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In the study of femtoscopic correlations in high-energy physics, besides Bose–Einstein correlations, one has to take final-state interactions into account. Amongst them, Coulomb interactions play a prominent role in the case of charged particles. Recent measurements have shown that in heavy-ion collisions, Bose–Einstein correlations can be best described by Lévy-type sources instead of the more common Gaussian assumption. Furthermore, three-dimensional measurements have indicated that, depending on the choice of frame, a deviation from spherical symmetry observed under the assumption of Gaussian source functions persists in the case of Lévy-type sources. To clarify such three-dimensional Lévy-type correlation measurements, it is thus important to study the effect of Coulomb interactions in the case of non-spherical Lévy sources. We calculated the Coulomb correction factor numerically in the case of such a source function for assorted kinematic domains and parameter values using the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm and compared our results with previous methods to treat Coulomb interactions in the presence of Lévy sources.

Femtoscopy has the capacity to probe the space-time geometry of the particle-emitting source in heavy-ion collisions. In particular, femtoscopy of like-sign kaon pairs may shed light on the origin of non-Gaussianity of the spatial emission probability density. The momentum correlations between like-sign kaon pairs are measured in data recorded by the STAR experiment, from sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC, BNL. Preliminary results hint at the possible existence of non-Gaussian, Lévy-stable sources, with the likely presence of an anomalous diffusion process in the signal for the identically charged kaon pairs so produced. More statistically significant studies at lower centre-of-mass energies may contribute to the search for the critical end point of QCD.

Investigation of momentum space correlations of particles produced in high energy reactions requires taking final state interactions into account, a crucial point of any such analysis. Coulomb interaction between charged particles is the most important such effect. In small systems like those created in e + e - - or p + p collisions, the so-called Gamow factor (valid for a point-like particle source) gives an acceptable description of the Coulomb interaction. However, in larger systems such as central or mid-central heavy ion collisions, more involved approaches are needed. In this paper we investigate the Coulomb final state interaction for Lévy-type source functions that were recently shown to be of much interest for a refined description of the space-time picture of particle production in heavy-ion collisions.

Bose–Einstein correlations for same-sign charged pions from proton–proton collisions at s = 7 TeV are studied by the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment. Correlation radii and chaoticity parameters are determined for different regions of charged-particle multiplicity using a double-ratio technique and a Levy parametrization of the correlation function. The correlation radius increases with the charged-particle multiplicity, while the chaoticity parameter decreases, which is consistent with observations from other experiments. A similar study for proton-lead collisions at s N N = 5.02 TeV is proposed. These results can give valuable input for the theoretical models that describe the evolution of the particle source, probing both its potential dependence on pseudorapidity region and differences between proton–proton and proton–lead systems.

Bose-Einstein correlations (BECs) of identical hadrons reveal information about hadron creation from the strongly interacting matter formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The measurement of three-particle correlations may in particular shed light on hadron creation mechanisms beyond thermal/chaotic emission. In this paper, we show the status of PHENIX measurements of three-pion correlations as a function of momentum differences within the triplets. We analyze the shape of the correlation functions through the assumption of Lévy sources and a proper treatment of the Coulomb interaction within the triplets. We measure the three-particle correlation strength ( λ 3 ), which, together with the two-particle correlation strength λ 2 , encodes information about hadron creation mechanisms. From a consistent analysis of two- and three-particle correlation strengths, we establish a new experimental measure of thermalization and coherence in the source.

The phase diagram of strongly interacting matter can be explored by analyzing data of heavy-ion collisions at different center of mass collision energies. For investigating the space-time structure of the hadron emission source, Bose-Einstein or HBT correlation measurements are among the best tools. In this paper we present the latest results from the PHENIX experiment of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on such measurements in s N N = 39 GeV and 62 GeV Au + Au collisions.

In this paper we present the measurement of charged pion two-particle femtoscopic correlation functions in s N N = 200 GeV Au + Au collisions in 31 average transverse mass bins, separately for positive and negative pion pairs. Lévy-shaped source distributions yield a statistically acceptable description of the measured correlation functions, with three physical parameters: correlation strength parameter λ , Lévy index α and Lévy scale parameter R. The transverse mass dependence of these Lévy parameters is then investigated. Their physical interpretation is also discussed, and the appearance of a new scaling variable is observed.

Short-range correlations of identified charged hadrons in pp ( s = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV), pPb ( s NN = 5.02 TeV), and peripheral PbPb collisions ( s NN = 2.76 TeV) are studied with the CMS detector at the LHC. Charged pions, kaons, and protons at low momentum and in laboratory pseudorapidity | η | < 1 are identified via their energy loss in the silicon tracker. The two-particle correlation functions show effects of quantum statistics, Coulomb interaction, and also indicate the role of multi-body resonance decays and mini-jets. The characteristics of the one-, two-, and three-dimensional correlation functions are studied as a function of transverse pair momentum, k T , and the charged-particle multiplicity of the event. The extracted radii are in the range 1–5 fm, reaching highest values for very high multiplicity pPb, also for similar multiplicity PbPb collisions, and decrease with increasing k T . The dependence of radii on multiplicity and k T largely factorizes and appears to be insensitive to the type of the colliding system and center-of-mass energy.