Quantum Treatment of the Multiple Scattering and Collective Flow in Intensity Interferometry

Abstract

We apply the path-integral method to study the multiple scattering and collective flow in intensity interferometry in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. We show that the Glauber model and eikonal approximation in an earlier quantum treatment are special examples of the more general path-integral method. The multiple scattering and collective flow lead essentially to an initial source at a shifted momentum, with a multiple collision absorption factor that depends on the pion absorption cross section and a phase factor that depends on the deviations of the in-medium particle momenta from their asymptotic values.