Search

The proton-deuteron correlation function measured by the ALICE collaboration in high multiplicity p+p collisions shows a momentum dependence which is in contradiction with the predictions of the Lednick\'y-Lyuboshitz formalism of the two-body interaction. This result motivated a more sophisticated three-body description in terms of a composed deuteron. Encouraged by the good description of other deuteron observables in the context of heavy-ion collisions we revisit this correlation function under the two-body approximation not relying on the Lednick\'y-Lyuboshitz approximation, but using the solution of the Schr\"odinger equation incorporating both strong and Coulomb interactions. The two-body description provides a reasonable agreement to ALICE data for natural values of the source size. Interpreting the previously assumed attractive character of the $(L,S)=(0,3/2)$ channel of the $pd$ interaction into a more-likely repulsion, the results agree better not only with the ALICE measurements but also with recent STAR data in Au+Au collisions., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

We calculate several femtoscopy correlation functions in the strangeness sectors $S=0$ and $S=-2$ for meson-baryon interactions. We combine the amplitudes of chiral perturbation theory at leading order with the TROY (T-matrix-based Routine for HadrOn femtoscopY) framework. We consider the correlation function for the $\pi^+$p and $\pi^-$p channels, which are currently under analysis by the ALICE collaboration at the LHC. Furthermore, we will show that analogous interactions can be used to reproduce the results for $K_S \Lambda$ correlation functions obtained by ALICE collaboration in PbPb collisions., Comment: 1+4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2024)

This contribution to the SQM2024 conference covers the molecular hypothesis for the internal structure of some open and hidden charm states. The use of effective theories that incorporate heavy-quark spin symmetry, combined with unitarization techniques, has provided strong evidences supporting this interpretation. In the heavy-light sector, we discuss the double pole structure of the $D_0^*(2300)$ and the generation of the $D_{s0}^*(2317)$. In the hidden charm sector, we focus on the exotic $X(3872)$ and its heavy-quark partner, the $X(4014)$. Furthermore, we emphasize the benefits of femtoscopic measurements in $p+p$ collisions to establish the nature of these states, as well as the potential role of temperature to discern their internal structure., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM 2024)

Heavy quarks, and the hadrons containing them, are excellent probes of the QCD medium formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, as they provide direct information on the transport properties of the medium and how quarks color-neutralize into hadrons. Large theoretical and phenomenological efforts have been dedicated thus far to assess the diffusion of charm and bottom quarks in the quark-gluon plasma and their subsequent hadronization into heavy-flavor (HF) hadrons. However, the fireball formed in heavy-ion collisions also features an extended hadronic phase, and therefore any quantitative analysis of experimental observables needs to account for rescattering of charm and bottom hadrons. This is further reinforced by the presence of a QCD cross-over transition and the notion that the interaction strength is maximal in the vicinity of the pseudo-critical temperature. We review existing approaches for evaluating the interactions of open HF hadrons in a hadronic heat bath and the pertinent results for scattering amplitudes, spectral functions and transport coefficients. While most of the work to date has focused on $D$ mesons, we also discuss excited states as well as HF baryons and the bottom sector. Both the HF hadro-chemistry and bottom observables will play a key role in future experimental measurements. We also conduct a survey of transport calculations in heavy-ion collisions that have included effects of hadronic HF diffusion and assess their sensitivity to various observables., Comment: 60 pages, 45 figures. Review article sent to Physics Reports journal

Mesons with heavy flavor content are an exceptional probe of the hot QCD medium produced in heavy-ion collisions. In the past few years, significant progress has been made toward describing the modification of the properties of heavy mesons in the hadronic phase at finite temperature. Ground-state and excited-state thermal spectral properties can be computed within a self-consistent many-body approach that employs appropriate hadron-hadron effective interactions, providing a unique opportunity to confront hadronic Effective Field Theory predictions with recent and forthcoming lattice QCD simulations and experimental data. In this article, we revisit the application of the imaginary-time formalism to extend the calculation of unitarized scattering amplitudes from the vacuum to finite temperature. These methods allow us to obtain the ground-state thermal spectral functions. The thermal properties of the excited states that are dynamically generated within the molecular picture are also directly accessible. We present here the results of this approach for the open-charm and open-bottom sectors. We also analyze how the heavy-flavor transport properties, which are strongly correlated to experimental observables in heavy-ion collisions, are modified in hot matter. In particular, transport coefficients can be computed using an off-shell kinetic theory that is fully consistent with the effective theory describing the scattering processes. The results of this procedure for both charm and bottom transport coefficients are briefly discussed., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Front.Phys.-Nuclear Physics to contribute to the Research Topic: Excotic Aspects of Hadrons and Nuclei

Hadron femtoscopy has turned into a powerful tool for accessing space-time information of heavy-ion collisions as well as for studying final-state interactions of hadrons. Recently, heavy-flavor femtoscopy has become feasible using the ALICE detector at the LHC. We compute the correlation function of $D$ mesons and light mesons using an off-shell $T$-matrix approach to access the two-meson wave function, and predict the correlation functions involving charged $D^+, D^{*+},D_s^+$ and $D_s^{*+}$ with $\pi^\pm$ and $K^\pm$. From the obtained results -- all of them accessible in $p+p$ collision experiments -- we point up the case of $D^+ \pi^-$, which is sensitive to the lower state of the two-pole $D_0^* (2300)$ system. The presence of such poles imprints a depletion on the correlation function, which could potentially be detected in experiments. While preliminary ALICE data do not show evidence of this effect, we suggest to look into the $D_s^+ K^-$ system to explore the higher pole of the $D_0^* (2300)$, as the depletion in the correlation function is more pronounced. Using heavy-quark spin symmetry we also propose exploring the effect of the two poles of the $D_1(2430)$ and predict similar structures in the correlation functions of the $D^{*+} \pi^-$ and $D_s^{*+} K^-$ pairs., Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures (data points in ancillary data). v2: Version accepted by Phys.Rev.D journal, containing additional references and providing the pole positions of the generated resonances by the off-shell T-matrix equation

We have investigated the many-body equations of $D$ and $\bar{B}$ mesons in a thermal medium by applying an effective field theory based on chiral and heavy-quark symmetries. Exploiting these symmetries within kinetic theory, we have derived an off-shell Fokker-Planck equation which incorporates information of the full spectral functions of these states. In this contribution we present our latest results on heavy-flavor transport coefficients below the chiral restoration temperature, in both charm and bottom sectors. The calculation incorporating temperature-dependent spectral functions and interactions, together with off-shell effects, allows for an improved matching to the state-of-the-art calculations above the chiral transition temperature., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of ICHEP 2022 conference, see https://www.ichep2022.it/

We derive the total helicity conservation law for a perfect electromagnetic relativistic fluid. As the conservation equation contains the derivative of the magnetic helicity, it can be reshaped as having the same form as the chiral anomaly equation if the fluid is isentropic. We also take the non-relativistic limit of the helicity conservation law, and check the agreement with the Abanov-Wiegmann equation at zero temperature, but we provide further corrections in the more general case. We then consider chiral fluids, when the chiral anomaly equation has to be incorporated in the hydrodynamical equations, together with other chiral transport effects which exist in the presence of a chiral imbalance. We finally study how the chiral imbalance modifies the helicity conservation law., Comment: v2: 17 pages, with additional explanations and an updated reference list. Version to be published in Phys.Rev.D journal

We investigate the capabilities of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model to describe and reproduce fundamental vacuum properties of Quantum Chromodynamics, notably the hadronic spectrum. Mesons are described as quark-antiquark bound states at the level of the random phase approximation of the Bethe-Salpeter equation, while baryons are characterized as quark-diquark bound states within the static approximation of the Faddeev equation. Within a Bayesian framework, we constrain the model by phenomenologically known quantities and study the implications on its parameters and predictions in vacuum, as well as the correlations between the two. We find that within our framework, the vacuum masses of mesons and baryons can be reasonably well reproduced. Scalar diquarks need to be significantly bound in order to correctly reproduce the masses of the baryon octet, therefore enforcing values of the scalar diquark coupling larger than what is suggested by the canonical Fierz values. These findings could have important implications on the phenomenology of strongly-interacting matter at high temperature and density as well as of compact star physics., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures

The properties of the $X(3872)$ and its spin partner, the $X(4014)$, are studied both in vacuum and at finite temperature. Using an effective hadron theory based on the hidden-gauge Lagrangian, the $X(3872)$ is dynamically generated from the $s$-wave rescattering of a pair of pseudoscalar and vector charm mesons. By incorporating the thermal spectral functions of open charm mesons, the calculation is extended to finite temperature. Similarly, the properties of the $X(4014)$ are obtained out of the scattering of charm vector mesons. By applying heavy-quark flavor symmetry, the properties of their bottom counterparts in the axial-vector and tensor channels are also predicted. All the dynamically generated states show a decreasing mass and acquire an increasing decay width with temperature, following the trend observed in their meson constituents. These results are relevant in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at high energies, in analyses of the collective medium formed after hadronization or in femtoscopic studies, and can be tested in lattice-QCD calculations exploring the melting of heavy mesons at finite temperature., Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

We determine the kinetic coefficients of ultrasoft pions using chiral perturbation theory at finite temperature close to the chiral limit. This is used to compute the axial charge diffusion and damping coefficients in the hydrodynamic effective theory for these pion waves. We show that to provide a leading order answer for these coefficients one needs to explore the dynamics of hard, soft, and ultrasoft pion modes, which are represented microscopically by the appropriate kinetic and hydrodynamic descriptions.., Comment: 30.5 pages, 7 figures. Generalization to arbitrary number of flavors, by considering pion-pion scattering in SU(N) instead of SU(2). Explanations and extra references added. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D journal

I discuss the masses of chiral partners in the context of chiral symmetry restoration at finite temperature. Using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model I first remind the usual situation where two mesons of opposed parity become degenerate above the chiral transition temperature. Then I consider an effective theory for D mesons where the positive parity companion presents a "double pole structure". In this case three different masses need to be analyzed as functions of the temperature. I suggest a possible restoration pattern at high temperatures when the back-reaction of the quark condensate is incorporated., Comment: 10 pages (11 according to arxiv.org compiler), 6 figures. Contribution to the Proceedings of the XXXIII International Workshop on High Energy Physics "Hard Problems of Hadron Physics: Non-Perturbative QCD & Related Quests"

We study the spectroscopy and transport properties of charmed mesons in a thermal medium by applying an effective field theory based on chiral and heavy-quark symmetries in the imaginary time formalism. Relying on unitarity constraints and self-consistency we extract the in-medium properties (masses and widths) of $D$ and $D_s$ mesons and their interactions with light hadrons. We report our findings on 1) dynamically generated states, 2) thermal evolution of chiral partners, 3) in-medium scattering amplitudes, and 4) transport coefficients below the chiral restoration temperature., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Contribution to the 10th International Workshop on Charm Physics (CHARM2020). Accepted for publication in Proceedings of Science

The final stage of a relativistic heavy-ion collision is a hadron gas. Final-state interactions therein distort the $p_T$ spectrum of particles coming from the phase transition upon cooling the quark-gluon plasma. Using recent state-of-the-art parametrizations of pion interactions we provide theoretical computations of the pionic depth of the gas: how likely is it that a given pion rescatters in it (we find a high probability around $p_T=0.5$ GeV at midrapidity, corresponding to the formation of the $\rho$ resonance), a comparison of the collision and Bjorken expansion rates, and how many pions make it through without interacting as a function of $p_T$. This is in the range 10-24$\%$ and shown in this plot, the main result of the contribution., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP2021), 26-30 July 2021

We address the modification of open heavy-flavor mesons in a hot medium of light mesons within an effective theory approach consistent with chiral and heavy-quark spin-flavor symmetries and the use of the imaginary time formalism to introduce the non-zero temperature effects to the theory. The unitarized scattering amplitudes, the ground-state self-energies and the corresponding spectral functions are calculated self-consistently. We use the thermal ground-state spectral functions obtained with this methodology to further calculate 1) open-charm meson Euclidean correlators, and 2) off-shell transport coefficients in the hadronic phase., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the proceedings for the 19th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM 2021), online 17-22 May 2021 (Submission to EPJ)

We investigate the long-standing question of the effect of proton-antiproton annihilation on the (anti-)proton yield, while respecting detailed balance for the 5-body back-reaction for the first time in a full microscopic description of the late stages of heavy-ion collisions. This is achieved by employing a stochastic collision criterion in a hadronic transport approach (SMASH), which allows to treat arbitrary multi-particle reactions. It is used to account for the regeneration of (anti-)protons via $5\pi\rightarrow p\bar{p}$. Our results show that a back-reaction happens for a fraction of 15-20\% of all annihilations. Within a viscous hybrid approach Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisions from $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=17.3$ GeV$-5.02$ TeV are investigated and the quoted fraction is independent of the beam energy or centrality of the collision. Taking the back-reaction into account results in regeneration of half of the (anti-)proton yield that is lost due to annihilations at midrapidity. We also find that, concerning the multiplicities, treating the back-reaction as a chain of 2-body reactions is equivalent to a single 5-to-2 reaction., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Chiral symmetry represents a fundamental concept lying at the core of particle and nuclear physics. Its spontaneous breaking in vacuum can be exploited to distinguish chiral hadronic partners, whose masses differ. In fact, the features of this breaking serve as guiding principles for the construction of effective approaches of QCD at low energies, e.g., the chiral perturbation theory, the linear sigma model, the (Polyakov)--Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, etc. At high temperatures/densities chiral symmetry can be restored bringing the chiral partners to be nearly degenerated in mass. At vanishing baryochemical potential, such restoration follows a smooth transition, and the chiral companions reach this degeneration above the transition temperature. In this work I review how different realizations of chiral partner degeneracy arise in different effective theories/models of QCD. I distinguish the cases where the chiral states are either fundamental degrees of freedom or (dynamically-generated) composed states. In particular, I discuss the intriguing case in which chiral symmetry restoration involves more than two chiral partners, recently addressed in the literature., Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures. Published version in Symmetry journal, Special Issue "Advances on Chiral Symmetry and Its Restoration". Typos corrected and new references added

We study the deuteron production via the deuteron pion and nucleon catalysis reactions, $\pi p n \leftrightarrow \pi d$ and $N p n \leftrightarrow N d$, by employing stochastic multi-particle reactions in the hadronic transport approach SMASH for the first time. This is an improvement compared to previous studies, which introduced an artificial fake resonance $d'$ to simulate these $3 \leftrightarrow 2$ reactions as a chain of $2\leftrightarrow 2$ reactions. The derivation of the stochastic criterion for multi-particle reactions is presented in a comprehensive fashion and its implementation is tested against an analytic expression for the scattering rate and the equilibrating particle yields in box calculations. We then study Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 7.7$ GeV, where we find that multi-particle collisions substantially reduce the time required for deuterons to reach partial chemical equilibrium with nucleons. Subsequently, the final yield of $d$ is practically independent from the number of $d$ at particlization, confirming the results of previous studies. The mean transverse momentum and the integrated elliptic flow as a function of centrality are rather insensitive to the exact realization of the $2\leftrightarrow 3$ reactions., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; included text files with the data to reproduce the figures; replaced with published version; additional appendix about grid setup

We extend the kinetic theory of $D$ mesons to accommodate thermal and off-shell effects due to the medium modification of the heavy-meson spectral functions. From the Kadanoff-Baym approach we derive the off-shell Fokker-Planck equation which encodes the heavy-flavor transport coefficients. We analyze the thermal width (damping rate) of $D$ mesons due to their scattering off light mesons, focusing on new in-medium effects: off-shell corrections, inelastic channels, and the contribution of the Landau cut. We obtain that the latter effect (absent for vacuum scattering amplitudes) brings sizable corrections at moderate temperatures. We discuss how the heavy-flavor transport coefficients, like the drag and diffusion coefficients, are modified in matter. We find that the $D$-meson spatial diffusion coefficient matches smoothly to the latest results of lattice-QCD calculations and Bayesian analyses at higher temperatures., Comment: 47 pages, 14 figures. Theoretical foundations largely abridged (we refer to v1 for details). Extended discussions and added new figures. Results unmodified. Version published by Physical Review C journal

We study the effect of a small fermion mass in the formulation of the on-shell effective field theory (OSEFT). This is our starting point to derive small mass corrections to the chiral kinetic theory. In the massless case, only four Wigner functions are needed to describe positive and negative energy fermions of left and right chirality, corresponding to the vectorial components of a fermionic two-point Green's function. As soon as mass correction are introduced, tensorial components are also needed, while the scalar components strictly vanish in the OSEFT. The tensorial components are conveniently parametrized in the so-called spin coherence function, which describe quantum coherent mixtures of left-right and right-left chiral fermions, of either positive or negative energy. We show that, up to second order in the energy expansion, vectorial and tensorial components are decoupled, and obey the same dispersion law and transport equation, depending on their respective chirality. We study the mass modifications of the reparametrization invariance of the OSEFT, and check that vector and tensorial components are related by the associated symmetry transformations. We study how the macroscopic properties of the system are described in terms of the whole set of Wigner functions, and check that our framework allows to account for the mass modifications to the chiral anomaly equation., Comment: Version accepted for publication, typos corrected, and new section (VIIC) with explanations on the relation to other approaches. 38 pages, no figures

Vacuum and thermal properties of pseudoscalar and vector charm mesons are analyzed within a self-consistent many-body approach, employing a chiral effective field theory that incorporates heavy-quark spin symmetry. Upon unitarization of the vacuum interaction amplitudes for the scattering of charm mesons off light mesons in a fully coupled-channel basis, new dynamically generated states are searched. The imaginary-time formalism is employed to extend the calculation to finite temperatures up to $T=150$ MeV. Medium-modified spectral shapes of the $D$, $D^*$, $D_s$ and $D_s^*$ mesons are provided. The temperature dependence of the masses and decay widths of the nonstrange $D_0^*$ (2300) and $D_1^*$(2430) mesons, both showing a double-pole structure in the complex-energy plane, is also reported, as well as that of the $D_{s0}^*$(2317) and $D_{s1}^*$(2460) resonances and other states not yet identified experimentally. Being the first calculation incorporating open-charm vector mesons at finite temperature in a self-consistent fashion, it brings up the opportunity to discuss the medium effects on the open charm sector under the perspective of chiral and heavy-quark spin symmetries., Comment: 47 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables. References added and typos removed. Additional explanations on unitarization procedure, medium modifications of pion, and cutoff parameter dependence. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review D journal

We discuss the potential of light-nuclei measurement in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies for the search of the hypothetical QCD critical end-point. A previous proposal based on neutron density fluctuations has brought appealing experimental evidences of a maximum in a ratio involving tritons, protons and deuterons, ${\cal O}_{tpd}$. However these results are difficult to reconcile with the state-of-the-art statistical thermal model predictions. Based on the idea that the QCD critical point can lead to a substantial attraction among nucleons, we propose new ratios involving $^4$He in which the maximum would be more evident. We argue that the experimental extraction is feasible by presenting actual measurements at low and high collision energies. We also illustrate the possible behavior of these ratios at intermediate energies applying the semiclassical method based on flucton paths using preliminary STAR data for ${\cal O}_{tpd}$., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Typos fixed, explanations extended, figures improved, and new references added. Version published in Eur.Phys.J.A

We study $D$ and $D_s$ mesons at finite temperature using an effective field theory based on chiral and heavy-quark spin-flavor symmetries within the imaginary-time formalism. Interactions with the light degrees of freedom are unitarized via a Bethe-Salpeter approach, and the $D$ and $D_s$ self-energies are calculated self-consistently. We generate dynamically the $D^*_0(2300)$ and $D_s(2317)$ states, and study their possible identification as the chiral partners of the $D$ and $D_s$ ground states, respectively. We show the evolution of their masses and decay widths as functions of temperature, and provide an analysis of the chiral-symmetry restoration in the heavy-flavor sector below the transition temperature. In particular, we analyse the very special case of the $D$-meson, for which the chiral partner is associated to the double-pole structure of the $D^*_0(2300)$., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. v2: Corrected self-consistent calculation due to missing numerical factor. Conclusions remain unchanged. New references and discussion on validity of temperature range. Results on figure 3 provided as ancillary data. Version accepted by Physics Letters B journal

Cross sections for photon production in hadronic scattering processes have been calculated according to an effective chiral field theory. For $\pi + \rho \to \pi + \gamma$ and $\pi + \pi \to \rho + \gamma$ 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 $\omega$ mesons are found to contribute significantly to the total photon production. Finally, the impact of considering the finite width of the $\rho$ 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., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of Quark Matter 2019

Following the idea of nucleon clustering and light-nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions close to the QCD critical-end point, we address the quantum effects affecting the interaction of several nucleons at finite temperature. For this aim we use the $K$-harmonics method to four-nucleon states ($\alpha$ particle), and also develop a novel semiclassical "flucton" method at finite temperature, based on certain classical paths in Euclidean time, and apply it to two- and four-particle configurations. To study possible effects on the light-nuclei production close to the QCD critical point, we also made such calculations with modified internuclear potentials. For heavy-ion experiments, we propose new measurements of light-nuclei multiplicity ratios which may show enhancements due to baryon preclustering. We point out the special role of the $\mathcal{O}(50)$ four-nucleon excitations of $\alpha$-particle, feeding into the final multiplicities of $d,t$, $^3$He and $^4$He, and propose to directly look for their two-body decays., Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, typos fixed, small corrections and clarifications added, quality of some plots improved, references added. Version accepted for publication by the Physical Review C journal

We show that the on-shell effective theory (OSEFT) is the quantum field theory counterpart of a Foldy-Wouthuysen diagonalization of relativistic quantum mechanics for massless fermions. Thus, it is free of the Zitterbewegung oscillations that would yield an ill-defined meaning to the semiclassical transport approach at short distances if derived from the pure Dirac picture. We present a detailed derivation of the collision terms in the chiral kinetic theory using the OSEFT. Collision integrals are derived up to order 1/E, where E is the energy of an on-shell fermion. At this order, the collision terms depends on the spin tensor of the fermion, and in the presence of chiral imbalance, it describes how a massless fermion of a given helicity interacts differently with the transverse photons of different circular polarization. In order to back up our results, we check that they allow us to reproduce the fermion decay rate in an ultradegenerate plasma with a chiral imbalance computed directly from QED., Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, title and abstract modified, version largely extended with more details and discussions, results and conclusions unchanged

The scalar-isoscalar mode of QCD becomes lighter/nearly massless close to the chiral transition/second-order critical point. From nuclear physics we know that this mode is the main responsible for the attractive part of the nucleon-nucleon potential at inter-particle distances of 1-2 fm. Therefore one expects that close to the critical point there is a long-range strong attraction among nucleons. Using a Walecka-Serot model for the NN potential we study the effects of the critical point in a finite system of nucleons and mesons by solving classical Molecular Dynamics+Langevin equations for the freeze-out conditions of heavy-ion collisions. Going beyond the mean-field approximation allows us to account for strong nucleon correlations in the time evolution, leading to baryon clustering. We observe that light cluster formation, together with an enhancement of higher-order cumulants of the proton distribution can signal the presence of the critical point., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Contribution to the conference proceedings of The Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement "CPOD 2018" conference (CORFU 2018). This version: Corrected light-nuclei ratios. Version published in PoS

In this work, the production of photons through binary scattering processes is investigated for equilibrated hadronic systems. More precisely, a non-equilibrium hadronic transport approach to describe relativistic heavy-ion collisions is benchmarked with respect to photon emission. Cross sections for photon production in $\pi + \rho \to \pi + \gamma$ and $\pi + \pi \to \rho + \gamma$ scattering processes are derived from an effective chiral field theory and implemented into the hadronic transport approach, SMASH (Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons). The implementation is verified by systematically comparing the thermal photon rate to theoretical expectations. Further, the impact of form factors is discussed, scattering processes mediated by $\omega$ mesons are found to contribute significantly to the total photon production. Several comparisons of the yielded photon rates are performed: to parametrizations of the very same rates, as used in hydrodynamic simulations, to previous works relying on different cross sections for the production of direct photons from the hadronic stage, and to partonic rates. Finally, the impact of considering the finite width of the $\rho$ meson is investigated, where a significant enhancement of photon production in the low-energy region is observed. This benchmark is the first step towards a consistent treatment of photon emission in hybrid hydrodynamics+transport approaches and a genuine dynamical description., Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures

Motivated by the theory of relativistic hydrodynamic fluctuations we make use of the Green-Kubo formula to compute the electrical conductivity and the (second-order) relaxation time of the electric current of an interacting hadron gas. We use the recently developed transport code SMASH to numerically solve the coupled set of Boltzmann equations implementing realistic hadronic interactions. In particular, we explore the role of the resonance lifetimes in the determination of the electrical relaxation time. As opposed to a previous calculation of the shear viscosity we observe that the presence of resonances with lifetimes of the order of the mean-free time does not appreciably affect the relaxation of the electric current fluctuations. We compare our results to other approaches describing similar systems, and provide the value of the electrical conductivity and the relaxation time for a hadron gas at temperatures between T=60 MeV and T=150 MeV., Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures. Typos corrected, new references incorporated and minor clarifications added. Version to be published by the Physical Review D journal

We formulate the on-shell effective field theory (OSEFT) in an arbitrary frame and study its reparametrization invariance (RI), which ensures that it is respectful of Lorentz symmetry. In this formulation the OSEFT Lagrangian looks formally equivalent to the sum over light-like velocities of soft collinear effective field theory in the Abelian limit, differences remain in the scale of the gauge fields involved in the two effective theories. We then use the OSEFT Lagrangian expanded in powers of the on-shell energy to derive how the classical transport equations for charged massless fermions are corrected by quantum effects, as derived from quantum field theory. We provide a formulation in a full covariant way, and explain how the consistent form of the chiral anomaly equation can be recovered from our results. We also show how the side jump transformation of the distribution function associated with massless charged fermions can be derived from the RI transformation rules of the OSEFT quantum fields. Finally, we discuss differences in our results with others found in the literature., Comment: 30 pages; It matches the published version, one appendix and explanations added

We study clustering of baryons at the freeze-out point of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Using a Walecka-Serot model for the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction we analyze how the modified/critical $\sigma$ mode---responsible for the NN attraction---allows for clustering of nucleons when the system is close to a possible critical point of QCD. We investigate clusters of few nucleons, and also the internal cluster configuration when the system is long lived. For realistic heavy-ion collisions we study to how extend such clusters can be formed in a finite time, and perform the statistical analysis of cumulants and higher-order moments (skewness and kurtosis) for collisions at the Beam Energy Scan of RHIC., Comment: l additions: (i) about small clusters with 4 nucleons, contributing to He4 production; (ii) inter-baryon potential from functional renormalization group results

We present a study of the elliptic flow and $R_{AA}$ of D and anti-D mesons in Au+Au collisions at FAIR energies. We propagate the charm quarks and the D mesons following a previously applied Langevin dynamics. The evolution of the background medium is modeled in two different ways: (I) we use the UrQMD hydrodynamics + Boltzmann transport hybrid approach including a phase transition to QGP and (II) with the coarse-graining approach employing also an equation of state with QGP. The latter approach has previously been used to describe di-lepton data at various energies very successfully. This comparison allows us to explore the effects of partial thermalization and viscous effects on the charm propagation. We explore the centrality dependencies of the collisions, the variation of the decoupling temperature and various hadronization parameters. We find that the initial partonic phase is responsible for the creation of most of the D mesons elliptic flow and that the subsequent hadronic interactions seem to play only a minor role. This indicates that D mesons elliptic flow is a smoking gun for a partonic phase at FAIR energies. However, the results suggest that the magnitude and the details of the elliptic flow strongly depend on the dynamics of the medium and on the hadronization procedure, which is related to the medium properties as well. Therefore, even at FAIR energies the charm quark might constitute a very useful tool to probe the Quark-Gluon Plasma and investigate its physics.

We describe two independent frameworks which provide unambiguous determinations of the deconfinement and the decoupling conditions of a relativistic gas at finite temperature. First, we use the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model to compute meson and baryon masses at finite temperature and determine their melting temperature as a function of their strangeness content. Second, we analyze a simple expanding gas within a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric, which admits a well-defined decoupling mechanism. We examine the decoupling time as a function of the particle mass and cross section. We find evidences of an inherent dependence of the hadronization and freeze-out conditions on flavor, and on mass and cross section, respectively., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2017), Utrecht, the Netherlands, 10-15 July 2017

We study the equation of state of QCD using an improved version of the three-flavor Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model beyond the mean-field approximation. It incorporates the effects of unquenched quarks into the Polyakov-loop effective potential, as well as mesonic contributions to the grand-canonical potential. We study in full detail the calculation of the thermodynamical potential in this approach and compare the resulting pressure and entropy density with the most-recent lattice-QCD calculations at zero baryochemical potential. Finally, we present some exploratory results at finite chemical potential which include the phase diagram of the model, the quark and meson masses, and finally, the thermodynamical pressure., Comment: 44 pages, 23 figures. Small improvements and more explanations added. Reference list updated. Comparison with recent lattice-QCD results incorporated. Version accepted by the Physical Review C journal

We discuss the quark masses and the elastic $q\bar q$ cross sections at finite chemical potential in the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We comment the generic features of the cross sections as functions of the chemical potential, temperature and collision energy. Finally, we discuss their relevance in the construction of a relativistic transport model for heavy-ion collisions based on this effective Lagrangian., Comment: Proceedings Discovery Physics at the LHC, December 4-9, 2016 Protea Hotel, Kruger Gate, SA

We study the single electron spectra from $D-$ and $B-$meson semileptonic decays in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$200, 62.4, and 19.2 GeV by employing the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach that has been shown to reasonably describe the charm dynamics at RHIC and LHC energies on a microscopic level. In this approach the initial heavy quarks are produced by using the PYTHIA which is tuned to reproduce the FONLL calculations. The produced heavy quarks interact with off-shell massive partons in QGP with scattering cross sections which are calculated in the dynamical quasi-particle model (DQPM). At energy densities close to the critical energy density the heavy quarks are hadronized into heavy mesons through either coalescence or fragmentation. After hadronization the heavy mesons interact with the light hadrons by employing the scattering cross sections from an effective Lagrangian. The final heavy mesons then produce single electrons through semileptonic decay. We find that the PHSD approach well describes the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ and elliptic flow $v_2$ of single electrons in d+Au and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 200 GeV and the elliptic flow in Au+Au reactions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 62.4 GeV from the PHENIX collaboration, however, the large $R_{\rm AA}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 62.4 GeV is not described at all. Furthermore, we make predictions for the $R_{\rm AA}$ of $D-$mesons and of single electrons at the lower energy of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 19.2 GeV. Additionally, the medium modification of the azimuthal angle $\phi$ between a heavy quark and a heavy antiquark is studied. We find that the transverse flow enhances the azimuthal angular distributions close to $\phi=$ 0 because the heavy flavors strongly interact with nuclear medium in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and almost flow with the bulk matter., Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures

The drag and diffusion coefficients of heavy baryons ($\Lambda_c$ and $\Lambda_b$) in the hadronic phase created in the latter stage of the heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies have been evaluated recently. In this work we compute some experimental observables, such as the nuclear suppression factor $R_{AA}$ and the elliptic flow $v_2$ of heavy baryons at RHIC and LHC energies, highlighting the role of the hadronic phase contribution to these observables, which are going to be measured at Run 3 of LHC. For the time evolution of the heavy quarks in the QGP and heavy baryons in the hadronic phase we use the Langevin dynamics. For the hadronization of the heavy quarks to heavy baryons we employ Peterson fragmentation functions. We observe a strong suppression of both the $\Lambda_c$ and $\Lambda_b$. We find that the hadronic medium has a sizable impact on the heavy-baryon elliptic flow whereas the impact of hadronic medium rescattering is almost unnoticeable on the nuclear suppression factor. We evaluate the $\Lambda_c/D$ ratio at RHIC and LHC. We find that $\Lambda_c/D$ ratio remain unaffected due to the hadronic phase rescattering which enable it as a nobel probe of QGP phase dynamics along with its hadronization., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures

We compute the transport coefficients (drag and momentum diffusion) of the low-lying heavy baryons $\Lambda_c$ and $\Lambda_b$ in a medium of light mesons formed at the later stages of high-energy heavy-ion collisions. We employ the Fokker-Planck approach to obtain the transport coefficients from unitarized baryon-meson interactions based on effective field theories that respect chiral and heavy-quark symmetries. We provide the transport coefficients as a function of temperature and heavy-baryon momentum, and analyze the applicability of certain nonrelativistic estimates. Moreover we compare our outcome for the spatial diffusion coefficient to the one coming from the solution of the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport equation and we find a very good agreement between both calculations. The transport coefficients for $\Lambda_c$ and $\Lambda_b$ in a thermal bath will be used in a subsequent publication as input in a Langevin evolution code for the generation and propagation of heavy particles in heavy-ion collisions at LHC and RHIC energies., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Title changed. Small additions and corrections. Version accepted for publication by Physical Review D journal

Recent consensus on the $N_f=2+1$ equation of state at vanishing chemical potential from different lattice-QCD groups has spoiled the previous agreement with the outcome from the mean-field Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. In this letter we review the thermodynamics of the PNJL model introducing two important aspects needed to describe the pressure computed in the lattice QCD. First, we consider the thermodynamics of the model beyond the mean-field approach to include pseudoscalar and scalar mesonic-like fluctuations into the grand-canonical potential. This accounts for the hadronic pressure of the system below the critical temperature. On the other hand we also implement the back reaction of quarks into the Polyakov-loop effective potential bringing a reduction of the pressure above $T_c$ from the Stefan-Boltzmann limit. We get a good agreement with lattice-QCD data at low and moderate temperatures, opening the door to a straightforward extension to finite chemical potential., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. This letter has been superseded by arXiv:1704.07858 [nucl-th]. In that manuscript we provide more details of the calculation, and present new results at finite chemical potential

We review the recent results of heavy meson diffusion in thermal hadronic matter. The interactions of D and B-bar mesons with other hadrons (light mesons and baryons) are extracted from effective field theories based on chiral and heavy-quark symmetries. When these guiding principles are combined with exact unitarity, physical values of the cross sections are obtained. These cross sections (which contain resonant contributions) are used to calculate the drag and diffusion coefficients of heavy mesons immersed in a thermal and dense medium. The transport coefficients are computed using a Fokker-Planck reduction of the Boltzmann equation., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM 2015), 06-11 Jul 2015. Dubna, Moscow region, Russia

We study the behavior of dynamically-generated baryon resonances with heavy-quark content within a unitarized coupled-channel theory in matter that fulfills heavy-quark spin symmetry constraints. We analyze the implications for the formation of charmed mesic nuclei and the propagation of heavy mesons in heavy-ion collisions from RHIC to FAIR., Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2015), Dubna, 6-11 July 2015

We study charm production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions by using the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The initial charm quarks are produced by the Pythia event generator tuned to fit the transverse momentum spectrum and rapidity distribution of charm quarks from Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm (FONLL) calculations. The produced charm quarks scatter in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) with the off-shell partons whose masses and widths are given by the Dynamical Quasi-Particle Model (DQPM) which reproduces the lattice QCD equation-of-state in thermal equilibrium. The relevant cross section are calculated in a consistent way by employing the effective propagators and couplings from the DQPM. Close to the critical energy density of the phase transition, the charm quarks are hadronized into $D$ mesons through coalescence and/or fragmentation depending on transverse momentum. The hadronized $D$ mesons then interact with the various hadrons in the hadronic phase with cross sections calculated in an effective lagrangian approach with heavy-quark spin symmetry. Finally, the nuclear modification factor $\rm R_{AA}$ and the elliptic flow $v_2$ of $D^0$ mesons from PHSD are compared with the experimental data from the STAR Collaboration for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ =200 GeV. We find that in the PHSD the energy loss of $D$ mesons at high $p_T$ can be dominantly attributed to partonic scattering while the actual shape of $\rm R_{AA}$ versus $p_T$ reflects the heavy quark hadronization scenario, i.e. coalescence versus fragmentation. Also the hadronic rescattering is important for the $\rm R_{AA}$ at low $p_T$ and enhances the $D$-meson elliptic flow $v_2$., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures

We apply the three-flavor (Polyakov-)Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model to generate baryons as quark-diquark bound states using many-body techniques at finite temperature. All the baryonic states belonging to the octet and decuplet flavor representations are generated in the isospin-symmetric case. For each state we extract the melting temperature at which the baryon may decay into a quark-diquark pair. We seek for an evidence of the strangeness dependence of the baryon melting temperature as suggested by the statistical thermal models and supported by lattice-QCD results. A clear and robust signal for this claim is found, pointing to a flavor dependence of the hadronic deconfinement temperature., Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, 6 appendices. v2: Quark condensates and susceptibilities are presented. One parameter of the PNJL model is modified to account for its dependence on the number of flavors; this brings a better agreement between the NJL and PNJL models. Typos are corrected and new references added. Version accepted for its publication in the Physical Review C journal

We study the dynamical evolution of the so-called chiral magnetic effect in an electromagnetic conductor. To this end, we consider the coupled set of corresponding Maxwell and chiral anomaly equations, and we prove that these can be derived from chiral kinetic theory. After integrating the chiral anomaly equation over space in a closed volume, it leads to a quantum conservation law of the total helicity of the system. A change in the magnetic helicity density comes together with a modification of the chiral fermion density. We study in Fourier space the coupled set of anomalous equations and we obtain the dynamical evolution of the magnetic fields, magnetic helicity density, and chiral fermion imbalance. Depending on the initial conditions we observe how the helicity might be transferred from the fermions to the magnetic fields, or vice versa, and find that the rate of this transfer also depends on the scale of wavelengths of the gauge fields in consideration. We then focus our attention on the quark-gluon plasma phase, and analyze the dynamical evolution of the chiral magnetic effect in a very simple toy model. We conclude that an existing chiral fermion imbalance in peripheral heavy ion collisions would affect the magnetic field dynamics, and consequently, the charge dependent correlations measured in these experiments., Comment: 41 pages, 14 figures, 3 appendices. Version 2: new global structure (appendix added), more explanations and additional references. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review D journal

Heavy mesons in nuclear matter and nuclei are analyzed within different frameworks, paying a special attention to unitarized coupled-channel approaches. Possible experimental signatures of the properties of these mesons in matter are addressed, in particular in connection with the future FAIR facility at GSI., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, invited plenary talk, to appear in proceedings of IV International Conference on Hadron Physics TROIA'14, 1-5 July 2014, Canakkale, Turkey

We employ recently published cross sections for $D$-mesons with hadrons and calculate the drag and diffusion coefficients of $D$-mesons in hadronic matter as a function of the momentum of $D$-mesons as well as of the temperature of the medium. Calculating in our approach the spatial diffusion coefficient, $D_x$, at zero chemical potential we see a very smooth transition between our calculations for the hadron gas and the lattice QCD calculations. Applying the results for the transport coefficients of $D$-mesons in a Fokker-Planck equation, which describes the evolution of $D$-mesons during the expansion of a hadron gas created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, we find that the value of $R_{AA}$ is little influenced by hadronic rescattering, whereas in the elliptic flow the effects are stronger. We extend our calculations to the finite chemical potentials and calculate the spatial diffusion coefficients of $D$-mesons propagating through the hadronic medium following isentropic trajectories, appropriate at future FAIR and NICA heavy-ion experiments. For the isentropic trajectory with $s/\rho_B^{\rm net}=20$ we find a perfect matching of results for $D$-mesons in hadronic matter and for charm quarks in partonic matter treated within the DQPM approach., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

We derive the relativistic chiral transport equation for massless fermions and antifermions by performing a semiclassical Foldy-Wouthuysen diagonalization of the quantum Dirac Hamiltonian. The Berry connection naturally emerges in the diagonalization process to modify the classical equations of motion of a fermion in an electromagnetic field. We also see that the fermion and antifermion dispersion relations are corrected at first order in the Planck constant by the Berry curvature, as previously derived by Son and Yamamoto for the particular case of vanishing temperature. Our approach does not require knowledge of the state of the system, and thus it can also be applied at high temperature. We provide support for our result by an alternative computation using an effective field theory for fermions and antifermions: the on-shell effective field theory. In this formalism, the off-shell fermionic modes are integrated out to generate an effective Lagrangian for the quasi-on-shell fermions/antifermions. The dispersion relation at leading order exactly matches the result from the semiclassical diagonalization. From the transport equation, we explicitly show how the axial and gauge anomalies are not modified at finite temperature and density despite the incorporation of the new dispersion relation into the distribution function., Comment: 9 pages, no figures. v2: Some comments and more details added, typos fixed and reference list updated. Final version matching the published article

The interaction and propagation of anti-B mesons with light mesons, N and Delta baryons is studied within a unitarized approach based on effective models that are compatible with chiral and heavy-quark symmetries. We find several heavy-quark spin doublets in the open-bottom sectors, where anti-B and anti-B* mesons are present. In the meson sector we find several resonant states, among them, a B0 and a B1 with masses 5530 MeV and 5579 MeV as well as Bs0* and Bs1* narrow states at 5748 MeV and 5799 MeV, respectively. They form two doublets with no experimental identification yet, the first one being the bottom counterpart of the D0(2400) and D1(2430) states, and the second bottom doublet associated to the ubiquitous Ds0* (2317) and the Ds1 (2460). In the baryon sector, several Lambda_b and Sigma_b doublets are identified, among them the one given by the experimental Lambda_b(5910) and Lambda*_b(5921). Moreover, one of our states, the Sigma_b*(5904), turns out to be the bottom counterpart of the Sigma*(1670) and Sigma_c*(2549), which is a case for discovery. We finally analyze different transport coefficients for the anti-B meson in hot matter, such as formed in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. For RHIC/LHC energies, the main contribution to the coefficients comes from the interaction of anti-B mesons with pions. However, we also include the effects of baryonic density which might be sizable at temperatures T < 100 MeV, as the chemical potential is expected to increase in the last stages of the expansion. We conclude that although the relaxation time decreases with larger baryonic densities, the anti-B meson does not thermalize at RHIC/LHC energies, representing an ideal probe for the initial bottom distribution., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We present selected results on the properties of strange and heavy-flavoured mesons in a hot and dense nuclear medium, with emphasis in selfconsistent coupled-channel approaches based on the chiral Lagrangian. In the strangeness sector, we discuss how the enhanced reactivity of light strange vectors at FAIR conditions can be tied to in-medium effects on their predominant decay modes (e.g. $\bar K^*\to\bar K \pi$) and to the excitation of strange baryons in vector-meson nucleon interactions. In the heavy-flavour sector, we focus on recent determinations of the transport coefficients of charmed and bottomed mesons in a hadron gas at vanishing baryonic chemical potential. We comment on the role of microscopic transport simulations to establish a connection between theoretical models and experimental observables from heavy-ion collisions., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Invited talk at FAIRNESS 2013 - Workshop for young scientists with research interests focused on FAIR physics, 15-21 September 2013, Berlin (Germany)