High-p_T Pion Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions at RHIC energies

Perturbative QCD results on pion production are presented in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions from CERN SPS up to RHIC energy. A K_{jet}(s, p_T, Q) factor obtained from jet production is applied to perform next-to-leading order calculations. Using the intrinsic transverse momentum (k_T) we determined transverse momentum spectra for pions in wide energy region. We have investigated nuclear multiscattering and the Cronin effect at RHIC energies.Comment: Talk given at XXXII. International Symposion on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD'02) Alusha, Crimea, Ukraine, 7-13 September 2002. 4 pages in Latex, 1 PS figur

Perturbative QCD Results on Pion Production in pp, pA and AA Collisions

We summarize new pQCD results on pion production in proton-proton (pp), proton-nucleus (pA) and nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions. Our calculation introduces intrinsic parton transverse momentum (k_T) and is performed effectively at next-to-leading order (NLO), applying a K factor extracted for jet events. Two different factorization scales, Q=p_{T,jet}/2 and p_{T,jet} are used. Experimental data in pA collisions imply a preference for the latter choice at NLO level. We display our results at CERN SPS for AA collisions.Comment: Talk given at Budapest Workshop on Quark and Hadron Dynamics in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions (BP 2002) Budapest, Hungary, 3-7 Mar 2002. 11 pages in Latex, 7 PS figure. Submitted to Heavy Ion Physic

Seeing many-body effects in single- and few-layer graphene: Observation of two-dimensional saddle-point excitons

Significant excitonic effects were observed in graphene by measuring its optical conductivity in a broad spectral range including the two-dimensional {\pi}-band saddle-point singularities in the electronic structure. The strong electron-hole interactions manifest themselves in an asymmetric resonance peaked at 4.62 eV, which is red-shifted by nearly 600 meV from the value predicted by ab-initio GW calculations for the band-to-band transitions. The observed excitonic resonance is explained within a phenomenological model as a Fano interference of a strongly coupled excitonic state and a band continuum. Our experiment also showed a weak dependence of the excitonic resonance in few-layer graphene on layer thickness. This result reflects the effective cancellation of the increasingly screened repulsive electron-electron (e-e) and attractive electron-hole (e-h) interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, In PR

Discovery of Jet Quenching at RHIC and the Opacity of the Produced Gluon Plasma

The predicted quenching of jets in A+A at RHIC energies has been discovered by STAR and PHENIX in preliminary data reported at this conference. We apply the GLV theory of QCD radiative energy loss to estimate the opacity, L/\lambda_g, of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au collisions at 130 AGeV. We show that (in contrast to the factor of two Cronin enhancement of \pi^0 found at the SPS by WA98) the factor of 5-8 suppression of p_T \sim 2-4 GeV \pi^0 reported by PHENIX can be accounted for with an effective static plasma opacity L/\lambda_g \approx 3-4.Comment: Talk at the conference Quark Matter'2001, 4 pages in Latex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Nuclear Physics

High pT pion and kaon production in relativistic nuclear collisions

High-p(T) pion and kaon production is studied in relativistic proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions in a wide energy range. Cross sections are calculated based on perturbative QCD, augmented by a phenomenological transverse- momentum distribution of partons ("intrinsic k(T)"). An energy dependent width of the transverse-momentum distribution is extracted from pion and charged hadron production data in proton-proton/proton-antiproton collisions. Effects of multiscattering and shadowing in the strongly interacting medium are taken into account. Enhancement of the transverse-momentum width is introduced and parameterized to explain the Cronin effect. In collisions between heavy nuclei, the model overpredicts central pion production cross sections (more significantly at higher energies), hinting at the presence of jet quenching. Predictions are made for proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at relativistic heavy ion collider energies

Jets and produced particles in pp collisions from SPS to RHIC energies for nuclear applications

Higher-order pQCD corrections play an important role in the reproduction of data at high transverse momenta in the energy range 20 GeV $\leq \sqrt{s} \leq 200$ GeV. Recent calculations of photon and pion production in $pp$ collisions yield detailed information on the next-to-leading order contributions. However, the application of these results in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is not straightforward. The study of nuclear effects requires a simplified understanding of the output of these computations. Here we summarize our analysis of recent calculations, aimed at handling the NLO results by introducing process and energy-dependent $K$ factors.Comment: 4 pages with 5 eps figures include

Some estimates of Wang-Yau quasilocal energy

Given a spacelike 2-surface $\Sigma$ in a spacetime $N$ and a constant future timelike unit vector $T_0$ in $\R^{3,1}$, we derive upper and lower estimates of Wang-Yau quasilocal energy $E(\Sigma, X, T_0)$ for a given isometric embedding $X$ of $\Sigma$ into a flat 3-slice in $\R^{3,1}$. The quantity $E(\Sigma, X, T_0)$ itself depends on the choice of $X$, however the infimum of $E(\Sigma, X, T_0)$ over $T_0$ does not. In particular, when $\Sigma$ lies in a time symmetric 3-slice in $N$ and has nonnegative Brown-York quasilocal mass \mby(\Sigma), our estimates show that $\inf\limits_{T_0}E(\Sigma, X, T_0)$ equals \mby (\Sigma). We also study the spatial limit of $\inf\limits_{T_0}E(S_r,X_r,T_0)$, where $S_r$ is a large coordinate sphere in a fixed end of an asymptotically flat initial data set $(M, g, p)$ and $X_r$ is an isometric embeddings of $S_r$ into $\mathbb{R}^3 \subset \mathbb{R}^{3,1}$. We show that if $(M, g, p)$ has future timelike ADM energy-momentum, then $\lim\limits_{r\to\infty}\inf\limits_{T_0}E(S_r,X_r,T_0)$ equals the ADM mass of $(M, g, p)$.Comment: 17 page

Objective measurement for surgical skill evaluation

The purpose of this study was to identify measurable parameters that can be used to quantitatively assess psychomotor skills, specifically for surgical skills assessment. Sixteen participants were recruited from two groups: surgeon (N = 5) and non-surgeon (N = 11). Both groups underwent a psychomotor test using a custom developed ‘Green Target’ module which was designed using a virtual reality system. Six parameters were used to compare the psychomotor skills between the two groups. The results showed that surgeons outperformed the non-surgeons in five out of six parameters investigated and the difference was statistically significant. The average normalised comparison values for surgeons and non-surgeons for motion path accuracy, motion path precision, economy of movement, end-point accuracy and end-point precision were 0.13±0.12 and 0.17±0.12, 0.08±0.11 and 0.10±0.10, 3.76±1.76 and 4.08±2.24, 0.12±0.10 and 0.17±0.11, 0.04±0.10 and 0.07±s0.10 respectively, p < 0.05). These parameters can potentially be used to objectively assess the performance of surgical skill