241 research outputs found
Ekpyrosis and inflationary dynamics in heavy ion collisions: the role of quantum fluctuations
We summarize recent significant progress in the development of a
first-principles formalism to describe the formation and evolution of matter in
very high energy heavy ion collisions. The key role of quantum fluctuations
both before and after a collision is emphasized. Systematic computations are
now feasible to address early time dynamics essential to quantifying properties
of strongly interacting quark-gluon matter.Comment: Talk by R.V. at Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, France, May 23-28, 2011.
LaTex, 4 pages; v2, final version to appear in J. Phys.
QCD at small x and nucleus-nucleus collisions
At large collision energy sqrt(s) and relatively low momentum transfer Q, one
expects a new regime of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD) known as "saturation".
This kinematical range is characterized by a very large occupation number for
gluons inside hadrons and nuclei; this is the region where higher twist
contributions are as large as the leading twist contributions incorporated in
collinear factorization. In this talk, I discuss the onset of and dynamics in
the saturation regime, some of its experimental signatures, and its
implications for the early stages of Heavy Ion Collisions.Comment: Plenary talk given at QM2006, Shanghai, November 2006. 8 pages, 8
figure
The Physics of Ultraperipheral Collisions at the LHC
We discuss the physics of large impact parameter interactions at the LHC:
ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs). The dominant processes in UPCs are
photon-nucleon (nucleus) interactions. The current LHC detector configurations
can explore small hard phenomena with nuclei and nucleons at photon-nucleon
center-of-mass energies above 1 TeV, extending the range of HERA by a
factor of ten. In particular, it will be possible to probe diffractive and
inclusive parton densities in nuclei using several processes. The interaction
of small dipoles with protons and nuclei can be investigated in elastic and
quasi-elastic and production as well as in high
production accompanied by a rapidity gap. Several of these phenomena
provide clean signatures of the onset of the new high gluon density QCD regime.
The LHC is in the kinematic range where nonlinear effects are several times
larger than at HERA. Two-photon processes in UPCs are also studied. In
addition, while UPCs play a role in limiting the maximum beam luminosity, they
can also be used a luminosity monitor by measuring mutual electromagnetic
dissociation of the beam nuclei. We also review similar studies at HERA and
RHIC as well as describe the potential use of the LHC detectors for UPC
measurements.Comment: 229 Pages, 121 figure
From Glasma to Quark Gluon Plasma in heavy ion collisions
When two sheets of Color Glass Condensate collide in a high energy heavy ion
collision, they form matter with very high energy densities called the Glasma.
We describe how this matter is formed, its remarkable properties and its
relevance for understanding thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma in heavy
ion collisions. Long range rapidity correlations contained in the near side
ridge measured in heavy ion collisions may allow one to directly infer the
properties of the Glasma.Comment: Plenary Topical Overview Talk, Quark Matter 2008; 10 pages 8 figure
Forward Quark Jets from Protons Shattering the Colored Glass
We consider the single-inclusive minijet cross section in pA at forward
rapidity within the Color Glass Condensate model of high energy collisions. We
show that the nucleus appears black to the incident quarks except for very
large impact parameters. A markedly flatter p_t distribution as compared to QCD
in the dilute perturbative limit is predicted for transverse momenta about the
saturation scale, which could be as large as Q_s^2 ~ 10 GeV^2 for a gold
nucleus boosted to rapidity ~10 (as at the BNL-RHIC).Comment: 9 pages, no figure
Dilepton low suppression as an evidence of the Color Glass Condensate
The dilepton production is investigated in proton-nucleus collisions in the
forward region using the Color Glass Condensate approach. The transverse
momentum distribution (), more precisely the low region, where the
saturation effects are expected to increase, is analyzed. The ratio between
proton-nucleus and proton-proton differential cross section for RHIC and LHC
energies is evaluated, showing the effects of saturation at small , and
presenting a Cronin type peak at moderate . These features indicate the
dilepton as a most suitable probe to study the properties of the saturated
regime and the Cronin effect.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, replaced with the version to appear in Physical
Review
Comments on two papers by Kapusta and Wong
We critically examine recently published results on the thermal production of
massive vector bosons in a quark-gluon plasma. We claim the production rate is
a collinear safe observable.Comment: 6 pages LATEX documen
The Quark-Gluon-Plasma Liquid
The quark-gluon plasma close to the critical temperature is a strongly
interacting system. Using strongly coupled, classical, non-relativistic plasmas
as an analogy, we argue that the quark-gluon plasma is in the liquid phase.
This allows to understand experimental observations in ultrarelativistic
heavy-ion collisions and to interpret lattice QCD results. It also supports the
indications of the presence of a strongly coupled QGP in ultrarelativistic
heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, final version, to bepublished in J. Phys.
Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect in thermal field theory
In recent studies, the production rate of photons or lepton pairs by a quark
gluon plasma has been found to be enhanced due to collinear singularities. This
enhancement pattern is very dependent on rather strict collinearity conditions
between the photon and the quark momenta. It was estimated by neglecting the
collisional width of quasi-particles. In this paper, we study the modifications
of this collinear enhancement when we take into account the possibility for the
quarks to have a finite mean free path. Assuming a mean free path of order
, we find that only low invariant mass photons are
affected. The region where collision effects are important can be interpreted
as the region where the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect plays a role in
thermal photon production by bremsstrahlung. It is found that this effect
modifies the spectrum of very energetic photons as well. Based on these results
and on a previous work on infrared singularities, we end this paper by a
reasonable physical picture for photon production by a quark gluon plasma, that
should be useful to set directions for future technical developments.Comment: 28 pages Latex document, 9 postscript figures, typos corrected,
semantics cleanup, final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Exploring Early Parton Momentum Distribution with the Ridge from the Near-Side Jet
In a central nucleus-nucleus collision at high-energies, medium partons
kicked by a near-side jet acquire a momentum along the jet direction and
subsequently materialize as the observed ridge particles. They carry direct
information on the early parton momentum distribution which can be extracted by
using the ridge data for central AuAu collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV. The
extracted parton momentum distribution has a thermal-like transverse momentum
distribution but a non-Gaussian, relatively flat rapidity distribution at
mid-rapidity with sharp kinematic boundaries at large rapidities that depend on
the transverse momentum.Comment: In Proceedings of 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic
Nucleus Nucleus Collisions, Jaipur, India, Feb. 4-10, 200
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