Speaker
Description
The yield ratio of light nuclei produced in heavy-ion collisions, defined as $N_t \times N_p/N_d^2$, is a promising probe for the critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram. In the coalescence model of light nucleus production, the triton yield $N_t$ and deuteron yield $N_d$ are sensitive to the relative distance $\Delta r$ between each pair of nucleons in the Wigner function. However, the effect of the two-nucleon distribution $\rho(\Delta r)$ in the colliding nucleus on the yield ratio has not been extensively investigated. In this work, we developed a method to sample nucleons in the $^{197}Au$ nucleus satisfying both the single-particle distribution $f(r)$ and the two-nucleon distribution function $\rho(\Delta r)$. Using these sampled $^{197}Au$ nucleus, we calculated the proton, deuteron and triton yields in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3 GeV$ using the SMASH transport model simulations. The calculated yield ratios, differential $p_T$ distributions and mean transverse momentum $\left \langle p_T \right \rangle$ different centrality regions and rapidity windows agree well with experimental measurements from the STAR experiment. Our results suggest that initial nucleon-nucleon correlations have a visible effect on light particle production, indicating that the yield ratio of light nuclei in heavy ion collisions might provide a good probe for nucleon-nucleon correlation in the nuclear structure.
