9,588 research outputs found
Photon production in relativistic nuclear collisions at SPS and RHIC energies
Chiral Lagrangians are used to compute the production rate of photons from
the hadronic phase of relativistic nuclear collisions. Special attention is
paid to the role of the pseudovector a_1 meson. Calculations that include
reactions with strange mesons, hadronic form factors and vector spectral
densities consistent with dilepton production, as well as the emission from a
quark-gluon plasma and primordial nucleon-nucleon collisions, reproduce the
photon spectra measured at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Predictions for
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are made.Comment: Work presented at the 26th annual Montreal-Rochester-Syracuse-Toronto
conference (MRST 2004) on high energy physics, Montreal, QC, Canada, 12-14
May 2004. 8 pages, 3 figure
Electron Impact Excitation Cross Sections for Hydrogen-Like Ions
We present cross sections for electron-impact-induced transitions n --> n' in
hydrogen-like ions C 5+, Ne 9+, Al 12+, and Ar 17+. The cross sections are
computed by Coulomb-Born with exchange and normalization (CBE) method for all
transitions with n < n' < 7 and by convergent close-coupling (CCC) method for
transitions with n 2s and 1s
--> 2p are presented as well. The CCC and CBE cross sections agree to better
than 10% with each other and with earlier close-coupling results (available for
transition 1 --> 2 only). Analytical expression for n --> n' cross sections and
semiempirical formulae are discussed.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 13 PostScript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Is the analysis of flow at the CERN SPS reliable?
Several heavy ion experiments at SPS have measured azimuthal distributions of
particles with respect to the reaction plane. These distributions are deduced
from two-particle azimuthal correlations under the assumption that they result
solely from correlations with the reaction plane. In this paper, we investigate
other sources of azimuthal correlations: transverse momentum conservation,
which produces back-to-back correlations, resonance decays, HBT correlations
and final state interactions. These correlations increase with impact
parameter: most of them vary with the multiplicity N like 1/N. When they are
taken into account, the experimental results of the NA49 collaboration at SPS
are significantly modified. These correlations might also explain an important
fraction of the pion directed flow observed by WA98. Data should be reanalyzed
taking into account carefully these non--flow correlations.Comment: Revised version (minor corrections), 13 pages, LaTeX, 6 Postscript
figures included. Submitted to Physical Review
New avenue to the Parton Distribution Functions: Self-Organizing Maps
Neural network algorithms have been recently applied to construct Parton
Distribution Function (PDF) parametrizations which provide an alternative to
standard global fitting procedures. We propose a technique based on an
interactive neural network algorithm using Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs). SOMs
are a class of clustering algorithms based on competitive learning among
spatially-ordered neurons. Our SOMs are trained on selections of stochastically
generated PDF samples. The selection criterion for every optimization iteration
is based on the features of the clustered PDFs. Our main goal is to provide a
fitting procedure that, at variance with the standard neural network
approaches, allows for an increased control of the systematic bias by enabling
user interaction in the various stages of the process.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, minor revisions, 2 figures update
Redundancy, Deduction Schemes, and Minimum-Size Bases for Association Rules
Association rules are among the most widely employed data analysis methods in
the field of Data Mining. An association rule is a form of partial implication
between two sets of binary variables. In the most common approach, association
rules are parameterized by a lower bound on their confidence, which is the
empirical conditional probability of their consequent given the antecedent,
and/or by some other parameter bounds such as "support" or deviation from
independence. We study here notions of redundancy among association rules from
a fundamental perspective. We see each transaction in a dataset as an
interpretation (or model) in the propositional logic sense, and consider
existing notions of redundancy, that is, of logical entailment, among
association rules, of the form "any dataset in which this first rule holds must
obey also that second rule, therefore the second is redundant". We discuss
several existing alternative definitions of redundancy between association
rules and provide new characterizations and relationships among them. We show
that the main alternatives we discuss correspond actually to just two variants,
which differ in the treatment of full-confidence implications. For each of
these two notions of redundancy, we provide a sound and complete deduction
calculus, and we show how to construct complete bases (that is,
axiomatizations) of absolutely minimum size in terms of the number of rules. We
explore finally an approach to redundancy with respect to several association
rules, and fully characterize its simplest case of two partial premises.Comment: LMCS accepted pape
Photon Production in Hot and Dense Strongly Interacting Matter
This text is meant as an introduction to the theoretical physics of photon
emission in hot and dense strongly interacting matter, the principal
application being relativistic nuclear collisions. We shall cover some of the
results and techniques appropriate for studies at SPS, RHIC, and LHC energiesComment: 35 pages, accepted for publication, Landolt-Boernstein Volume 1-23
Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Particle Multiplicities and Transverse Energy Produced in 158.A GeV Pb+Pb collisions
Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and
photons, and the total transverse energy in 158 GeV Pb+Pb collisions
are studied for a wide range of centralities. For narrow centrality bins the
multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect
Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations
has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The
centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the
measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from
a participant model. However for photons the multiplicity fluctuations has been
found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The
multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to
those obtained from the VENUS event generator.Comment: To appear in Physical Review C; changes : more detailed discussion on
errors and few figures modifie
Photons from Quark Gluon Plasma and Hot Hadronic Matter
The productions of real photons from quark gluon plasma and hot hadronic
matter formed after the nucleus - nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic
energies are discussed. The effects of the spectral shift of the hadrons at
finite temperature on the production of photons are investigated. On the basis
of the present analysis it is shown that the photon spectra measured by WA98
collaboration in Pb + Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies can be explained by
both QGP as well as hadronic initial states if the spectral shift of hadrons at
finite temperature is taken into account. Several other works on the analysis
of WA98 photon data have also been briefly discussed.Comment: Latex file, six eps figures include
Are direct photons a clean signal of a thermalized quark gluon plasma?
Direct photon production from a quark gluon plasma (QGP) in thermal
equilibrium is studied directly in real time. In contrast to the usual S-matrix
calculations, the real time approach is valid for a QGP that formed and reached
LTE a short time after a collision and of finite lifetime ( as expected at RHIC or LHC). We point out that during such
finite QGP lifetime the spectrum of emitted photons carries information on the
initial state. There is an inherent ambiguity in separating the virtual from
the observable photons during the transient evolution of the QGP. We propose a
real time formulation to extract the photon yield which includes the initial
stage of formation of the QGP parametrized by an effective time scale of
formation . This formulation coincides with the S-matrix approach
in the infinite lifetime limit. It allows to separate the virtual cloud as well
as the observable photons emitted during the pre- equilibrium stage from the
yield during the QGP lifetime. We find that the lowest order contribution
which does \emph{not} contribute to the S-matrix
approach, is of the same order of or larger than the S-matrix contribution
during the lifetime of the QGP for a typical formation time . The yield for momenta features a
power law fall-off and is larger than that obtained
with the S-matrix for momenta . We provide a
comprehensive numerical comparison between the real time and S-matrix yields
and study the dynamics of the build-up of the photon cloud and the different
contributions to the radiative energy loss. The reliability of the current
estimates on photon emission is discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 12 eps figures, version to appear in PR
New method for measuring azimuthal distributions in nucleus-nucleus collisions
The methods currently used to measure azimuthal distributions of particles in
heavy ion collisions assume that all azimuthal correlations between particles
result from their correlation with the reaction plane. However, other
correlations exist, and it is safe to neglect them only if azimuthal
anisotropies are much larger than 1/sqrt(N), with N the total number of
particles emitted in the collision. This condition is not satisfied at
ultrarelativistic energies. We propose a new method, based on a cumulant
expansion of multiparticle azimuthal correlations, which allows to measure much
smaller values of azimuthal anisotropies, down to 1/N. It is simple to
implement and can be used to measure both integrated and differential flow.
Furthermore, this method automatically eliminates the major systematic errors,
which are due to azimuthal asymmetries in the detector acceptance.Comment: final version (misprints corrected), to be published in Phys.Rev.
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