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arXiv · 1701.08919

High baryon densities achievable in the fragmentation regions at RHIC and LHC

Joseph Kapusta·Ming Li
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Abstract

We use the McLerran-Venugopalan model of the glasma energy-momentum tensor to compute the rapidity loss and excitation energy of the colliding nuclei in the fragmentation regions followed by a space-time picture to obtain their energy and baryon densities. At the top RHIC energy we find baryon densities up to 3 baryons/fm$^3$, which is 20 times that of atomic nuclei. Assuming the formation of quark-gluon plasma, we find initial temperatures of 200 to 300 MeV and baryon chemical potentials of order 1 GeV. Assuming a roughly adiabatic expansion it would imply trajectories in the $T-μ$ plane which would straddle a possible critical point.

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Joseph Kapusta, Ming Li. 2017-01-31. High baryon densities achievable in the fragmentation regions at RHIC and LHC. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596%2F779%2F1%2F012077

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