arXiv subjects

Li-Lin Zhu

Publications and source records attributed to Li-Lin Zhu.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Shedding light on the nature of $\phi(2170)$ with the parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE

The nature of $\phi(2170)$ remains open. We simulate its production in $e^+e^-$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=4.95$ GeV using PACIAE 4.0, which sequentially generates the final partonic state (FPS) and the final hadronic state (FHS). While previous studies have interpreted $\phi(2170)$ as an $ss\bar{s}\bar{s}$ or a $u\bar{u}s\bar{s}$ state, the $U(1)$ anomaly coupling allows non-strange quarks to couple to a vector $s\bar{s}$ component via soft-gluon interactions. This motivates us to also explore the $d\bar{d}s\bar{s}$ tetraquark configuration. In addition, we consider $\phi(2170)$ as an excited strangeonium state, an $s\bar{s}g$ hybrid state, a $\bar{\Lambda}\Lambda$ bound state, and a $\phi K^+K^-$ resonance state. The strangeonium, hybrid, and tetraquark candidates are formed by coalescing their constituent partons in the FPS using the dynamically constrained phase-space coalescence model. The $\bar{\Lambda}\Lambda$ and $\phi K^+K^-$ states are produced via recombination of their constituent hadrons in the FHS. We calculate the orbital angular momentum quantum number of each candidate in its rest frame and perform spectral classification. Given $J^{PC}=1^{--}$, $\phi(2170)$ can be interpreted as a $D$-wave $s\bar{s}$, a $P$-wave $s\bar{s}g$, a $P$-wave $u\bar{u}s\bar{s}/d\bar{d}s\bar{s}/ss\bar{s}\bar{s}$, an $S$-wave $\bar{\Lambda}\Lambda$, or an $S$-wave $\phi K^+K^-$ state. The yields of the $D$-wave $s\bar{s}$, $P$-wave $s\bar{s}g$, $u\bar{u}s\bar{s}$ and $d\bar{d}s\bar{s}$ states are of order $10^{-4}$; those for the $S$-wave $\bar{\Lambda}\Lambda$ and $\phi K^+K^-$ states are of order $10^{-5}$; while the $P$-wave $ss\bar{s}\bar{s}$ yield is of order $10^{-6}$. Moreover, significant discrepancies are observed in the rapidity distributions and the $p_T$ spectra among the various candidates. These discrepancies could serve as valuable criteria for unraveling the nature of $\phi(2170)$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

A novel approach for studying two-particle momentum correlation function in relativistic nuclear collisions

Two particle momentum correlation functions provide a nontrivial tool for probing the strong interaction and/or extracting particle emission source information in relativistic nuclear collisions. Although transport models can describe the microscopic phase-space evolution of the collision system, calculating correlation functions within the framework of transport models remains challenging. In this paper, we employ the mixed-event technique to calculate two particle momentum correlation function as $C(k^*)= \mathcal{N} \xi(k^*)\frac{N_{\mathrm{same}}(k^*)}{N_{\mathrm{mixed}}(k^*)}$ based on the parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE simulated final hadronic state (FHS) with introducing a modification factor $\xi(k^*)$ to improve the treatment of final-state interactions and quantum statistics effects in the PACIAE model. The simulated results show good agreement with the ALICE data for $Kp$, $pp$, $p\Lambda$, and $\Lambda\Lambda$ momentum correlation functions in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. On the other hand, the particle emission source radius of the correlated pairs are also evaluated based on the simulated FHS self-consistently. Since the PACIAE model employs hadron-hadron cross sections derived from the additive quark model, the calculation of two-particle momentum correlation functions does not require prior assumptions about the interaction between the two correlated particles. This successful ``PACIAE + modification factor" approach may shed light on the future study of momentum correlation functions for dimesons, dibaryons, and even diexotic hadrons.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Deciphering the universal scaling of particle transverse momentum spectra in heavy-ion collisions

We systematically investigate the scaling properties of the transverse momentum spectra for pions, kaons, and protons in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV, as well as in U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 193 GeV, across different centrality classes, using experimental data from the collaborations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Universal scaling emerges when the particle transverse momentum spectra are scaled by global physical quantities, i.e., the average total particle multiplicity and mean transverse momentum, confirming recent scaling findings from the data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by the ExTrEMe collaboration. The scaling behavior breaks down in the high $p_{T}$ region and in peripheral collisions. We provide a natural explanation for these observations by invoking the Cooper-Frye formula, which is used for hadronization in hydrodynamics. Furthermore, we demonstrate the equivalence between the scaling found by the ExTrEMe collaboration and the Hwa-Yang scaling which was proposed two decades ago.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Latent Representation Learning in Heavy-Ion Collisions with MaskPoint Transformer

A central challenge in high-energy nuclear physics is to extract informative features from the high-dimensional final-state data of heavy-ion collisions (HIC) in order to enable reliable downstream analyses. Traditional approaches often rely on selected observables, which may miss subtle but physically relevant structures in the data. To address this, we introduce a Transformer-based autoencoder trained with a two-stage paradigm: self-supervised pre-training followed by supervised fine-tuning. The pretrained encoder learns latent representations directly from unlabeled HIC data, providing a compact and information-rich feature space that can be adapted to diverse physics tasks. As a case study, we apply the method to distinguish between large and small collision systems, where it achieves significantly higher classification accuracy than PointNet. Principal component analysis and SHAP interpretation further demonstrate that the autoencoder captures complex nonlinear correlations beyond individual observables, yielding features with strong discriminative and explanatory power. These results establish our two-stage framework as a general and robust foundation for feature learning in HIC, opening the door to more powerful analyses of quark--gluon plasma properties and other emergent phenomena. The implementation is publicly available at https://github.com/Giovanni-Sforza/MaskPoint-AMPT.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Forward Production of Protons and Pions in Heavy-ion Collisions

The problem of forward production of hadrons in heavy-ion collision at RHIC is revisited with modification of the theoretical treatment on the one hand and with the use of new data on the other. The basic formalism for hadronization remains the same as before, namely, recombination, but the details of momentum degradation and quark regeneration are improved. Recent data on the p/pi and pbar/p ratios are used to constrain the value of the degradation parameter. The p_T spectrum of the average charged particles is well reproduced. A prediction on the p_T dependence of the pbar/p ratio at eta=3.2 is made.

nucl-th↗