Probing the properties of event-by-event distributions in Hanbury-Brown–Twiss radii
Hanbury-Brown–Twiss interferometry is a method which yields effective widths (i.e., “HBT radii”) of homogeneity regions in the fireballs produced in heavy ion collisions. Because the initial conditions of these collisions are stochastically fluctuating, the measured HBT radii also exhibit variation on an event-by-event basis. Yet, HBT measurements have, to date, been performed only on an ensemble-averaged basis, due to inherent limitations of finite particle statistics. Here, we show that experimental measurements to date are best characterized theoretically as weighted averages of the event-by-event HBT radii, and we propose a new method for extracting experimentally both the arithmetic mean and the variance of the event-by-event distribution of HBT radii. We demonstrate the extraction of the mean and variance of this distribution for a particular ensemble of numerically generated events, and offer some ideas to extend and generalize the method to enable measurement of higher moments of the HBT distribution as well.
- Research Organization:
- The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0004286; SC0004104
- OSTI ID:
- 1604419
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1223548
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 4; ISSN 0556-2813
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Averaging and the Shape of the Correlation Function
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journal | June 2019 |
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