Single-Event Handbury-Brown-Twiss Interferometry

Abstract

Large spatial density fluctuations in high-energy heavy-ion collisions can come from many sources: initial transverse density fluctuations, non-central collisions, phase transitions, surface tension, and fragmentations. The common presence of some of these sources in high-energy heavy-ion collisions suggests that large scale density fluctuations may often occur. The detection of large density fluctuations by single-event Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry in heavy-ion collisions will provide useful information on density fluctuations and the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions.