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1. Spin-dependent interactions and heavy-quark transport in the quark-gluon plasma

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.108.044906  

   Tang, Zhanduo; Rapp, Ralf (October 2023, Physical Review C)

   We extend a previously constructed T -matrix approach to the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to include the effects of spin-dependent interactions between partons. Following earlier work within the relativistic quark model, the spin-dependent interactions figure as relativistic corrections to the Cornell potential. When applied to the vacuum spectroscopy of quarkonia, in particular their mass splittings in S- and P-wave states, the issue of the Lorentz structure of the confining potential arises. We confirm that a significant admixture of a vector interaction (to the previously assumed scalar interaction) improves the description of the experimental mass splittings. The temperature corrections to the in-medium potential are constrained by results from thermal lattice quantum chromodynamics for the equation of state and heavy-quark free energy in a self-consistent setup for heavyand light-parton spectral functions in the QGP. We then deploy the refined in-medium heavy-light T matrix to compute the charm-quark transport coefficients in the QGP. The vector component of the confining potential, through its relativistic corrections, enhances the friction coefficient for charm quarks in the QGP over previous calculations by tens of percentages at low momenta and temperatures and more at higher momenta. Our results are promising for improving the current phenomenology of open heavy-flavor observables at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider. 

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2. Spin-Induced Interactions and Heavy-Quark Transport in the QGP

   https://doi.org/10.22323/1.438.0117  

   Tang, Zhanduo; Rapp, Ralf (February 2024, Pos proceedings of science)

   A previously constructed 𝑇-matrix approach for studying the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is improved by incorporating spin-dependent interactions between partons. These interactions arise from the relativistic corrections to the Cornell potential. We first study the vacuum spectroscopy of quarkonia with this potential and find that a significant admixture of a vector component in the confining potential (rather than the previously considered scalar interaction) improves the description of the experimental mass splittings in 𝑆- and 𝑃-wave states. The in-medium potential containing the vector component in the confining interaction is constrained by fitting lattice-QCD results for heavy-quark (HQ) free energies and the equation of state (EoS) computed within in the selfconsistent 𝑇-matrix framework. We subsequently extract the transport coefficients for charm quarks in the QGP with the improved in-medium potentials. The relativistic corrections to the vector component of the confining potential cause a notable increase in the thermal relaxation rate of charm quarks in the QGP in comparison to previous calculations, especially at high momenta. These results are expected to have significant ramifications for the phenomenology of open heavy-flavor observables at RHIC and the LHC. 

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3. QLBT: a linear Boltzmann transport model for heavy quarks in a quark-gluon plasma of quasi-particles

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10308-x  

   Liu, Feng-Lei; Xing, Wen-Jing; Wu, Xiang-Yu; Qin, Guang-You; Cao, Shanshan; Wang, Xin-Nian (April 2022, The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract We develop a new heavy quark transport model, QLBT, to simulate the dynamical propagation of heavy quarks inside the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Our QLBT model is based on the linear Boltzmann transport (LBT) model with the ideal QGP replaced by a collection of quasi-particles to account for the non-perturbative interactions among quarks and gluons of the hot QGP. The thermal masses of quasi-particles are fitted to the equation of state from lattice QCD simulations using the Bayesian statistical analysis method. Combining QLBT with our advanced hybrid fragmentation-coalescence hadronization approach, we calculate the nuclear modification factor$$R_\mathrm {AA}$$ $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$and the elliptic flow$$v_2$$ $v_2$ofDmesons at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider. By comparing our QLBT calculation to the experimental data on theDmeson$$R_\mathrm {AA}$$ $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$and$$v_2$$ $v_2$, we extract the heavy quark transport parameter$$\hat{q}$$ $\hat{q}$and diffusion coefficient$$D_\mathrm {s}$$ $D_s$in the temperature range of$$1-4~T_\mathrm {c}$$ $1-4T_c$, and compare them with the lattice QCD results and other phenomenological studies. 

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4. Nonperturbative effects on radiative energy loss of heavy quarks

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2020)168  

   Liu, Shuai Y.F.; Rapp, Ralf (August 2020, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   A bstract The radiative energy loss of fast partons traveling through the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is commonly studied within perturbative QCD (pQCD). Nonperturbative (NP) effects, which are expected to become important near the critical temperature, have been much less investigated. Here, we utilize a recently developed T -matrix approach to incorporate NP effects for gluon emission off heavy quarks propagating through the QGP. We set up four cases that contain, starting from a Born diagram calculation with color- Coulomb interaction, an increasing level of NP components, by subsequently including (remnants of ) confining interactions, resummation in the heavy-light scattering amplitude, and off-shell spectral functions for both heavy and light partons. For each case we compute the power spectra of the emitted gluons, heavy-quark transport coefficients (drag and transverse-momentum broadening, $$ \hat{q} $$ q ̂ ), and the path-length dependent energy loss within a “QGP brick” at fixed temperature. Investigating the differences in these quantities between the four cases illustrates how NP mechanisms affect gluon radiation processes. While the baseline perturbative processes experience a strong suppression of soft radiation due to thermal masses of the emitted gluons, confining interactions, ladder resummations and broad spectral functions (re-)generate a large enhancement toward low momenta and low temperatures. For example, for a 10 GeV charm quark at 200 MeV temperature, they enhance the transport coefficients by up to a factor of 10, while the results smoothly converge to perturbative results at sufficiently hard scales. 

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5. Hydrodynamic description of D meson production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions *

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1137/abf645  

   Ding, Chi; Ke, Wei-Yao; Pang, Long-Gang; Wang, Xin-Nian (July 2021, Chinese Physics C)

   Abstract The large values and constituent-quark-number scaling of the elliptic flow of low- D mesons imply that charm quarks, initially produced through hard processes, might be partially thermalized through strong interactions with quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. To quantify the degree of thermalization of low- charm quarks, we compare the meson spectra and elliptic flow from a hydrodynamic model to experimental data as well as transport model simulations. We use an effective charm chemical potential at the freeze-out temperature to account for the initial charm quark production from hard processes and assume that they are thermalized in the local comoving frame of the medium before freeze-out. mesons are sampled statistically from the freeze-out hyper-surface of the expanding QGP as described by the event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model CLVisc. Both the hydrodynamic and transport models can describe the elliptic flow of mesons at GeV/ c as measured in Au+Au collisions at GeV. Though the experimental data on spectra are consistent with the hydrodynamic result at small GeV/ c , they deviate from the hydrodynamic model at high transverse momentum, GeV/ c . The diffusion and parton energy loss mechanisms in the transport model can describe the measured spectra reasonably well within the theoretical uncertainty. Our comparative study indicates that charm quarks only approach local thermal equilibrium at small , even though they acquire sizable elliptic flow comparable to light-quark hadrons at both small and intermediate . 

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