Longevity of the quark-gluon plasma and the mixed phase from intensity interferometry of high energy photons

Abstract

Two-photon intensity interferometry is shown to provide an accurate measurement of lifetime of quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions via the difference of outward and sidewardcorrelation radii. Under the assumption of a longitudinal, boost invariant expansion of the plasma, we obtain analytical expressions for the correlations from the quark-gluon plasma phase. A $3+1$ dimensional expansion of the plasma along with a first order phase transition to hadrons is next considered, and, leads to a source with two characteristic lifetimes, one for the quark-gluon plasma phase, and the other for the longer lived mixed phase. This may even help us to {\em experimentally} determine the order of the phase transition.