Light nuclei production in Au+Au collisions at sNN = 5–200 GeV from JAM model

Abstract

Light nuclei production is sensitive to the baryon density fluctuations and can be used to probe the QCD phase transition in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this work, we studied the production of proton, deuteron, triton in central Au+Au collisions at sNN = 5, 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4, 62.4 and 200 GeV from a transport model (JAM). Based on the coalescence production of light nuclei, we calculated the energy dependence of rapidity density dN/dy and particle ratios (d/p, t/p, and t/d). More importantly, the yield ratio Nt×Np/Nd2, which is sensitive to the neutron density fluctuations, shows a flat energy dependence and cannot describe the non-monotonic trend observed by the STAR experiment. Based on the nucleon coalescence, this work can provide constraint and reference to search for the QCD critical point and/or first order phase transition with light nuclei production in future heavy-ion collision experiments.