UrQMD calculations of two-pion HBT correlations in p+p and Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energies

Abstract

Two-pion Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlations for p+p and central Pb+Pb collisions at the Large-Hadron-Collider (LHC) energies are investigated with the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics model combined with a correlation afterburner. The transverse momentum dependence of the Pratt-Bertsch HBT radii $R_{long}$, $R_{out}$, and $R_{side}$ is extracted from a three-dimensional Gaussian fit to the correlator in the longitudinal co-moving system. In the p+p case, the dependence of correlations on the charged particle multiplicity and formation time is explored and the data allows to constrain the formation time in the string fragmentation to $\tau_f \leq 0.8$ fm/c. In the Pb+Pb case, it is found that $R_{out}$ is overpredicted by nearly 50%. The LHC results are also compared to data from the STAR experiment at RHIC. For both energies we find that the calculated $R_{out}/R_{side}$ ratio is always larger than data, indicating that the emission in the model is less explosive than observed in the data.