A Possible Topological Contribution to the HBT Radius Enhancement in Heavy-Ion Collisions

The “HBT puzzle” in relativistic heavy-ion collisions—the systematic underestimation of the Rout/Rside ratio by hydrodynamical models—suggests a missing source of emission duration. We propose a phenomenological model for this additional delay based on the topological realignment of Polyakov-loop phases during color confinement. By adopting an effective potential V(theta) consistent with Lattice QCD results, we estimate a topological delay of 1.5 +/- 0.2 fm/c. This contribution provides a quantitative resolution to the observed data and predicts a strong centrality dependence.