Absorption and J/psi Suppression in Heavy Ion Collisions

We discuss the J/psi suppression in the framework of multiple collision models. From the analysis of the Pb-Pb NA50 data we conclude that the strength of the absorption has increased, but we find no clear evidence for the formation of the quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Evolution of particle density in high-energy pp collisions

We study the evolution of the particle density, dn/d\eta at fixed \eta with the beam rapidity Y in the framework of string percolation model. Our main results are: (i) The width of the "plateau" increases proportionally to Y, (ii) limiting fragmentation is violated, and (iii) the particle density, reduces to a step function.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Nuclear Physics A. Minor changes are don

Particle rapidity density and collective phenomena in heavy ion collisions

We analyse recent results on charged particle pseudo-rapidity densities from RHIC in the framework of the Dual String Model, in particular when including string fusion. The model, in a simple way, agrees with all the existing data and is consistent with the presence of the percolation transition to the Quark-Gluon Plasma already at the CERN-SPS. It leads to strict saturation of the particle (pseudo-)rapidity density, normalised to the number of participant nucleons, as that number increases. A comparison with recent WA98 data is presented.Comment: 6 pages, 3 ps figures, Latex2e with amsmath. To appear in the Proceedings of the XXX International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (Lake Balaton, October 2000

The black disk and the dip in the differential elastic cross section at asymptotic energy

We test the validity of the black disk limit in elastic scattering by studying the evolution of the dip in the scaling variable $\tau=-t_{D}\sigma^{tot}$, where $t_{D}$ is the transverse momentum squared at the dip and $\sigma_{tot}$ the total cross section. As $s\rightarrow \infty$ and $-t_{D} \rightarrow 0$, $\tau$ may consistently be approaching the black disc value, $\tau \xrightarrow[ \sqrt{s}\rightarrow \infty ]{} \tau_{BD}=35.92$ GeV$^{2}$ mb.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Cumulative particle production as a rare event

The generalization of the Glauber formula for cumulative production events is derived. On its basis the multiplicity distribution in such events is related to the one in the minimum bias events. As compared to the rare events of type $C$, the formula involves a shift in the arguments determined by the multiplicity from a collision with a cluster of several nucleons.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Percolation approach to phase transitions in high energy nuclear collisions

We study continuum percolation in nuclear collisions for the realistic case in which the nuclear matter distribution is not uniform over the collision volume, and show that the percolation threshold is increased compared to the standard, uniform situation. In terms of quark-gluon plasma formation this means that the phase transition threshold is pushed to higher energies.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures (PS), LaTeX2e using fontenc, amsmath, epsfi