Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Generation Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Xenon Collisions

International Journal of Physics | Vol. 9, No. 7, July 2018 | pp. 49–56

DOI: 10.46882/2018/IJP/000099

Research Article

Title: Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Generation Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Xenon Collisions

Names of Authors: H. L. Mueller¹, S. C. O’Brien²

Authors’ Affiliations: ¹Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany; ²School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Abstract: Asymmetric proton-xenon (p-Xe) collisions provide a crucial baseline for isolating cold nuclear matter effects from the collective signature of the quark-gluon plasma. This study presents a relativistic hydrodynamic modeling framework to simulate particle production cascades in p-Xe collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.44 TeV per nucleon pair. We utilized a 3+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamic code coupled with a statistical hadronization module to compute transverse momentum spectra and azimuthal anisotropy coefficients. The initial energy density profiles were generated using a Glauber-Gribov color-fluctuation model to capture sub-nucleon scale configurations. The numerical simulations show that expanding systems build a substantial radial flow profile, which shifts the mean transverse momentum of protons up to 1.48 GeV/c in high-multiplicity events. The calculated elliptic flow coefficient (v²) displays a strong mass-ordering effect, which matches experimental measurements gathered by modern forward spectrometers within a tight ±6.0% margin. This close agreement suggests that small-scale heavy-ion systems generated in p-Xe collisions can achieve brief hydrodynamic collective expansion. These findings help clarify the boundaries of fluid-like behavior in high-energy subatomic particle interactions.

Keywords: Relativistic hydrodynamics; particle production; proton-xenon collisions; elliptic flow; color-fluctuation model; statistical hadronization

Manuscript Timeline: Received: March 11, 2018; Revised: May 19, 2018; Accepted: June 11, 2018; Published: July 12, 2018

Citation: Mueller, H. L., & O’Brien, S. C. (2018). Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Generation Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Xenon Collisions. International Journal of Physics, 9(7), 49–56.

Subscribe to read the full article: https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/subscribe-to-read