Fig. 2: QCD phase diagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFig. 2 shows a cartoon of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter in the temperature and net-baryon density plane. The latter indicates the net density of matter minus anti-matter. The plane is separated by a phase boundary line, below which we have hadronic matter, and above which we have the QGP. The colourful bands indicate current and future terrestrial facilities, with the regions of the phase diagram that they are able to cover.<\/p>\n
It is important to note that the most energetic collisions generate the most matter-antimatter-symmetric QGP. This is due to the fact that, when accelerated to relativistic speed, the colliding nuclei become Lorentz-contracted along the collision direction, meaning that, when they meet, they are effectively transparent to each other. The energy released in the collision is then turned into matter-antimatter in equal amounts. At lower collision energies, Lorentz contraction is not so strong, and nuclei have a non-negligible thickness along the collision axis. Therefore, when they meet, some of their protons and neutrons remain in the collision region, thus enhancing the matter content of the QGP and making it more baryon rich.<\/p>\n
The exploration of the QCD phase diagram has recently gained a new player \u2013 astrophysical observation of neutron stars and their mergers. They will help to hold down the lower-right corner of the phase diagram, corresponding to large density and low temperature, which cannot be reached in terrestrial experiments. Indeed, in 2017 the LIGO\/VIRGO collaboration announced its sixth gravitational wave observation. While the first five were due to the merger of two black holes, and as such were not followed by a visible signal, the aftermath of this event was seen by 70 observatories across the electromagnetic spectrum. The gravitational wave signal, named GW170817, lasted for about 100 seconds and it had the typical frequency and intensity features expected of the merger of two neutron stars. This marked a new era for multi-messenger astronomy. Nuclear physics \u2013 in particular, information on the internal composition of these stars and therefore on the cold and dense corner of the phase diagram \u2013 is encoded in every stage of the merger event. Neutron stars are very dense celestial objects: they have a mass that can be as high as twice the mass of the Sun, but a radius of just 10-15km. While a single neutron star can be considered a cold object on the scale of temperatures on the phase diagram in Fig. 2, the energy developed in the mergers can lead to temperatures, which overlap with those achieved in the lowest-energy heavy-ion collision experiments.<\/p>\n
Matter in heavy-ion collisions: The most ideal fluid<\/h3>\n The matter created in heavy-ion collisions presents unexpected features: it is the most ideal fluid ever observed, namely the one with the smallest shear viscosity over entropy ratio. This discovery followed from the observation of remarkable collective behaviour in the experimental data, which was subsequently described in terms of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics, with an almost negligible viscosity. These simulations need an equation of state as input \u2013 namely, they need to be informed on the thermodynamic properties of the matter of which they describe the dynamical evolution. The same is true for the simulations that describe the dynamical merger of two neutron stars. This equation of state, which is therefore a central quantity for both heavy-ion and neutron star communities, is not known from first principles over the whole phase diagram, for reasons that will be explained below.<\/p>\n
The theory of the strong force<\/h3>\n \u00a0<\/strong>The theory that describes the strong force is called quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and its authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2004. The peculiar behaviour of QCD is due to the fact that the carriers of the force, gluons, can self-interact. This is what we call a non-Abelian gauge theory. This is different from what happens in quantum electrodynamics (QED), the theory of electromagnetism, in which photons carry the interaction between electrically charged particles but do not interact with each other. The self-coupling of gluons is the basis of the confinement mechanism and of the running of the coupling with distance.<\/p>\nIn the regime which is relevant to study the phase transition of QCD, the coupling is too large to allow an analytical solution of the theory. The only way to solve the theory in this case is through numerical techniques, called lattice QCD. The continuous space-time in which we live is replaced by a four-dimensional (4D) discrete grid of points. Quarks are placed on the sites of this grid, gluons on the links between the different sites, and their interaction is solved numerically. Replacing the continuum world by a grid of points reduces the dimensionality of the problem: a solution of the theory in the continuum would require the calculation of an infinite number of integrals. Instead, on the lattice we have to sum a finite number of terms. However, the amount of terms would still be prohibitively large (of the order of 10^300000) even on a very small, very coarse lattice. Luckily, most of these terms can be thrown away since their statistical weight is negligible. This is done by means of Monte Carlo simulations.<\/p>\nFig. 3: Visualisation of lattice QCD data. Image courtesy of Derek Leinweber, CSSM, University of Adelaide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nRecent developments in hot and dense QCD<\/h3>\n Whilst there has been quite some progress on mapping out the phase diagram theoretically, a large part of this map is still under construction. The same is true for the equation of state. This is due to the infamous fermion sign problem, which turns the statistical weight complex at finite density, thus making Monte Carlo simulations unfeasible. While a method to solve the sign problem has not been found yet, alternative expansion schemes have been successful in pushing our knowledge of phase diagram and thermodynamics to increasingly large density.2<\/sup> Lattice QCD simulations unambiguously proved that the QCD phase transition is a crossover at small density,3<\/sup> which means that it smoothly takes place over a finite range of temperatures around T~158 MeV. The shape of the transition line, as it leaves the temperature axis and extends to finite density, is also known from first principles.4<\/sup><\/p>\nSeveral phenomenological models, which capture some aspects of the fundamental theory but are easier to simulate at large density, predict that the transition becomes steeper at increasingly large density, finally turning first-order, with development of a latent heat and therefore of a discontinuity in some thermodynamic quantities such as the entropy. This would mean that there is a critical point on the QCD phase diagram, separating the two phase transitions of different orders. The search for the critical point is ongoing: RHIC just concluded the data-taking for its second Beam Energy Scan, and results are expected soon.<\/p>\n
In this search, the theoretical support is crucial. On the one hand, an equation of state in which the critical point can be inserted or removed, and its strength increased or reduced, will help to test its effect on data through hydrodynamic simulations.5<\/sup> On the other hand, it is important to identify observables which are sensitive to the critical point, so that its effect can be seen in the data. The most promising ones are fluctuations of conserved charges. They are predicted to diverge at the critical point, so that a sharp peak in the data as a function of collision energy would be a clear critical point signature.6<\/sup> The community is eagerly awaiting the new RHIC data on fluctuations, to determine whether these predictions are reflected in the data. Indeed, the increased statistics achieved in these new runs should allow physicists to turn promising trends into definitive conclusions on the existence and location of the elusive critical point.<\/p>\nTowards the high-density regime<\/h3>\n The equation of state for neutron stars and mergers needs a range of temperatures and densities which are currently outside the reach of first principle simulations. For this reason, effective theories and models are used in this case. It is crucial that these approaches have a well-defined range of applicability, which reflects the underlying degrees of freedom, and that the model parameters are fixed to reproduce known experimental or theoretical constraints. Several different equations of state are available in this case. The next generation of gravitational wave observatories should be able to distinguish between these models, based on their imprint on the gravitational wave signal and other observables, thus leading to a way of constraining the degrees of freedom that populate the cold and dense corner of the QCD phase diagram.<\/p>\n
Acknowledgement<\/h4>\n This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\nReferences<\/h4>\n 1: K Adcox et al <\/em>(PHENIX), Nucl. Phys<\/em>. A 757, 184 (2005); I Arsene et al<\/em>. (BRAHMS), Nucl. Phys<\/em>. A 757, 1 (2005); B B Back et al<\/em>. (PHOBOS), Nucl. Phys<\/em> A 757, 28 (2005); J Adams et al<\/em>. (STAR), Nucl. Phys<\/em>. A 757, 102 (2005)<\/span> \n2: C Ratti and R Bellwied, Lect. Notes Phys<\/em>. 981, 1-216 (2021); C Ratti, Rept. Prog. Phys<\/em>. 81, 084301 (2018)<\/span> \n3: Y Aoki et al<\/em>., Nature<\/em> 443, 675 (2006)<\/span> \n4: S Borsanyi et al<\/em>., Phys. Rev. Lett<\/em>. 125, 052001 (2020)<\/span> \n5: P Parotto et al<\/em>., Phys. Rev<\/em>. C101, 034901 (2020); X An et al<\/em>., Nucl. Phys<\/em>. A1017, 122343 (2022)<\/span> \n6: M Stephanov, Phys. Rev. Lett<\/em>. 102, 032301 (2009)<\/span> \n7: J. Biddle et al<\/em>., PoS LATTICE2018 (2019) 325<\/span> \n\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Claudia Ratti from the University of Houston discusses the connection between heavy-ion collisions and astrophysical observations of neutron stars and their mergers, and the progress in the theoretical work needed to describe them. The early Universe, just a few microseconds after the Big Bang, was permeated by a phase of matter called quark gluon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":23017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[596],"tags":[801,21963],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Analysing the connection between heavy-ion collisions and neutron stars<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n