Recent theoretical explanations for how hydrodynamic-like flow can build up quickly in small collision systems (hydrodynamization) has led to a microscopic picture of flow building up in a ...gluon-dominated phase before chemical equilibrium between quarks and gluons has been attained. The goal of this contribution to Offshell-2021 is to explore consequence of assuming a long-lived gluon-dominated phase, which we shall denote a gluon plasma (GP). As these consequences are naturally enhanced in a large systems, we assume and explore the extreme scenario in which a GP would be created in AA collisions and exist for significant time before the formation of a chemically-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The GP and its formation would be impossible to probe with light-quark hadrons, which are first produced later in this scenario. As charm quarks are produced early in the collision, they can circumvent the limitations of light quarks and we propose charm balance functions as an effective tool to test this idea and constrain the dynamics of the GP.
The global polarization of the Λ and Λ hyperons is measured for Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 and 5.02 TeV recorded with the ALICE at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results are reported ...differentially as a function of collision centrality and hyperon's transverse momentum (pT) for the range of centrality 5-50%, 0.5<pT<5 GeV/c, and rapidity |y|<0.5. The hyperon global polarization averaged for Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 and 5.02 TeV is found to be consistent with zero, (PH)(%)≈0.01±0.06(stat.)±0.03(syst.) in the collision centrality range 15-50%, where the largest signal is expected. The results are compatible with expectations based on an extrapolation from measurements at lower collision energies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, hydrodynamical model calculations, and empirical estimates based on collision energy dependence of directed flow, all of which predict the global polarization values at LHC energies of the order of 0.01%.
Asymmetric nuclear collisions of p+Al, p+Au, d+Au, and 3He+Au at √sNN=200 GeV provide an excellent laboratory for understanding particle production, as well as exploring interactions among these ...particles after their initial creation in the collision. We present measurements of charged hadron production dNch/dη in all such collision systems over a broad pseudorapidity range and as a function of collision multiplicity. A simple wounded quark model is remarkably successful at describing the full data set. We also measure the elliptic flow v2 over a similarly broad pseudorapidity range. These measurements provide key constraints on models of particle emission and their translation into flow.