Imaging Freeze-out Sources and Extracting Strong Interaction Parameters in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

By combining femtoscopic interferometry with an optical deblurring algorithm, we present a novel method to image the source in heavy-ion collisions (HICs) while simultaneously determining the interaction strength between particle pairs. The spatial distribution of the emission source has been reconstructed for protons (p) and antiprotons (p) from the respective pp and pp correlation functions in Au+Au collisions at √S_NN = 200 GeV. Within experimental uncertainties, protons and antiprotons share the same freeze-out distribution showing higher density in the center compared to the widely assumed Gaussian shape. The results evidence the matter-antimatter symmetry in coordinate space at the moment of freeze-out before the nucleons are fully randomized in the collisions.