Leading-particle suppression in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

Parton energy loss effects in heavy-ion collisions are studied with the Monte Carlo program PQM (Parton Quenching Model) constructed using the BDMPS quenching weights and a realistic collision geometry. The merit of the approach is that it contains only one free parameter that is tuned to the high-pt nuclear modification factor measured in central Au-Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV. Once tuned, the model is coherently applied to all the high-pt observables at 200 GeV: the centrality evolution of the nuclear modification factor, the suppression of the away-side jet-like correlations, and the azimuthal anisotropies for these observables. Predictions for the leading-particle suppression at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 62.4 and 5500 GeV are calculated. The limits of the eikonal approximation in the BDMPS approach, when applied to finite-energy partons, are discussed.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, final version, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Numerical Study of Finite Size Scaling for First Order Phase Transitions

I present results of simulations of the q=10 and q=20 2-d Potts models in the transition region. The asymptotic finite size behavior sets in only for extremely large lattices. We learn from this simulation that finite size scaling cannot be used to decide that a transition is first order.Comment: Talk presented at the Workshop on Dynamics of First Order Transitions, HLRZ, Forschungszentrum J\"ulich,Germany, June 1-3, 1992, 7 pages, 2 PostScript Figures (typing mistakes in figure captions corrected

Accurate spectroscopy of Sr atoms

We report the frequency measurement with an accuracy in the 100 kHz range of several optical transitions of atomic Sr : $^1S_0- ^3P_1$ at 689 nm, $^3P_1- ^3S_1$ at 688 nm and $^3P_0- ^3S_1$ at 679 nm. Measurements are performed with a frequency chain based on a femtosecond laser referenced to primary frequency standards. They allowed the indirect determination with a 70 kHz uncertainty of the frequency of the doubly forbidden 5s^2^1S_0- 5s5p^3P_0 transition of $^{87}$Sr at 698 nm and in a second step its direct observation. Frequency measurements are performed for $^{88}$Sr and $^{87}$Sr, allowing the determination of $^3P_0$, $^3P_1$ and $^3S_1$ isotope shifts, as well as the $^3S_1$ hyperfine constants.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figure

Do we understand the single-spin asymmetry for pi0pi^0 inclusive production in pp collisions?

The cross section data for $\pi^0$ inclusive production in $pp$ collisions is considered in a rather broad kinematic region in energy $\sqrt{s}$, Feynman variable $x_F$ and transverse momentum $p_T$. The analysis of these data is done in the perturbative QCD framework at the next-to-leading order. We find that they cannot be correctly described in the entire kinematic domain and this leads us to conclude that the single-spin asymmetry, $A_N$ for this process, observed several years ago at FNAL by the experiment E704 and the recent result obtained at BNL-RHIC by STAR, are two different phenomena. This suggests that STAR data probes a genuine leading-twist QCD single-spin asymmetry for the first time and finds a large effect.Comment: text modified, version to be published in Eur. Phys. J. C, 6 pages, 5 figure

Probing dense and hot matter with low-mass dileptons and photons

Results on low-mass dileptons, covering the very broad energy range from the BEVALAC up to SPS are reviewed. The emphasis is on the open questions raised by the intriguing results obtained so far and the prospects for addressing them in the near future with the second generation of experiments, in particular HADES, NA60 and PHENIX.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of Hard Probes 2004 Conference, Ericeira, November 4-10, 2004. Caption of Figure 2 corrected. To be published in Eur. Phys. J. C. The orginal version is available at www.springerlink.co

Effect of the lattice alignment on Bloch oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a square optical lattice

We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold atoms loaded into a square optical lattice and subject to a static force. For vanishing atom-atom interactions the atoms perform periodic Bloch oscillations for arbitrary direction of the force. We study the stability of these oscillations for non-vanishing interactions, which is shown to depend on an alignment of the force vector with respect to the lattice crystallographic axes. If the force is aligned along any of the axes, the mean field approach can be used to identify the stability conditions. On the contrary, for a misaligned force one has to employ the microscopic approach, which predicts periodic modulation of Bloch oscillations in the limit of a large forcing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Rescattering effects in hadron-nucleus and heavy-ion collisions

We review the extension of the factorization formalism of perturbative QCD to {\it coherent} soft rescattering associated with hard scattering in high energy nuclear collisions. We emphasize the ability to quantify high order corrections and the predictive power of factorization approach in terms of universal nonperturbative matrix elements. Although coherent rescattering effects are power suppressed by hard scales of the scattering, they are enhanced by the nuclear size and could play an important role in understanding the novel nuclear dependence observed in high energy nuclear collisions.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes of High Energy Nuclear Collisions (Hard Probe 2004), Ericeira, Portugal, Nov. 4-10, 200

Anderson localization of elementary excitations in a one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the elementary excitations of a transversely confined Bose-Einstein condensate in presence of a weak axial random potential. We determine the localization length (i) in the hydrodynamical low energy regime, for a domain of linear densities ranging from the Tonks-Girardeau to the transverse Thomas-Fermi regime, in the case of a white noise potential and (ii) for all the range of energies, in the ``one-dimensional mean field regime'', in the case where the randomness is induced by a series of randomly placed point-like impurities. We discuss our results in view of recent experiments in elongated BEC systems.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Final printed versio

Geometric Phase in Entangled Bipartite Systems

The geometric phase (GP) for bipartite systems in transverse external magnetic fields is investigated in this paper. Two different situations have been studied. We first consider two non-interacting particles. The results show that because of entanglement, the geometric phase is very different from that of the non-entangled case. When the initial state is a Werner state, the geometric phase is, in general, zero and moreover the singularity of the geometric phase may appear with a proper evolution time. We next study the geometric phase when intra-couplings appear and choose Werner states as the initial states to entail this discussion. The results show that unlike our first case, the absolute value of the GP is not zero, and attains its maximum when the rescaled coupling constant $J$ is less than 1. The effect of inhomogeneity of the magnetic field is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages and to be published in Euro. Phys. J.

QGP and Modified Jet Fragmentation

Recent progresses in the study of jet modification in hot medium and their consequences in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are reviewed. In particular, I will discuss energy loss for propagating heavy quarks and the resulting modified fragmentation function. Medium modification of the parton fragmentation function due to quark recombination are formulated within finite temperature field theory and their implication on the search for deconfined quark-gluon plasma is also discussedComment: 8 pages, 6 figures, invited plenary talk at HP2004, Ericeira, Portugal, Nov. 4-10, 200