Analyses of multi-pion Hanbury Brown–Twiss correlations for the pion-emitting sources with Bose–Einstein condensation

Abstract

We calculate the three- and four-particle correlations of identical pions in an evolving pion gas (EPG) model with Bose-Einstein condensation. The multi-pion correlation functions in the EPG model are analyzed in different momentum intervals and compared with the experimental data for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. It is found that the multi-pion correlation functions and cumulant correlation functions are sensitive to the condensation fraction of the EPG sources in the low average transverse-momentum intervals of the three and four pions. The model results of the multi-pion correlations are consistent with the experimental data in a considerable degree, which gives a source condensation fraction between 16~--~47\%.