Parton bubble model for two-particle angular correlations at RHIC/LHC

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2007-02, Vol.49 (3), p.767-782
• Main Authors: Lindenbaum, S.J., Longacre, R.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bubbles; Correlation analysis; Gluons; Heavy ions; Large Hadron Collider; Partons; Quark-gluon plasma; Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider; Substructures; Transverse momentum
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-006-0131-4

In an earlier publication we developed a bubble model, based on our evolution of the original ideas of van Hove which we concurred with over two decades ago; namely, that if a quark–gluon plasma is produced in a high energy heavy ion collider, then some of its hadronization products could be emitted from small bubbles localized in phase space containing plasma. In this paper we refined the model to become a parton bubble model in which each localized bubble contains initially 3–4 partons which are almost entirely gluons forming a gluon hot spot. We greatly expanded the transverse momentum interval investigated and thus are able to treat recombination effects within each bubble. We again utilize two-particle correlations as a sensitive method for detecting the average bubble substructure. In this manuscript we make many predictions for angular correlations detectable at RHIC, which will be later modified to LHC conditions. A quantitative test of the multi-bubble substructure assumed in the model was made by comparing with precision STAR Collaboration correlation analyses. Good quantitative agreement was obtained. Some early available low precision correlation analyses is qualitatively explained.