Comment on: "Transverse-Mass M⊥M_\perp Dependence of Dilepton Emission from Preequilibrium and Quark-Gluon Plasma in High Energy Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions"

In a recent Letter, Geiger presents calculations of the dilepton emission from the early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions using the parton cascade model (PCM). He shows that the $M_\perp$ scaling is not observed. In this Comment, we point out that this is largely due to a defect in the PCM.Comment: 3 pages, LaTex, LBL-3526

L'Avenir de la philosophie

S'il est un point que les réflexions contemporaines sur le temps ont mis en relief et inscrit profondément dans notre conscience, c'est que l'avenir qu'on espère dépend directement du présent qu'on réalise. Telle est notre attitude en face du présent, telle elle sera inéluctablement en face de l'avenir; et donc l'avenir lui-même, puisque ce dernier n'est rien sinon un présent caché encore, au cœur d'un présent déjà actuel, et explicite. Il est en effet de l'essence même de notre condition humaine d'avoir un présent structuré et comme stratifié. Certes on peut imaginer le présent comme un point sans épaisseur, comme la limite évanescente entre un segment de ligne qui marque le passé à jamais révolu, et l'avenir qui se meut vers nous pour basculer inexorablement vers le non-être en franchissant ce présent. Mais cette image, utile pour bien des tâches, ne correspond d'aucune manière à la réalité vivante de la conscience humaine et des activités qui lui sont propres. Nous sommes dans le présent ce que nous sommes et ce que, en un sens, nous croyons pouvoir dire que nous avons été. Une grande partie de ce que nous appelons le passé, notre passé personnel et sans doute notre passé spécifique, est présent, non seulement à titre de souvenir, pouvant être, ou non, évoqué, mais à titre de schéma dynamique modifiant notre être-au-monde, notre présente réaction au réel le plus réel, à la situation où nous avons à déployer notre activit

Parton cascade description of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at CERN SPS energies ?

We examine Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energy 158 A GeV, by employing the earlier developed and recently refined parton-cascade/cluster-hadronization model and its Monte Carlo implementation. This space-time model involves the dynamical interplay of perturbative QCD parton production and evolution, with non-perturbative parton-cluster formation and hadron production through cluster decays. Using computer simulations, we are able to follow the entwined time-evolution of parton and hadron degrees of freedom in both position and momentum space, from the instant of nuclear overlap to the final yield of particles. We present and discuss results for the multiplicity distributions, which agree well with the measured data from the CERN SPS, including those for K mesons. The transverse momentum distributions of the produced hadrons are also found to be in good agreement with the preliminary data measured by the NA49 and the WA98 collaboration for the collision of lead nuclei at the CERN SPS. The analysis of the time evolution of transverse energy deposited in the collision zone and the energy density suggests an existence of partonic matter for a time of more than 5 fm.Comment: 16 pages including 7 postscript figure

Low Dirac Eigenmodes and the Topological and Chiral Structure of the QCD Vacuum

Several lattice calculations which probe the chiral and topological structure of QCD are discussed. The results focus attention on the low-lying eigenmodes of the Dirac operator in typical gauge field configurations.Comment: Talk presented at the DPF2000 Conferenc

Analysis of reaction dynamics at RHIC in a combined parton/hadron transport approach

We introduce a transport approach which combines partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom on an equal footing and discuss the resulting reaction dynamics. The initial parton dynamics is modeled in the framework of the parton cascade model, hadronization is performed via a cluster hadronization model and configuration space coalescence, and the hadronic phase is described by a microscopic hadronic transport approach. The resulting reaction dynamics indicates a strong influence of hadronic rescattering on the space-time pattern of hadronic freeze-out and on the shape of transverse mass spectra. Freeze-out times and transverse radii increase by factors of 2 - 3 depending on the hadron species.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures include

Numerical correction of anti-symmetric aberrations in single HRTEM images of weakly scattering 2D-objects

Here, we present a numerical post-processing method for removing the effect of anti-symmetric residual aberrations in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of weakly scattering 2D-objects. The method is based on applying the same aberrations with the opposite phase to the Fourier transform of the recorded image intensity and subsequently inverting the Fourier transform. We present the theoretical justification of the method and its verification based on simulated images in the case of low-order anti-symmetric aberrations. Ultimately the method is applied to experimental hardware aberration-corrected HRTEM images of single-layer graphene and MoSe2 resulting in images with strongly reduced residual low-order aberrations, and consequently improved interpretability. Alternatively, this method can be used to estimate by trial and error the residual anti-symmetric aberrations in HRTEM images of weakly scattering objects

Space, Time and Color in Hadron Production Via e+e- -> Z0 and e+e- -> W+W-

The time-evolution of jets in hadronic e+e- events at LEP is investigated in both position- and momentum-space, with emphasis on effects due to color flow and particle correlations. We address dynamical aspects of the four simultanously-evolving, cross-talking parton cascades that appear in the reaction e+e- -> gamma/Z0 -> W+W- -> q1 q~2 q3 q~4, and compare with the familiar two-parton cascades in e+e- -> Z0 -> q1 q~2. We use a QCD statistical transport approach, in which the multiparticle final state is treated as an evolving mixture of partons and hadrons, whose proportions are controlled by their local space-time geography via standard perturbative QCD parton shower evolution and a phenomenological model for non-perturbative parton-cluster formation followed by cluster decays into hadrons. Our numerical simulations exhibit a characteristic `inside-outside' evolution simultanously in position and momentum space. We compare three different model treatments of color flow, and find large effects due to cluster formation by the combination of partons from different W parents. In particular, we find in our preferred model a shift of several hundred MeV in the apparent mass of the W, which is considerably larger than in previous model calculations. This suggests that the determination of the W mass at LEP2 may turn out to be a sensitive probe of spatial correlations and hadronization dynamics.Comment: 52 pages, latex, 18 figures as uu-encoded postscript fil

Nonresonant Semileptonic Heavy Quark Decay

In both the large N_c limit and the valence quark model, semileptonic decays are dominated by resonant final states. Using Bjorken's sum rule in an "unquenched" version of the quark model, I demonstrate that in the heavy quark limit nonresonant final states should also be produced at a significant rate. By calculating the individual strengths of a large number of exclusive two-body nonresonant channels, I show that the total rate for such processes is highly fragmented. I also describe some very substantial duality-violating suppression factors which reduce the inclusive nonresonant rate to a few percent of the total semileptonic rate for the finite quark masses of B decay, and comment on the importance of nonresonant decays as testing grounds for very basic ideas on the structure, strength, and significance of the quark-antiquark sea and on quark-hadron duality in QCD.Comment: 51 pages, 2 Postscript figure

Parton Equilibration in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

We investigate the processes leading to phase-space equilibration of parton distributions in nuclear interactions at collider energies. We derive a set of rate equations describing the chemical equilibration of gluons and quarks including medium effects on the relevant QCD transport coefficients, and discuss their consequences for parton equilibration in heavy ion collisions.Comment: 18 pages, 6 Figures appended as uuencoded PostScript files, (no changes in the previously submitted manuscript), DUKE-TH-93-4

Parton rescattering and screening in Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We study the microscopic dynamics of quarks and gluons in relativistic heavy ion collisions in the framework of the Parton Cascade Model. We use lowest order perturbative QCD cross sections with fixed lower momentum cutoff p_0. We calculate the time-evolution of the Debye-screening mass for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV per nucleon pair. The screening mass is used to determine a lower limit for the allowed range of p_0. We also determine the energy density reached through hard and semi-hard processes at RHIC, obtain a lower bound for the rapidity density of charged hadrons produced by semihard interactions, and analyze the extent of perturbative rescattering among partons.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, uses RevTeX 4.0; revised version with minor corrections and one updated figur