Hierarchical IPF: Generating a synthetic population for Switzerland

Agent-based microsimulation models for land use or transportation simulate the behavior of agents over time, although at different time scales and with different goals. For both kinds of models, the initial step is the definition of agents and their relationships. Synthesizing the population of agents often is the only solution, due to privacy and cost constraints. In this paper, we assume that the model simulates persons grouped into households, and a person/household population needs to be synthesized. However, the methodology presented here can be applied to other kinds of agent relationships as well, e.g. persons and jobs/workplaces or persons and activity chains. Generating a synthetic population requires (a) reweighting of an initial population, taken from census or other survey data, with respect to current constraints, and (b) choosing the households that belong to the generated population. The reweighting task can be performed using an Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF) procedure; however, IPF cannot control for attributes at both person and household levels. A frequently applied pattern is to estimate household-level weights using IPF, so that they match the control totals for the households, and then, using these weights, to generate a population of households that best fits the person-level control totals. We propose an algorithm that estimates household-level weights that fit the control totals at both person and household levels. This eliminates the need to account for person-level control during the generation of synthetic households. The algorithm essentially performs a proportional fitting in the domains of both households and persons, and introduces an entropy-minimizing fitting step to switch between these two domains. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm by generating a synthetic population for Switzerland and checking it against the complete Swiss census.

Beyond the proton collinear factorization in heavy quark production in pA collisions at low x

We consider heavy quark production in high energy pA collisions and investigate the contribution of interactions of valence quarks of proton with the nucleus. The often made assumption that valence quarks of proton can be factored out is justified only if the nucleus saturation momentum is much smaller than the heavy quark mass. This is not the case in phenomenologically relevant situations. Breakdown of factorization manifests itself in substantial decrease of the cross section at large total and small relative transverse momenta of the heavy quark -antiquark pair.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor corrections and addition

Gluon saturation effects on J/Psi production in heavy ion collisions

We discuss a novel mechanism for J/Psi$ production in nuclear collisions arising due to the high density of gluons. We demonstrate that gluon saturation in the colliding nuclei is a dominant source of J/Psi suppression and can explain its experimentally observed rapidity and centrality dependence.Comment: Contribution to the "Quark Matter 2009" Proceeding

Nonlinear pair production in scattering of photons on ultra-short laser pulses at high energy

We consider scattering of a photon on a short intense laser pulse at high energy. We argue that for ultra-short laser pulses the interaction is coherent over the entire length of the pulse. At low pulse intensity $I$ the total cross section for electron-positron pair production is proportional to $I$. However, at pulse intensities higher than the characteristic value $I_s$, the total cross section saturates -- it becomes proportional to the logarithm of intensity. This nonlinear effect is due to multi-photon interactions. We derive the total cross section for pair production at high energies by resuming the multi-photon amplitudes to all orders in intensity. We calculate the saturation intensity $I_s$ and show that it is significantly lower than the Schwinger's critical value. We discuss possible experimental tests.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures; v2: presentation improved, references added, typos fixe

High energy pA collisions in the Color Glass Condensate approach

We present a brief review of phenomenological applications of the gluon saturation approach to the proton-nucleus collisions at high energies.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions June 9-16, 2006, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, Californi

Chaos in the Color Glass Condensate

The number of gluons in the hadron wave function is discrete, and their formation in the chain of small $x$ evolution occurs over discrete rapidity intervals of \Delta y \simeq 1/\as. We therefore consider the evolution as a discrete quantum process. We show that the discrete version of the mean-field Kovchegov evolution equation gives rise to strong fluctuations in the scattering amplitude, not present in the continuous equation. We find that if the linear evolution is as fast as predicted by the perturbative BFKL dynamics, the scattering amplitude at high energies exhibits a chaotic behavior. As a consequence, the properties of diffraction at high energies become universal.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; more discussions adde

Forward hadron production in high energy pA collisions: from RHIC to LHC

We present a calculation of Pi, D and B mesons production at RHIC and LHC energies based upon the KKT model of gluon saturation. We discuss dependence of the nuclear modification factor on rapidity and transverse momentum.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures; discussion added and a few typos correcte

Signatures of the Color Glass Condensate in J/Psi production off nuclear targets

We consider the J/Psi production in proton (deuteron) -- nucleus collisions at high energies. We argue that the production mechanism in this case is different from that in pp collisions due to gluon saturation in the nucleus and formation of the Color Glass Condensate. At forward rapidities (in the proton fragmentation region), the production of J/Psi is increasingly suppressed both as a function of rapidity and centrality. On the other hand, at backward rapidities at RHIC (in the fragmentation region of the nucleus) the coherent effects lead to a modest enhancement of the production cross section, with the nuclear modification factor R(J/Psi) increasing with centrality. We find that the J/Psi production cross section exhibits at forward rapidities the limiting fragmentation scaling established previously for soft processes; in the energy range studied experimentally, it manifests itself as an approximate "xF scaling".Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Correlation Functions and Cumulants in Elliptic Flow Analysis

We consider various methods of flow analysis in heavy ion collisions and compare experimental data on corresponding observables to the predictions of our saturation model proposed earlier. We demonstrate that, due to the nature of the standard flow analysis, azimuthal distribution of particles with respect to reaction plane determined from the second order harmonics should always be proportional to $\cos 2(\phi-\Psi_R)$ independent of the physical origin of particle correlations (flow or non-flow). The amplitude of this distribution is always physical and proportional to $v_2$. Two-particle correlations analysis is therefore a more reliable way of extracting the shape of physical azimuthal anisotropy. We demonstrate that two-particle correlation functions generated in our minijet model of particle production are in good agreement with the data reported by PHENIX. We discuss the role of non-flow correlations in the cumulant flow analysis and demonstrate using a simple example that if the flow is weak, higher order cumulants analysis does not significantly reduce the contribution of non-flow correlations to elliptic flow observable $v_2$ in RHIC data.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure; v2: IR safety and v2(pT) from 4th order cumulant discussions adde

Open charm production in heavy ion collisions and the Color Glass Condensate

We consider the production of open charm in heavy ion collisions in the framework of the Color Glass Condensate. In the central rapidity region at RHIC, for the charm quark yield we expect N(coll) (number of collisions) scaling in the absence of final-state effects. At higher energies, or forward rapidities at RHIC, the saturation scale exceeds the charm quark mass; we find that this results in the approximate N(part) (number of participants) scaling of charm production in AA collisions and N(part)^A scaling in p(d)A collisions, similarly to the production of high pT gluons discussed earlier. We also show that the saturation phenomenon makes spectra harder as compared to the naive parton model approach. We then discuss the energy loss of charm quarks in hot and cold media and argue that the hardness of the spectrum implies very slow dependence of the quenching factor on pT.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure