing an extensive discussion of modern constraints relevant for dense and hot strongly interacting matter. It includes theoretical first-principle results from lattice and perturbative QCD, as well as chiral effective field theory results. From the experimental side, it includes heavy-ion collision and low-energy nuclear physics results, as well as observations from neutron stars and their mergers. The validity of different constraints, concerning specific conditions and ranges of applicability, is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy-ion collisions at varying collision energies provide access to different regions of the QCD phase diagram. In particular collisions at intermediate energies are promising candidates to experimentally identify the postulated first order phase transition and critical end point. While heavy-ion collisions at low and high collision energies are theoretically well described by transport approaches and hydrodynamics+transport hybrid approaches, respectively, intermediate energy collisions remain a challenge. In this work, a modular hybrid approach, the SMASH-vHLLE-hybrid coupling 3+1D viscous hydrodynamics (vHLLE) to hadronic transport (SMASH), is introduced. It is validated and subsequently applied in Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisions between s NN = 4.3 GeV and s NN = 200.0 GeV to study the rapidity and transverse mass distributions of identified particles as well as excitation functions for dN / d y | y = 0 and ⟨ p T ⟩ . A good agreement with experimental measurements is obtained, including the baryon stopping dynamics. The transition from a Gaussian rapidity spectrum of protons at lower energies to the double-hump structure at high energies is reproduced. The centrality and energy dependence of charged particle v 2 is also described reasonably well. This work serves as a basis for further studies, e.g. systematic investigations of different equations of state or transport coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deuteron yield in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76TeV is consistent with thermal production at a freeze out temperature of T=155MeV. The existence of deuterons with binding energy of 2.2 MeV at this temperature was described as "snowballs in hell" [P. Braun-Münzinger, B. Dönigus, and N. Löher, CERN Courier, August 2015]. We provide a microscopic explanation of this phenomenon, utilizing relativistic hydrodynamics and switching to a hadronic afterburner at the above-mentioned temperature of T=155MeV. The measured deuteron pT spectra and coalescence parameter B2(pT) are reproduced without free parameters, only by implementing experimentally known cross sections of deuteron reactions with hadrons, most importantly πd↔πnp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beam Energy Scan Theory (BEST) Collaboration was formed with the goal of providing a theoretical framework for analyzing data from the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The physics goal of the BES program is the search for a conjectured QCD critical point as well as for manifestations of the chiral magnetic effect. We describe progress that has been made over the previous five years. This includes studies of the equation of state and equilibrium susceptibilities, the development of suitable initial state models, progress in constructing a hydrodynamic framework that includes fluctuations and anomalous transport effects, as well as the development of freezeout prescriptions and hadronic transport models. Finally, we address the challenge of integrating these components into a complete analysis framework. This document describes the collective effort of the BEST Collaboration and its collaborators around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross sections for photon production in hadronic scattering processes have been calculated according to an effective chiral field theory. For π + ρ → π + γ and π + π → ρ + γ processes, these cross sections have been implemented into a novel hadronic transport approach (SMASH), which is suitable for collisions at low and intermediate energies. The implementation is verified by systematically comparing the thermal photon rate to theoretical expectations. The photon rates we obtain are compared to previous works, where scattering processes mediated by ω mesons are found to contribute significantly to the total photon production. Finally, the impact of considering the finite width of the ρ meson is investigated, and a significant enhancement of photon production in the low-energy region is observed. This work is the first step towards a consistent treatment of photon emission in hybrid hydrodynamics+transport approaches. The quantification of the importance of the hadronic stage for the resolution of the direct photon flow puzzle is a next step and can be applied to identify equilibrium and non-equilibrium effects in the hadronic afterburner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Simulations by transport codes are indispensable for extracting valuable physical information from heavy-ion collisions. Pion observables such as the π-/π+ yield ratio are expected to be sensitive to the symmetry energy at high densities. Purpose: To evaluate, understand, and reduce the uncertainties in transport-code results originating from different approximations in handling the production of Δ resonances and pions. Methods: We compare ten transport codes under controlled conditions for a system confined in a box, with periodic boundary conditions, and initialized with nucleons at saturation density and at a temperature of 60 MeV. The reactions NN↔NΔ and Δ↔Nπ are implemented, but the Pauli blocking and the mean-field potential are deactivated in the present comparison. Thus, these are cascade calculations including pions and Δ resonances. Results are compared to those from the two reference cases of a chemically equilibrated ideal gas mixture and of the rate equation. Results: For the numbers of Δ and π, deviations from the reference values are observed in many codes, and they depend significantly on the size of the time step. These deviations are tied to different ways in ordering the sequence of reactions, such as collisions and decays, that take place in the same time step. Better agreements with the reference values are seen in the reaction rates and the number ratios among the isospin species of Δ and π. Both the reaction rates and the number ratios are, however, affected by the correlations between particle positions, which are absent in the Boltzmann equation, but are induced by the way particle scatterings are treated in many of the transport calculations. The uncertainty in the transport-code predictions of the π-/π+ ratio, after letting the existing Δ resonances decay, is found to be within a few percent for the system initialized at n/p=1.5. Conclusions: The uncertainty in the final π-/π+ ratio in this simplified case of particles in a box is sufficiently small so that it does not strongly impact constraining the high-density symmetry energy from heavy-ion collisions. Most of the sources of uncertainties have been understood, and individual codes may be further improved in future applications. This investigation will be extended in the future to heavy-ion collisions to ensure the problems identified here remain under control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]