Cross-sections for nuclide production in 56Fe target irradiated by 300, 500,750, 1000, 1500, and 2600 MeV protons compared with data on hydrogen target irradiation by 300, 500, 750, 1000, and 1500 MeV/nucleon 56Fe ions

Cross-sections for radioactive nuclide production in 56Fe(p,x) reactions at 300, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, and 2600 MeV were measured using the ITEP U-10 proton accelerator. In total, 221 independent and cumulative yields of products of half-lives from 6.6 min to 312 days have been obtained via the direct-spectrometry method. The measured data have been compared with the experimental data obtained elsewhere by the direct and inverse kinematics methods and with calculations by 15 codes, namely: MCNPX (INCL, CEM2k, BERTINI, ISABEL), LAHET (BERTINI, ISABEL), CEM03 (.01, .G1, .S1), LAQGSM03 (.01, .G1, >.S1), CASCADE-2004, LAHETO, and BRIEFF. Most of our data are in a good agreement with the inverse kinematics results and disprove the results of some earlier activation measurements that were quite different from the inverse kinematics measurements. The most significant calculation-to-experiment differences are observed in the yields of the A<30 light nuclei, indicating that further improvements in nuclear reaction models are needed, and pointing out as well to a necessity of more complete measurements of such reactions.Comment: 53 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables, only pdf file, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Anisotropic flow of charged and identified hadrons in the quark-gluon string model for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

The pseudorapidity behaviour of the azimuthal anisotropy parameters v_1 and v_2 of inclusive charged hadrons and their dependence on the centrality has been studied in Au+Au collisions at full RHIC energy of sqrt(s) = 200 GeV within the microscopic quark-gluon string model. The QGSM simulation results for the directed flow v_1 show antiflow alignment within the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2 in a fair agreement with the experimental v_1(eta) data, but cannot reproduce the further development of the antiflow up to |eta| around 3.5. The eta dependence of the elliptic flow v_2 extracted from the simulations agrees well with the experimental data in the whole pseudorapidity range for different centrality classes. The centrality dependence of the integrated elliptic flow of charged hadrons in the QGSM almost coincides with the PHOBOS experimental distribution. The transverse momentum dependence of the elliptic flow of identified and inclusive charged hadrons is studied also. The model reproduces quantitatively the low p_T part of the distributions rather good, but underestimates the measured elliptic flow for transverse momenta p_T > 1 GeV/c. Qualitatively, however, the model is able to reproduce the saturation of the v_2(p_T) spectra with rising p_T as well as the crossing of the elliptic flow for mesons and baryons.Comment: REVTeX, 10 pages, 10 figures, v2: extended discussion of the model results, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Production of spectator hypermatter in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We study the formation of large hyper-fragments in relativistic heavy-ion collisions within two transport models, DCM and UrQMD. Our goal is to explore a new mechanism for the formation of strange nuclear systems via capture of hyperons by relatively cold spectator matter produced in semi-peripheral collisions. We investigate basic characteristics of the produced hyper-spectators and evaluate the production probabilities of multi-strange systems. Advantages of the proposed mechanisms over an alternative coalescence mechanism are analysed. We also discuss how such systems can be detected taking into account the background of free hyperons. This investigation is important for the development of new experimental methods for producing hyper-nuclei in peripheral relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, which are now underway at GSI and are planned for the future FAIR and NICA facilities.Comment: 28 pages, including 10 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Microscopic study of freeze-out in relativistic heavy ion collisions at SPS energies

The freeze-out conditions in the light (S+S) and heavy (Pb+Pb) colliding systems of heavy nuclei at 160 AGeV/$c$ are analyzed within the microscopic Quark Gluon String Model (QGSM). We found that even for the most heavy systems particle emission takes place from the whole space-time domain available for the system evolution, but not from the thin ''freeze-out hypersurface", adopted in fluid dynamical models. Pions are continuously emitted from the whole volume of the reaction and reflect the main trends of the system evolution. Nucleons in Pb+Pb collisions initially come from the surface region. For both systems there is a separation of the elastic and inelastic freeze-out. The mesons with large transverse momenta, $p_t$, are predominantly produced at the early stages of the reaction. The low $p_t$-component is populated by mesons coming mainly from the decay of resonances. This explains naturally the decreasing source sizes with increasing $p_t$, observed in HBT interferometry. Comparison with S+S and Au+Au systems at 11.6 AGeV/$c$ is also presented.Comment: REVTEX, 26 pages incl. 9 figures and 2 tables, to be published in the Physical Review

Cosmogenic activation of Germanium and its reduction for low background experiments

Production of $^{60}$Co and $^{68}$Ge from stable isotopes of Germanium by nuclear active component of cosmic rays is a principal background source for a new generation of $^{76}$Ge double beta decay experiments like GERDA and Majorana. The biggest amount of cosmogenic activity is expected to be produced during transportation of either enriched material or already grown crystal. In this letter properties and feasibility of a movable iron shield are discussed. Activation reduction factor of about 10 is predicted by simulations with SHIELD code for a simple cylindrical configuration. It is sufficient for GERDA Phase II background requirements. Possibility of further increase of reduction factor and physical limitations are considered. Importance of activation reduction during Germanium purification and detector manufacturing is emphasized.Comment: 10 pages, 3 tables, 6 figure

Probing the deuteron structure at small N-N distances by cumulative pion production

The fragmentation of deuterons into pions emitted forward in the kinematic region forbidden for free nucleon-nucleon collisions is analyzed. It is shown that the inclusion of the non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in a deuteron results in a satisfactory description of the data for the inclusive pion spectrum and improves the description of the data about $T_{20}$. According to the data, $T_{20}$ has very small positive values, less than 0.2, which contradicts the theoretical calculations ignoring these degrees of freedom.Comment: 3 pages, 2 postscript figures; to appear in the proceedings of Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP 2002), Julich, Germany, 9-14 Jun 200

Study of ππ\pi\pi correlations at LHC and RHIC energies in pppp collisions within the quark-gluon string model

The Quark Gluon String Model (QGSM) reproduces well the global characteristics of the $pp$ collisions at RHIC and LHC, e.g., the pseudorapidity and transverse momenta distributions at different centralities. The main goal of this work is to employ the Monte Carlo QGSM for description of femtoscopic characteristics in $pp$ collisions at RHIC and LHC. The study is concentrated on the low multiplicity and multiplicity averaged events, where no collective effects are expected. The different procedures for fitting the one-dimensional correlation functions of pions are studied and compared with the space-time distributions extracted directly from the model. Particularly, it is shown that the double Gaussian fit reveals the contributions coming separately from resonances and from directly produced particles. The comparison of model results with the experimental data favors decrease of particle formation time with rising collision energy.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures, 2 table

A Fast Hadron Freeze-out Generator

We have developed a fast Monte Carlo procedure of hadron generation allowing one to study and analyze various observables for stable hadrons and hadron resonances produced in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. Particle multiplicities are determined based on the concept of chemical freeze-out. Particles can be generated on the chemical or thermal freeze-out hypersurface represented by a parameterization or a numerical solution of relativistic hydrodynamics with given initial conditions and equation of state. Besides standard space-like sectors associated with the volume decay, the hypersurface may also include non-space-like sectors related to the emission from the surface of expanding system. For comparison with other models and experimental data we demonstrate the results based on the standard parameterizations of the hadron freeze-out hypersurface and flow velocity profile under the assumption of a common chemical and thermal freeze-out. The C++ generator code is written under the ROOT framework and is available for public use at http://uhkm.jinr.ru/.Comment: 28 pages,7 figure

Fast hadron freeze-out generator, part II: noncentral collisions

The fast Monte Carlo procedure of hadron generation developed in our previous work is extended to describe noncentral collisions of nuclei. We consider different possibilities to introduce appropriate asymmetry of the freeze-out hyper-surface and flow velocity profile. For comparison with other models and experimental data we demonstrate the results based on the standard parametrizations of the hadron freeze-out hyper-surface and flow velocity profile assuming either a common chemical and thermal freeze-out or the chemically frozen evolution from chemical to thermal freeze-out. The C++ generator code is written under the ROOT framework and is available for public use at http://uhkm.jinr.ru/Comment: 27 pages including 7 figures as EPS-files; prepared using LaTeX package for publication in Physical Review