Interferometric signatures of the temperature dependence of the specific shear viscosity in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Recent work has shown that a temperature dependence of the shear viscosity to entropy ratio, $\eta /s$, influences the collective flow pattern in heavy-ion collisions in characteristic ways that can be measured by studying hadron transverse momentum spectra and their anisotropies. Here we point out that it also affects the pair momentum dependence of the Hanbury-Brown$-$Twiss (HBT) radii (the source size parameters extracted from two-particle intensity interferometry) and the variance of their event-by-event fluctuations. This observation establishes interferometric signatures as useful observables to complement the constraining power of single-particle spectra on the temperature dependence of $\eta /s$.

Comments: v2 - minor correction to Figure 6 and appropriate changes to relevant text v3 - improved calculations including p+p multiplicity fluctuations, implemented changes recommended by referee