https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-022-00872-x
Regular Article –Theoretical Physics
Particle production in a hybrid approach for a beam energy scan of Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisions between 
= 4.3 GeV and = 200.0 GeV
1
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Ruth-Moufang-Straße 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Max-von-Laue-Straße 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
3
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstrasse 1, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
4
Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, 11519, Prague 1, Czech Republic
5
Institute of Particle Physics and Key Laboratory of Quark and Lepton Physics (MOE), Central China Normal University, 430079, Wuhan, China
6
Helmholtz Research Academy Hesse for FAIR (HFHF), GSI Helmholtz Center, Campus Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Straße 12, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
a
aschaefer@fias.uni-frankfurt.de
Received:
24
December
2021
Accepted:
1
November
2022
Published online:
29
November
2022
Heavy-ion collisions at varying collision energies provide access to different regions of the QCD phase diagram. In particular collisions at intermediate energies are promising candidates to experimentally identify the postulated first order phase transition and critical end point. While heavy-ion collisions at low and high collision energies are theoretically well described by transport approaches and hydrodynamics+transport hybrid approaches, respectively, intermediate energy collisions remain a challenge. In this work, a modular hybrid approach, the SMASH-vHLLE-hybrid coupling 3+1D viscous hydrodynamics (vHLLE) to hadronic transport (SMASH), is introduced. It is validated and subsequently applied in Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisions between = 4.3 GeV and = 200.0 GeV to study the rapidity and transverse mass distributions of identified particles as well as excitation functions for 
and 
. A good agreement with experimental measurements is obtained, including the baryon stopping dynamics. The transition from a Gaussian rapidity spectrum of protons at lower energies to the double-hump structure at high energies is reproduced. The centrality and energy dependence of charged particle 
is also described reasonably well. This work serves as a basis for further studies, e.g. systematic investigations of different equations of state or transport coefficients.
© The Author(s) 2022
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