Shen Diyu, Chen Jinhui, Huang Xu-Guang, Ma Yu-Gang, Tang Aihong, Wang Gang
Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-Beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Heavy Ion Science and Technology Key Laboratory, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Research (Wash D C). 2025 Jun 24;8:0726. doi: 10.34133/research.0726. eCollection 2025.
In heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies, the incident nuclei travel at nearly the speed of light. These collisions deposit kinetic energy into the overlap region and create a high-temperature environment where hadrons "melt" into deconfined quarks and gluons. The spectator nucleons, which do not undergo scatterings, generate an ultraintense electromagnetic field-on the order of 10 G at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and 10 G at the Large Hadron Collider. These powerful electromagnetic fields have a substantial impact on the produced particles, not only complicating the study of particle interactions but also inducing novel physical phenomena. To explore the nature of these fields and their interactions with deconfined quarks, we provide a detailed overview, encompassing theoretical estimations of their generation and evolution, as well as experimental efforts to detect them. We also provide physical interpretations of the discovered results and discuss potential directions for future investigations.
在相对论能量下的重离子碰撞中,入射核以接近光速的速度行进。这些碰撞将动能沉积到重叠区域,并创造出一个高温环境,在这个环境中强子“熔化”成无约束的夸克和胶子。未经历散射的旁观核子会产生超强电磁场——在相对论重离子对撞机中约为10特斯拉,在大型强子对撞机中约为10特斯拉。这些强大的电磁场对产生的粒子有重大影响,不仅使粒子相互作用的研究变得复杂,还会引发新的物理现象。为了探索这些场的性质及其与无约束夸克的相互作用,我们提供了一个详细的概述,包括对它们的产生和演化的理论估计,以及探测它们的实验努力。我们还对发现的结果进行物理解释,并讨论未来研究的潜在方向。