Energy Dependence of High Moments for Net-proton Distributions

High moments of multiplicity distributions of conserved quantities are predicted to be sensitive to critical fluctuations. To understand the effect of the complicated non-critical physics backgrounds on the proposed observable, we have studied various moments of net-proton distributions with AMPT, Hijing, Therminator and UrQMD models, in which no QCD critical point physics is implemented. It is found that the centrality evolution of various moments of net-proton distributions can be uniformly described by a superposition of emission sources. In addition, in the absence of critical phenomena, some moment products of net-proton distribution, related to the baryon number susceptibilities ratio in Lattice QCD calculation, are predicted to be constant as a function of the collision centrality. We argue that a non-monotonic dependence of the moment products as a function collision centrality and the beam energy may be used to locate the QCD critical point.Comment: SQM2009 Proceeding, 6 pages, 5 figure

Radial flow afterburner for event generators and the baryon puzzle

A simple afterburner including radial flow to the randomized transverse momentum obtained from event generators, Pythia and Hijing, has been implemented to calculate the $p/\pi$ ratios and compare them with available data. A coherent trend of qualitative agreement has been obtained in $pp$ collisions and in $Au+Au$ for various centralities. Those results indicate that the radial flow does play an important role in the so called baryon puzzle anomaly.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Journal of Physics

Measurements of Heavy Flavor and Di-electron Production at STAR

Heavy quarks are produced early in the relativistic heavy ion collisions, and provide an excellent probe into the hot and dense nuclear matter created at RHIC. In these proceedings, we will discuss recent STAR measurements of heavy flavor production, to investigate the heavy quark interaction with the medium. Electromagnetic probes, such as electrons, provide information on the various stages of the medium evolution without modification by final stage interactions. Di-electron production measurements by STAR will also be discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for CPOD201

Towards a common origin of the elliptic flow, ridge and alignment

It is claimed that elliptic flow, ridge and alignment are effects of azimuthal asymmetry, which have a common origin evolving with primary energy and stemming from the general structure of field-theoretical matrix elements. It interrelates a new ridge-phenomenon, recently found at the LHC and RHIC, with known coplanarity feature observed in collider jet physics as well as in cosmic ray studies.Comment: 4 pages, few typos fixed, reference added, version published in JETP Letter

Polarization of Lambda^0 hyperons in nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energies

The measurement of Lambda^0 hyperons polarization in nucleus-nucleus collisions is considered as one of possible tools to study the phase transition. Fixed target and collider experiments are discussed for the case of Lambda^0's production from Au-Au central collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} of several GeV.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Probe the QCD phase diagram with \phi-mesons in high energy nuclear collisions

High-energy nuclear collision provide a unique tool to study the strongly interacting medium. Recent results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on \phi-meson production has revealed the formation of a dense partonic medium. The medium constituents are found to exhibit collective behaviour initiated due to partonic interactions in the medium. We present a brief review of the recent results on \phi production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. One crucial question is where, in the phase diagram, does the transition happen for the matter changing from hadronic to partonic degrees of freedom. We discuss how \phi-meson elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions can be used for the search of the QCD phase boundary.Comment: Plenary talk at Strange Quark Matter 2008, Beijing China, 6-10 October 2008. To appear in proceedings of SQM200

RHIC physics overview

The results from data taken during the last several years at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) will be reviewed in the paper. Several selected topics that further our understanding of constituent quark scaling, jet quenching and color screening effect of heavy quarkonia in the hot dense medium will be presented. Detector upgrades will further probe the properties of Quark Gluon Plasma. Future measurements with upgraded detectors will be presented. The discovery perspectives from future measurements will also be discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, invited review article, published by Frontier of Physics in Chin

Anomalous behavior of pion production in high energy particle collisions

A shape of invariant differential cross section for charged hadron production as function of transverse momentum measured in various collider experiments is analyzed. Contrary to the behavior of produced charged kaons, protons and antiprotons, the pion spectra require an anomalously high contribution of an exponential term to describe the shape.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Parton Energy Loss in Heavy-Ion Collisions Via Direct-Photon and Charged-Particle Azimuthal Correlations

Charged-particle spectra associated with direct photon Ydir) and π0 are measured in p+p and Au+Au collisions at center-of-mass energy √sNN=200 GeV with the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. A shower-shape analysis is used to partially discriminate between Ydirand π0. Assuming no associated charged particles in the γdir direction (near side) and small contribution from fragmentation photons (Yfrag), the associated charged-particle yields opposite to Ydir(away side) are extracted. In central Au+Au collisions, the charged-particle yields at midrapidity (|η|\u3c1) and high transverse momentum (3 \u3c PTassoc \u3c 16 GeV/c) associated with γdir and π0 (|η|\u3c0.9, 8 \u3c PTtrig \u3c16 GeV/c) are suppressed by a factor of 3–5 compared with p+p collisions. The observed suppression of the associated charged particles is similar for Ydir and π0 and independent of the γdirenergy within uncertainties. These measurements indicate that, in the kinematic range covered and within our current experimental uncertainties, the parton energy loss shows no sensitivity to the parton initial energy, path length, or color charge

Extrapolation of Multiplicity distribution in p+p(\bar(p)) collisions to LHC energies

The multiplicity (N_ch) and pseudorapidity distribution (dN_ch/d\eta) of primary charged particles in p+p collisions at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies of \sqrt(s) = 10 and 14 TeV are obtained from extrapolation of existing measurements at lower \sqrt(s). These distributions are then compared to calculations from PYTHIA and PHOJET models. The existing \sqrt(s) measurements are unable to distinguish between a logarithmic and power law dependence of the average charged particle multiplicity () on \sqrt(s), and their extrapolation to energies accessible at LHC give very different values. Assuming a reasonably good description of inclusive charged particle multiplicity distributions by Negative Binomial Distributions (NBD) at lower \sqrt(s) to hold for LHC energies, we observe that the logarithmic \sqrt(s) dependence of are favored by the models at midrapidity. The dN_ch/d\eta versus \eta for the existing measurements are found to be reasonably well described by a function with three parameters which accounts for the basic features of the distribution, height at midrapidity, central rapidity plateau and the higher rapidity fall-off. Extrapolation of these parameters as a function of \sqrt(s) is used to predict the pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles at LHC energies. dN_ch/d\eta calculations from PYTHIA and PHOJET models are found to be lower compared to those obtained from the extrapolated dN_ch/d\eta versus \eta distributions for a broad \eta range.Comment: 11 pages and 13 figures. Substantially revised and accepted for publication in Journal of Physics