Testing collinear factorization and nuclear parton distributions with pA collisions at the LHC

Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from electron-proton and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non- linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision program at the LHC would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A global DGLAP analysis of nuclear PDFs

In this talk, we shortly report results from our recent global DGLAP analysis of nuclear parton distributions. This is an extension of our former EKS98-analysis improved with an automated $\chi^2$ minimization procedure and uncertainty estimates. Although our new analysis show no significant deviation from EKS98, a sign of a significantly stronger gluon shadowing could be seen in the RHIC BRAHMS data.Comment: Talk given at EPS HEP 200

Black Hole Production at LHC: String Balls and Black Holes from pp and Lead-lead Collisions

If the fundamental planck scale is near a TeV, then parton collisions with high enough center-of-mass energy should produce black holes. The production rate for such black holes at LHC has been extensively studied for the case of a proton-proton collision. In this paper, we extend this analysis to a lead-lead collision at LHC. We find that the cross section for small black holes which may in principle be produced in such a collision is either enhanced or suppressed, depending upon the black hole mass. For example, for black holes with a mass around 3 TeV we find that the differential black hole production cross section, d\sigma/dM, in a typical lead-lead collision is up to 90 times larger than that for black holes produced in a typical proton-proton collision. We also discuss the cross-sections for `string ball' production in these collisions. For string balls of mass about 1 (2) TeV, we find that the differential production cross section in a typical lead-lead collision may be enhanced by a factor up to 3300 (850) times that of a proton-proton collision at LHC.Comment: Added some discussion, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. D (rapid communications

CGC and initial state effects in Heavy Ion Collisions

A brief review of the phenomenological studies in the field of heavy ion collisions based on the Color Glass Condensate theory and, in particular, of those relying in the use of the BK equation including running coupling effects is presented.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the Hot Quarks 2010 Conference. June 21-26, La Londe Les Maures, Franc

Non-equilibrium initial conditions from pQCD for RHIC and LHC

We calculate the initial non-equilibrium conditions from perturbative QCD (pQCD) within Glauber multiple scattering theory for $\sqrt s =200$ AGeV and $\sqrt s =5.5$ ATeV. At the soon available collider energies one will particularly test the small $x$ region of the parton distributions entering the cross sections. Therefore shadowing effects, previously more or less unimportant, will lead to new effects on variables such as particle multiplicities $dN/dy$, transverse energy production $d\bar{E}_T/dy$, and the initial temperature $T_i$. In this paper we will have a closer look on the effects of shadowing by employing different parametrizations for the shadowing effect for valence quarks, sea quarks and gluons. Since the cross sections at midrapidity are dominated by processes involving gluons the amount of their depletion is particularly important. We will therefore have a closer look on the results for $dN/dy$, $d\bar{E}_T/dy$, and $T_i$ by using two different gluon shadowing ratios, differing strongly in size. As a matter of fact, the calculated quantities differ significantly.Comment: typo in ref's removed, ack's added, no change in result

Effects of shadowing on Drell-Yan dilepton production in high energy nuclear collisions

We compute cross sections for the Drell-Yan process in nuclear collisions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in \alpha_s. The effects of shadowing on the normalization and on the mass and rapidity dependence of these cross sections are presented. An estimate of higher order corrections is obtained from next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) calculation of the rapidity-integrated mass distribution. Variations in these predictions resulting from choices of parton distribution sets are discussed. Numerical results for mass distributions at NLO are presented for RHIC and LHC energies, using appropriate rapidity intervals. The shadowing factors in the dilepton mass range 2 < M < 10 GeV are predicted to be substantial, typically 0.5 - 0.7 at LHC, 0.7 - 0.9 at RHIC, and approximately independent of the choice of parton distribution sets and the order of calculation.Comment: 13 pages, 9 eps figure

Hard Parton Rescatterings and Minijets in Nuclear Collisions at LHC

The average number of minijets and the corresponding transverse energy produced in heavy ion collisions are evaluated by including explicitly semi-hard parton rescatterings in the dynamics of the interaction. At the LHC semi-hard rescatterings have a sizable effect on global characteristics of the typical inelastic event. An interesting feature is that the dependence on the cutoff which separates soft and hard parton interactions becomes less critical after taking rescatterings into account.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Enlarged discussion in sect.1 and 4; 1 figure added. To be published in Phys.Rev.

Fading out of J/psi color transparency in high energy heavy ion peripheral collisions

We provide predictions for the J/psi coherent production in the peripheral heavy ion collisions at LHC and at RHIC using the leading twist model of nuclear shadowing based on the QCD factorization theorem for diffraction and the HERA hard diffraction data. We demonstrate that for the LHC kinematics this model leads to a bump-shape distribution in rapidity which is suppressed overall as compared to the expectations of the color transparency regime by a factor 6. This is significantly larger suppression than that expected within the impact parameter eikonal model. Thus we show that the interaction of spatially small wave package for which the total cross section of interaction with nucleons is small is still strongly shadowed by nuclear medium in high energy processes.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

DGLAP analyses of nPDF: constraints from data

We explain how the constraints from present experimental data can be used to obtain the nPDF in the framework of LO DGLAP evolution. We will also compare the only two available sets of this type and comment on the important information that neutrino factories could provide.Comment: 1 pages, 1 postscript figure. Invited talk at the NuFact'02 workshop (Neutrino Factories based on Muon Storage Rings), London, July 200