Is the Time-Delay Signal in Bose-Einstein Correlations a Signature for the Quark-Gluon Plasma at RHIC ?

Abstract

In 1996, D.H. Rischke and M. Gyulassy proposed to use the time-delay signal in Bose-Einstein correlations (BEC) as a signature for the possible formation of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In particular, they suggested to measure the ratio of the transversal interferometry radii, $R_{out}/R_{side}$, which can be obtained by fitting experimental BEC data with a parametrization introduced by G. Bertsch et al. in 1988. The transverse radius parameter $R_{out}$ has compared to the transverse radius parameter $R_{side}$ an additional temporal dependence which should be sensitive to a prolonged lifetime of a fireball, in case a QGP was formed in a relativistic heavy-ion collision. In my presentation, I am going to revisit the above made considerations by addressing various possible scenarios for hadron spectra (single and double inclusives) for Pb+Pb collisions at CERN/SPS beam energies and for Au+Au collisions at BNL/RHIC beam energies, respectively, within a relativistic {\it true} hydrodynamic framework (i.e., HYLANDER-C). I claim, that the time-delay signal in Bose-Einstein correlations {\it is not} a signature for the possible formation of a QGP, and I am going to explain why this is the case.