Beam Energy Dependence of Triton Production and Yield Ratio $$N_t \times N_p / N^2_d$$ in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC

Journal Article · 15 May 2023 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.130.202301 · OSTI ID:1889139

Abdulhamid, M.  I.; Aboona, B.  E.; Adam, J.; Adams, J.  R.; Agakishiev, G.; Aggarwal, I.; Aggarwal, M.  M.; Ahammed, Z.; Aitbaev, A.; Alekseev, I.; Anderson, D.  M.; Aparin, A.; Aslam, S.; Atchison, J.; Averichev, G.  S.; Bairathi, V.; Baker, W.; Ball Cap, J.  G.; Barish, K.; Bhagat, P. ; Bhasin, A.; Bhatta, S.; Bordyuzhin, I.  G.; Brandenburg, J.  D.; Brandin, A.  V.; Cai, X.  Z.; Caines, H.; Calderón de la Barca Sánchez, M.; Cebra, D.; Ceska, J.; Chakaberia, I.; Chan, B.  K.; Chang, Z.; Chatterjee, A.; Chen, D.; Chen, J.; Chen, J.  H.; Chen, Z.; Cheng, J.; Cheng, Y.; Choudhury, S.; Christie, W.; Chu, X.; Crawford, H.  J.; Dale-Gau, G.; Das, A.; Daugherity, M.; Dedovich, T.  G.; Deppner, I.  M.; Derevschikov, A.  A.; Dhamija, A.; Di Carlo, L.; Didenko, L.; Dixit, P.; Dong, X.; Drachenberg, J.  L.; Duckworth, E.; Dunlop, J.  C.; Engelage, J.; Eppley, G.; Esumi, S.; Evdokimov, O.; Ewigleben, A.; Eyser, O.; Fatemi, R.; Fazio, S.; Feng, C.  J.; Feng, Y.; Finch, E.; Fisyak, Y.; Flor, F.  A.; Fu, C.; Geurts, F.; Ghimire, N.; Gibson, A.; Gopal, K.; Gou, X.; Grosnick, D.; Gupta, A.; Hamed, A.; Han, Y.; Harasty, M.  D.; Harris, J.  W.; Harrison-Smith, H.; He, W.; He, X.  H.; He, Y.; Hu, C.; Hu, Q.; Hu, Y.; Huang, H.; Huang, H.  Z.; Huang, S.  L.; Huang, T.; Huang, X.; Huang, Y.; Huang, Y.; Humanic, T.  J.; Isenhower, D.; Isshiki, M.; Jacobs, W.  W.; Jalotra, A.; Jena, C.; Ji, Y.; Jia, J.; Jin, C.; Ju, X.; Judd, E.  G.; Kabana, S.; Kabir, M.  L.; Kalinkin, D.; Kang, K.; Kapukchyan, D.; Kauder, K.; Ke, H.  W.; Keane, D.; Kechechyan, A.; Kelsey, M.; Kimelman, B.; Kiselev, A.; Knospe, A.  G.; Ko, H.  S.; Kochenda, L.; Korobitsin, A.  A.; Kravtsov, P.; Kumar, L.; Kumar, S.; Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, R.; Lacey, R.; Landgraf, J.  M.; Lebedev, A.; Lednicky, R.; Lee, J.  H.; Leung, Y.  H.; Lewis, N.; Li, C.; Li, W.; Li, X.; Li, Y.; Li, Y.; Li, Z.; Liang, X.; Liang, Y.; Lin, T.; Liu, C.; Liu, F.; Liu, H.; Liu, H.; Liu, L.; Liu, T.; Liu, X.; Liu, Y.; Liu, Z.; Ljubicic, T.; Llope, W.  J.; Lomicky, O.; Longacre, R.  S.; Loyd, E.  M.; Lu, T.; Lukow, N.  S.; Luo, X.  F.; Luong, V.  B.; Ma, L.; Ma, R.; Ma, Y.  G.; Magdy, N.; Mallick, D.; Margetis, S.; Matis, H.  S.; Mazer, J.  A.; McNamara, G.; Mi, K.; Minaev, N.  G.; Mohanty, B.; Mondal, M.  M.; Mooney, I.; Morozov, D.  A.; Mudrokh, A.; Nagy, M.  I.; Nain, A.  S.; Nam, J.  D.; Nasim, Md; Neff, D.; Nelson, J.  M.; Nemes, D.  B.; Nie, M.; Nigmatkulov, G.; Niida, T.; Nishitani, R.; Nogach, L.  V.; Nonaka, T.; Odyniec, G.; Ogawa, A.; Oh, S.; Okorokov, V.  A.; Okubo, K.; Page, B.  S.; Pak, R.; Pan, J.; Pandav, A.; Pandey, A.  K.; Panebratsev, Y.; Pani, T.; Parfenov, P.; Paul, A.; Perkins, C.; Pokhrel, B.  R.; Posik, M.; Protzman, T.; Pruthi, N.  K.; Putschke, J.; Qin, Z.; Qiu, H.; Quintero, A.; Racz, C.; Radhakrishnan, S.  K.; Raha, N.; Ray, R.  L.; Ritter, H.  G.; Robertson, C.  W.; Rogachevsky, O.  V.; Rosales Aguilar, M.  A.; Roy, D.; Ruan, L.; Sahoo, A.  K.; Sahoo, N.  R.; Sako, H.; Salur, S.; Samigullin, E.; Sato, S.; Schmidke, W.  B.; Schmitz, N.; Seger, J.; Seto, R.; Seyboth, P.; Shah, N.; Shahaliev, E.; Shanmuganathan, P.  V.; Shao, T.; Sharma, M.; Sharma, N.; Sharma, R.; Sharma, S.  R.; Sheikh, A.  I.; Shen, D.  Y.; Shen, K.; Shi, S.  S.; Shi, Y.; Shou, Q.  Y.; Si, F.; Singh, J.; Singha, S.; Sinha, P.; Skoby, M.  J.; Söhngen, Y.; Song, Y.; Srivastava, B.; Stanislaus, T.  D. S.; Stewart, D.  J.; Strikhanov, M.; Stringfellow, B.; Su, Y.; Sun, C.; Sun, X.; Sun, Y.; Sun, Y.; Surrow, B.; Svirida, D.  N.; Sweger, Z.  W.; Tamis, A.; Tang, A.  H.; Tang, Z.; Taranenko, A.; Tarnowsky, T.; Thomas, J.  H.; Tlusty, D.; Todoroki, T.; Tokarev, M.  V.; Tomkiel, C.  A.; Trentalange, S.; Tribble, R.  E.; Tribedy, P.; Tsai, O.  D.; Tsang, C.  Y.; Tu, Z.; Ullrich, T.; Underwood, D.  G.; Upsal, I.; Van Buren, G.; Vasiliev, A.  N.; Verkest, V.; Videbæk, F.; Vokal, S.; Voloshin, S.  A.; Wang, F.; Wang, G.; Wang, J.  S.; Wang, X.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Y.; Wang, Z.; Webb, J.  C.; Weidenkaff, P.  C.; Westfall, G.  D.; Wieman, H.; Wilks, G.; Wissink, S.  W.; Wu, J.; Wu, J.; Wu, X.; Wu, Y.; Xi, B.; Xiao, Z.  G.; Xie, G.; Xie, W.; Xu, H.; Xu, N.; Xu, Q.  H.; Xu, Y.; Xu, Y.; Xu, Z.; Xu, Z.; Yan, G.; Yan, Z.; Yang, C.; Yang, Q.; Yang, S.; Yang, Y.; Ye, Z.; Ye, Z.; Yi, L.; Yip, K.; Yu, N.; Yu, Y.; Zha, W.; Zhang, C.; Zhang, D.; Zhang, J.; Zhang, S.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Z.  J.; Zhang, Z.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, F.; Zhao, J.; Zhao, M.; Zhou, C.; Zhou, J.; Zhou, S.; Zhou, Y.; Zhu, X.; Zurek, M.; Zyzak, M.

We report the triton (t) production in midrapidity (|y| < 0.5) Au + Au collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 7.7-200$$ GeV measured by the STAR experiment from the first phase of the beam energy scan at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The nuclear compound yield ratio ($$N_t \times N_p / N^2_d$$), which is predicted to be sensitive to the fluctuation of local neutron density, is observed to decrease monotonically with increasing charged-particle multiplicity ($$dN_{ch}/dη$$) and follows a scaling behavior. The $$dN_{ch}/dη$$ dependence of the yield ratio is compared to calculations from coalescence and thermal models. Enhancements in the yield ratios relative to the coalescence baseline are observed in the 0%-10% most central collisions at 19.6 and 27 GeV, with a significance of 2.3σ and 3.4σ, respectively, giving a combined significance of 4.1σ. The enhancements are not observed in peripheral collisions or model calculations without critical fluctuation, and decreases with a smaller $$p_T$$ acceptance. The physics implications of these results on the QCD phase structure and the production mechanism of light nuclei in heavy-ion collisions are discussed.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• Contributing Organization: STAR Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 1889139
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2222661
• Report Number(s): BNL--223412-2022-JAAM
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 130; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English