K1/K∗ enhancement in heavy-ion collisions and the restoration of chiral symmetry

We extend the recent study of K1/K∗ enhancement as a signature of chiral symmetry restoration in heavy ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider via the kinetic approach to include the effects due to nonunity hadron fugacities during the evolution of produced hadronic matter and the temperature-dependent K1 mass. Although including nonunity pion and kaon fugacities reduces slightly the K1/K∗ enhancement found in previous study due to chiral symmetry restoration, adding temperature-dependent K1 mass leads to a substantial further reduction of the K1/K∗ enhancement. However, the final K1/K∗ ratio still shows a factor of 2.4 and 1.3 enhancement, respectively, in peripheral and midcentral collisions compared to the case without chiral symmetry restoration, confirming its use as a good signature for chiral symmetry restoration in the hot dense matter produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions.