Open charm contribution to dilepton spectra produced in nuclear collisions at SPS energies

Measurements of open charm hadro-production from CERN and Fermilab experiments are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the absolute cross sections and on their A and sqrt(s) dependences. Differential pt and xf cross sections calculated with the Pythia event generator are found to be in reasonable agreement with recent data. The calculations are scaled to nucleus-nucleus collisions and the expected lepton pair yield is deduced. The charm contribution to the low mass dilepton continuum observed by the CERES experiment is found to be negligible. In particular, it is shown that the observed low mass dilepton excess in S-Au collisions cannot be explained by charm enhancement.Comment: 19 pages, 12 eps figures included. To be published in Z.Phys.

Alternative Size and Lifetime Measurements for High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

Two-Particle correlations based on the interference of identical particles has provided the chief means for determining the shape and lifetime of sources in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Here, Strong and Coulomb induced correlations are shown to provide equivalent information.Comment: Two confusing typographical errors were correcte

Multiplicity dependence of the average transverse momentum in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

Cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic prokaryotes, oscillate between day and night time metabolisms with concomitant oscillations in gene expression in response to light/dark cycles (LD). The oscillations in gene expression have been shown to sustain in constant light (LL) with a free running period of 24 h in a model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. However, equivalent oscillations in metabolism are not reported under LL in this non-nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium. Here we focus on Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142, a unicellular, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium known to temporally separate the processes of oxygenic photosynthesis and oxygen-sensitive nitrogen fixation. In a recent report, metabolism of Cyanothece 51142 has been shown to oscillate between photosynthetic and respiratory phases under LL with free running periods that are temperature dependent but significantly shorter than the circadian period. Further, the oscillations shift to circadian pattern at moderate cell densities that are concomitant with slower growth rates. Here we take this understanding forward and demonstrate that the utradian rhythm under LL sustains at much higher cell densities when grown under turbulent regimes that simulate flashing light effect. Our results suggest that the ultradian rhythm in metabolism may be needed to support higher carbon and nitrogen requirements of rapidly growing cells under LL. With a comprehensive Real time PCR based gene expression analysis we account for key regulatory interactions and demonstrate the interplay between clock genes and the genes of key metabolic pathways. Further, we observe that several genes that peak at dusk in Synechococcus peak at dawn in Cyanothece and vice versa. The circadian rhythm of this organism appears to be more robust with peaking of genes in anticipation of the ensuing photosynthetic and respiratory metabolic phases

Origin of subthreshold K^+ production in heavy ion collisions

We investigate the origin of subthreshold $K^+$ production in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies. In particular we study the influence of the pion induced $K^+$ creation processes. We find that this channel shows a strong dependence on the size of the system, i.e., the number of participating nucleons as well as on the incident energy of the reaction. In an energy region between 1--2 GeV/nucleon the pion induced processes essentially contribute to the total yield and can even become dominant in reactions with a large number of participating nucleons. Thus we are able to reproduce recent measurements of the KaoS Collaboration for 1 GeV/nucleon Au on Au reactions adopting a realistic momentum dependent nuclear mean field.Comment: 6 pages Latex using RevTex, revised version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Enhanced Out-of-plane Emission of K+ Mesons observed in Au+Au Collisions at 1 AGeV

The azimuthal angular distribution of K+ mesons has been measured in Au + Au collisions at 1 AGeV. In peripheral and semi-central collisions, K+ mesons preferentially are emitted perpendicular to the reaction plane. The strength of the azimuthal anisotropy of K+ emission is comparable to the one of pions. No in-plane flow was found for K+ mesons near projectile and target rapidity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.Let

Azimuthal dependence of pion source radii in Pb+Au collisions at 158 A GeV

We present results of a two-pion correlation analysis performed with the Au+Pb collision data collected by the upgraded CERES experiment in the fall of 2000. The analysis was done in bins of the reaction centrality and the pion azimuthal emission angle with respect to the reaction plane. The pion source, deduced from the data, is slightly elongated in the direction perpendicular to the reaction plane, similarly as was observed at the AGS and at RHIC.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

K^+ production in baryon-baryon and heavy-ion collisions

Kaon production cross sections in nucleon-nucleon, nucleon-delta and delta-delta interactions are studied in a boson exchange model. For the latter two interactions, the exchanged pion can be on-mass shell, only contributions due to a virtual pion are included via the Peierls method by taking into account the finite delta width. With these cross sections and also those for pion-baryon interactions, subthreshold kaon production from heavy ion collisions is studied in the relativistic transport model.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.