Transverse momentum dependence of Hanbury-Brown–Twiss correlation radii

The transverse momentum dependence of Hanbury-Brown–Twiss (HBT) interferometry radii for two-body correlation functions provides experimental access to the collective dynamics in heavy-ion collisions. We present an analytical approximation scheme for these HBT radii which combines the recently derived model-independent expressions with an approximate determination of the saddle point of the emission function. The method is illustrated for a longitudinally boost-invariant hydrodynamical model of a heavy-ion collision with freezeout on a sharp hypersurface. The analytical approximation converges rapidly to the width of the numerically computed correlation function and reproduces correctly its exact transverse momentum dependence. However, higher order corrections within our approximation scheme are essential, and the previously published leading order results with simple ${\mathit{m}}_{\mathrm{\perp }}$ scaling behavior are quantitatively and qualitatively unreliable. © 1996 The American Physical Society.