Three-Particle Correlations from Parton Cascades in Au+Au Collisions

G. L. Ma, Y. G. Ma, S. Zhang, X. Z. Cai, J. H. Chen, Z. J. He, H. Z. Huang, J. L. Long, W. Q. Shen, X. H. Shi, C. Zhong, J. X. Zuo

Published 2006-08-22, updated 2007-02-15Version 5

We present a study of three-particle correlations among a trigger particle and two associated particles in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic and hadronic interactions. We found that three-particle correlation densities in different angular directions with respect to the triggered particle (`center', `cone', `deflected', `near' and `near-away') increase with the number of participants. The ratio of `deflected' to `cone' density approaches to 1.0 with the increasing of number of participants, which indicates that partonic Mach-like shock waves can be produced by strong parton cascades in central Au+Au collisions.