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Model Prediction Study of the Nearest Neighbor Spacing Momentum

Distributions of Central Nucleus-Nucleus Interactions

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DOI: 10.1007/s40995-020-00918-z(

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Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci (2020) 44:1225–1230
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-020-00918-z(0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

RESEARCH PAPER

Model Prediction Study of the Nearest Neighbor Spacing Momentum

Distributions of Central Nucleus–Nucleus Interactions
Z. Wazir1 • S. Kanwal2 • A. Khan1 • S. A. Khattak3 • H. Younis4 • M. Ajaz3

Received: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 23 June 2020 / Published online: 20 July 2020
Ó Shiraz University 2020

Abstract
We investigate the central nucleus–nucleus collisions at 4.2 A GeV/c exploiting the simulated results, obtained from ultra-
relativistic quantum molecular dynamic model code1.3. The method used for quantitative analysis is free of the undesired
background contributions and needs no prior information. The procured results reveal that the nearest neighbor momentum
spacing correlation among the secondary particles sharply decreases with increasing particle multiplicity. The critical
values of the multiplicity can be linked with central collisions and employed as a tool to adjust the centrality.

Keywords Central nucleus–nucleus collisions  Ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamic model  Particle multiplicity 
Centrality  Correlations

1 Introduction T \ Tc, the output result of the collision would be a mixed

To analyze the changes of the nuclear matter phase, the
review of the properties of hadron-nuclear and nuclear–
nuclear interactions characteristics as a corollary of the
collision centrality, Q is a prime experimental method
(Abreu et al. 1997). Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)
predicts that the hadronic matter will become state of the
unconned quarks and of the gluons at high baryon density
(Ogilvie 1999; Abreu et al. 2001; Desbois 1987; Satz
1999). For such change of state, the expected value of
T must be in the range of T [ Tc (150 - 200 MeV)
(Barrette et al. 1994) and lB will be lB [ lBc (where lB is
the baryon density). If we suppose the probability of the
phase transition with the rst order, i.e., with high baryon
density (at high lB) but at low value of T in the range of
& M. Ajaz
ajaz@awkum.edu.pk
1
Department of Physics, International Islamic University,
Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
2
Department of Physics, Riphah International University,
Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
3
Department of Physics, Abdul Wali Khan University,
Mardan 23200, Pakistan
4
Department of Physics, COMSATS University,
Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
system (MS), which contains the clusters formed by the
compressed neighboring nucleons and the diquarks formed
by the neighboring quarks. In the MS, the rst sequel could
be the cluster formation which might be a result of per-
colation and the second outcome could be the occurrence
of meson condensation which could be formed as a result
of the hadronization of the diquarks (Ajaz et al.
2013c, 2016; Khan et al. 2014, 2016; Suleymanov et al.
2009, 2011).
It was found that in hadrons–nucleus (h–A) and
nucleus–nucleus (A–A) collisions, the cluster form and
decay into free nucleons and fragments on critical values of
Q. The number of such clusters and fragments formation
was observed of directly related to Q in the interval less
than the critical values of Q (for MS formation) and more
over inversely related to Q for large number of central
collision. The MS could lead to the formation of quark
gluon plasma (QGP) state, which also depending on Q as
well as the number of fragments found in the events.
The maximum number of nucleons present in the events
that is related with central collisions of nuclei indicates the
favorable condition to investigate and analysis the super
dense states (Ajaz et al. 2013a). That is why, the events
with maximum multiplicities of secondary particles or in
other words such events which having a minimum ow of
energy were calculated for a secondary particles, emitted at

123
1226
h  0 , are selected (Dabrowska et al. 1993). Theoreti-
cally, both of these conditions correspond to the value of
impact parameter, b, approaching to 0. Thus it was con-
cluded that centrality of the n–n collisions is the best
condition for the creation of the super dense states of
nuclear matter.
The number of protons, which emitted from the nuclei,
Q, at the critical value of Q*, where a paradigm shift was
observed, occurs in the properties of the secondary par-
ticles, that means the transition to the new states could
take place in the nuclear interactions. Hence, the events
with Q  Q are selected where the total disintegration of
the nuclei takes place. So, the Q –depends on the men-
tioned attributes are assumed (Bertini et al. 1974): The
results basically conrmed the assumption of the exis-
tence of a certain boundary value of Q (which excess
value leads to the process with total disintegration of
nuclei).
The investigations of CC interactions is part of our
research, charged pions and also slow protons in the range
of (p \ 0.3 GeV/c) which is emitted basically from the
evaporation process and including stripping fragments of
the projectile nucleus ðhh4 and pi3 GeV/cÞ and participant
protons having a range (p [ 0:3 GeV/c, stripping particles
being excluded) were singled out among the secondary. We
consider two groups of protons: one which includes protons
having momenta range from 0:3 to 0:75 GeV/c (these are
predominantly participant protons from the target) and the
other are such protons which momentum range lies in the
region of p [ 0.75 GeV/c.
In addition to this, we separate out the group of CC
events where the total charge of the stripping fragments of
the projectile nucleus is zero. This criterion is frequently
used to select the central nucleus–nucleus interactions
(Anikina et al. 1986; Sandoval et al. 1980).
In order to obtain some useful information about the
formation of intermediate baryon system, various central-
ity-dependent properties of the h-A and A–A interactions
are studied (Ajaz et al. 2012, 2013b, c, 2016; Wazir et al.
2014; Khan et al. 2014, 2016). At low energy, the angular
distributions of slow particles manifest some structure in
the above-mentioned reactions. This implies that the
number of secondary inter-nuclear interactions increases
with increasing mass of the colliding nuclei. This is thanks
to the decaying of any intermediate formations and clusters
(Suleymanov et al. 2009, 2011), due to which their inu-
ence on the angular distribution of the emitted particles
contracts.
The nature and the various properties of the intermediate
formation determine the attributes of the secondary parti-
cles in the h–n and n–n interactions. The study and analysis
of these attributes give very useful and interesting infor-
mation of the major features of the interactions (Agnese
123
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci (2020) 44:1225–1230
et al. 1969). Here are few experimental results (Bondorf
et al. 1976; Hecman et al. 1978) that conrm this
phenomenon.
2 Model
Ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamic model
(UrQMD) (Bass et al. 1998; Bleicher et al. 1999), is a
microscopic model which explains the nuclear reactions in
multi-dimensional space. It describes the interaction of the
hadrons and their resonances at low and intermediate
p
energies in the range of ( s \ 5 GeV), and the excitation
of color strings and their fragmentation into hadrons at
p
higher energies ( s [ 5 GeV). Till now, there is no
remarkable explanation of different properties of hadron–
hadron interaction at different incident energies. To
describe these hard processes where large four momenta,
Q2 , transfer, the perturbative quantum chromo dynamics (p
QCD) is used. But it is not valid for the soft interactions
where large Q2 is absent. So, the low-momentum collisions
are described by the phenomenological models. In this
context, the UrQMD is most useful model for the energy
range of PANDA and CBM experiments.
This model considers the covariant propagation of all
hadrons on the quasi-particle level with stochastic binary
scatterings, color string formation and resonance decay.
This model mainly describes the binary reaction cross
section, the two body potentials and decay widths of res-
onances. It gives a Monte Carlo solution of large set of
partial integral–differential equations for various phase
space densities of particle species i ¼ N; D; etc (Aichelin
1991; Aichelin et al. 1987; Aichelin and Stocker 1986;
Peilert et al. 1989). The formation of two meson-strings
generates the nal state of the baryon-antibaryon annihi-
lation. The total center of mass energy is equally dis-
tributed between these two strings. These strings then
decay in the lab frame of the reaction. In other words at
quark level, a quark-antiquark pair annihilates and the
remaining quarks produce new particles (hadrons). String
phenomenon is used for the excitation of masses greater
than 2 GeV/c2 . The UrQMD model successfully explains
the properties of hadronic interactions as well as nucleus–
nucleus interactions. Comparison of the experimental data
with simulated results is important and helps to validate the
models. Other intriguing results, simulated by hadron-
production models, compared with experimental data have
been reported in (Ajaz et al. 2018a,b, 2019a, b, c, d,
e, f, 2020a, b; Khan et al. 2019a, b; Ali et al.
2018, 2019a, b, c, c; Ajaz 2019; Ullah et al. 2018a, b, 2019;
Wazir et al. 2019).
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci (2020) 44:1225–1230
3 The Random Matrix Method
The random matrix method rst time was applied to process
the high-energy physics data by the authors in the papers
(Shahaliev et al. 2006; Nazmitdinov et al. 2009). The nearest
neighbor spacing distribution has been successfully used for
different physical aspects of systems. Wigner introduced
random matrix theory (RMT) for the complex many body
quantum systems that has successfully explained the spectral
uctuations of atomic nuclei of complex atoms. In this work,
we have used few techniques for examining the experimental
data statistically, and recapitulated the related results of the
RMT. The results of RMT are based on ensemble average; on
the other hand, the experimental data are obtained from the
varying average over the single sample spectra. The nearest
neighbor spacing distribution PðSÞ is basically for the study of
short-range uctuations in the spectrum. The function can be
written in terms of probability density for two neighboring
levels nn and nnþ1 with spacing S. The function PðSÞ differs
from the two-level correlation function X2 ðr Þ and considers all
correlation functions Rk with k  2. It provides the probability
of determining any two levels distant at r from each other.
PðSÞ is approximated as X2 ðSÞ only for small arguments. The
function as well as its rst momentum is normalized to unity,
Z1
PðSÞdS ¼ 1 ð1Þ
0
and
Z1
SPðSÞdS ¼ 1 ð2Þ
0
For the Poisson or uncorrelated case, PðSÞ ¼ expðSÞ;
and for the harmonic oscillator, PðSÞ ¼ dðS  1Þ.
The statistical prediction by the Wigner leads to Eq. (3)
for the spacing distribution,
0
Zs
1 divided events for N = 10–19, 20–24, 25–40. Figure 2
PðSÞ ¼ lðSÞ exp@ lðS0 ÞdS0 A; ð3Þ
0
where lðSÞ is the repulsion function and shows the pres-
ence or absence of Vandermonde determinant in the Eigen
value probability density. lðSÞ ¼ pS=2 gives the Wigner
distribution while lðSÞ ¼ 1 provides the Poisson distribu-
tion. The prediction of the distribution pðsÞ applied to the
data for calculations is governed by Eq. (4),
Z1
F ð SÞ ¼ PðS0 ÞdS0 ; ð4Þ
0
where F ðSÞ is referred as cumulative spacing distribution.
1227
4 Results and Discussions
The results of 2; 00; 000 events of 12CC collisions at
4:2 GeV/c simulated by using UrQMD code 1.3 in the lab
system have been analyzed. A quantitative method which is
based on random matrix theory was applied in this case. In
such method, the nearest neighbor spacing distribution,
PðSÞ, follows the Poisson distribution only in case of no
correlation was found to exist between the particles. But on
other side if the correlation was observed to exist between
the particles then in such case PðSÞ obeys the Wigner
distribution. We used the Wigner approach which is based
on RMT to analyze the data and the maximum center of
mass momentum of the particles is 3:0 GeV/c. Production
of maximum number of particles at low momentum cor-
responds to centrality. Figure 1 show the PðSÞ for all par-
ticles produced and Fig. 2 show the PðSÞ for particles
N = 10–19, 20–24 and 25–40, respectively, produced in the
events. It can be seen in Fig. 1 that, in the rst momentum
region 0.1–0.26 GeV/c, the behavior of the PðSÞ function
follows the Poisson distribution and the Wigner distribu-
tion is followed in the third-momentum region 1.6–
3.0 GeV/c. Besides this in the second-momentum region
0.27–1.5 GeV/c, the PðSÞ exhibits a distribution which is a
combination of the Poisson and Wigner distributions. The
Wigner distribution corresponds to strong correlation
between the particles produced in any event while Poisson
distribution indicates that there is no correlation between
the particles produced. In the third-momentum region, the
strong spacing correlation is indicative of the stripping
protons and the peaks in the second zone might be due to
the resonance.
To see the behavior of P(S) function with charged par-
ticle multiplicity, we divided events with respect to the
number of produced particles from N = 10 to N = 40 and
results are shown in Fig. 2. To see the critical change in the
behavior of P(S) function with particle multiplicity, we
shows the P(S) function in three momentum regions. The
top row shows the behavior for N = 10–19, the middle row
shows the P(S) function behavior for N = 20–24 and the
bottom row corresponds to N = 25–40. The rst column
corresponds to momentum 0.1–0.26 GeV/c, The second
column corresponds to momentum 0.27–1.5 GeV/c and
third one from 1.6 to 3.0 GeV/c momentum.
The top row of Fig. 2 shows the similar behavior as
shown in Fig. 1. First column P(S) function behavior cor-
responds to Piosson distribution, second column corre-
sponds to mixed type behavior and 3rd column corresponds
to Wigner distribution. The behavior remains same in all
three momentum regions till N = 19. At N = 20 the
behavior of P(S) critically changes especially in second
123
1228 Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci (2020) 44:1225–1230

Fig. 1 The nearest neighbor

momentum spacing distribution
P(S) of 50,000 CC events at 4.2
A GeV/c for all produced
particles from UrQMD code1.3.
The solid line corresponds to
Wigner distribution and dotted
line Poisson distribution,
respectively

Fig. 2 The nearest neighbor

momentum spacing distribution
P(S) for
N = 10–19,20–24,25–40 from
UrQMD code1.3. The solid line
corresponds to Wigner
distribution and dotted line
Poisson distribution,
respectively. The rst column
momentum region
0.1–0.26 GeV/c, second column
0.27–1.5 GeV/c and third
column corresponds to
1.6–3.0 GeV/c. The top row
corresponds to N = 10–19; The
middle row corresponds to
N = 20–24 and; The third row
corresponds to N = 25–40

momentum region as shown in middle row of Fig. 2. The
behavior of the P(S) function remains same till N = 24.
The P(S) function behavior typically in the 3rd momentum
region critically changes at N = 25. The bottom row shows
critical decrease in correlation between the produced par-
ticles. This decrease in correlation is mainly due to
decrease in stripping protons with increasing particle
multiplicity.
5 Conclusions
In conclusion, we found that the PðSÞ follows the Poisson
distribution in the low-momentum zone; while in the high-
momentum zone, it demonstrates the Winger distribution
and an interesting combination of Poisson and Winger
were observed in the medium region momentum. Follow-
ing the Poisson distribution, PðSÞ depicts no spacing cor-
relations between the produced particles while it is also
indicated the strong correlation between the particles at the
point when PðSÞ obeys the Wigner distribution. However,
the strong correlation in case of the high momentum cor-
responds to the striping protons.
The spacing correlations of secondary particles were
found in inverse relation with particle multiplicity. The
critical change in attribute of PðSÞ function occurs at a
particular range from N ¼ 20 and N ¼ 25. These two
values of N can be employed to establish the centrality.
The centrality increases while the background contribu-
tion decreases with increasing number of produced
particles.

123
Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci (2020) 44:1225–1230 1229

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