Nuclear shadowing in inclusive and tagged deuteron structure functions and extraction of F_2^p-F_2^n at small x from electron-deuteron collider data

We review predictions of the theory of leading twist nuclear shadowing for inclusive unpolarized and polarized deuteron structure functions F_2^D, g_1^D and b_1^D and for the tagged deuteron structure function F_2^D(x,Q^2,\vec{p}). We analyze the possibility to extract the neutron structure function F_2^n from electron-deuteron data and demonstrate that an account of leading twist nuclear shadowing leads to large corrections for the extraction of F_2^n from the future deuteron collider data both in the inclusive and in the tagged structure function modes. We suggest several strategies to address the extraction of F_2^n and to measure at the same time the effect of nuclear shadowing via the measurement of the distortion of the proton spectator spectrum in the semi-inclusive e D \to e^{\prime}NX process. We address the issue of the final state interactions in the e D \to e^{\prime}NX process and examine how they affect the extraction of F_2^n.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Published in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Probing coherent charmonium photoproduction off light nuclei at medium energies

We demonstrate how the elementary amplitudes $\gamma N\to \Psi N$, the amplitude of the nondiagonal $J/\psi N\Leftrightarrow \psi' N$ transition, and the total $J/\psi N$ and $\psi' N$ cross sections can be determined from measurements of the coherent $J/\psi$ and $\psi'$ photoproduction off light nuclei at moderate energies. For this purpose we provide a detailed numerical analysis of the coherent charmonium photoproduction off silicon within the generalized vector dominance model (GVDM) adjusted to account for the physics of charmonium models and color transparency phenomenon.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (color

Photon parton distributions in nuclei and the EMC effect

Photons as well as quarks and gluons are constituents of the infinite momentum frame (IMF) wave function of an energetic particle. They are mostly equivalent photons whose amplitude follows from the Lorentz transformation of the particle rest frame Coulomb field into the IMF and from the conservation of the electromagnetic current. We evaluate in a model independent way the dominant photon contribution \propto \alpha_{em}(Z^2/A^{4/3})\ln(1/R_{A}m_{N}x) to the nuclear structure functions as well as the term \propto \alpha_{em}Z/A. In addition we show that the definition of x consistent with the exact kinematics of eA scattering (with exact sum rules) works in the same direction as the nucleus field of equivalent photons. Combined, these effects account for the bulk of the EMC effect for x\le 0.5 where Fermi motion effects are small. In particular for these x the hadronic mechanism contribution to the EMC effect does not exceed \sim 3% for all nuclei. Also the A-dependence of the hadronic mechanism of the EMC effect for x > 0.5 is significantly modified.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, final version published in Phys.Rev.

Cold Nuclear Matter Effects on J/psi and Upsilon Production at the LHC

The charmonium yields are expected to be considerably suppressed if a deconfined medium is formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. In addition, the bottomonium states, with the possible exception of the Upsilon(1S) state, are also expected to be suppressed in heavy-ion collisions. However, in proton-nucleus collisions the quarkonium production cross sections, even those of the Upsilon(1S), are also suppressed. These "cold nuclear matter" effects need to be accounted for before signals of the high density QCD medium can be identified in the measurements made in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We identify two cold nuclear matter effects important for midrapidity quarkonium production: "nuclear absorption", typically characterized as a final-state effect on the produced quarkonium state and shadowing, the modification of the parton densities in nuclei relative to the nucleon, an initial-state effect. We characterize these effects and study the energy, rapidity, and impact-parameter dependence of initial-state shadowing in this paper.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev.

Active-to-absorbing state phase transition in the presence of fluctuating environments: Weak and strong dynamic scaling

We investigate the scaling properties of phase transitions between survival and extinction (active-to-absorbing state phase transition, AAPT) in a model, that by itself belongs to the directed percolation (DP) universality class, interacting with a spatio-temporally fluctuating environment having its own non-trivial dynamics. We model the environment by (i) a randomly stirred fluid, governed by the Navier-Stokes (NS) equation, and (ii) a fluctuating surface, described either by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) or the Edward-Wilkinson (EW) equations. We show, by using a one-loop perturbative field theoretic set up, that depending upon the spatial scaling of the variance of the external forces that drive the environment (i.e., the NS, KPZ or EW equations), the system may show {\em weak} or {\em strong dynamic scaling} at the critical point of active to absorbing state phase transitions. In the former case AAPT displays scaling belonging to the DP universality class, whereas in the latter case the universal behavior is different.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, accepted in PR

On the behaviour of single scale hard small xx processes in QCD near the black disc limit

We argue that at sufficiently small Bjorken $x$ where pQCD amplitude rapidly increases with energy and violates probability conservation the shadowing effects in the single-scale small $x$ hard QCD processes can be described by an effective quantum field theory of interacting quasiparticles. The quasiparticles are the perturbative QCD ladders. We find, within the WKB approximation, that the smallness of the QCD coupling constant ensures the hierarchy among many-quasiparticle interactions evaluated within physical vacuum and in particular, the dominance in the Lagrangian of the triple quasiparticle interaction. It is explained that the effective field theory considered near the perturbative QCD vacuum contains a tachyon relevant for the divergency of the perturbative QCD series at sufficiently small $x$. We solve the equations of motion of the effective field theory within the WKB approximation and find the physical vacuum and the transitions between the false (perturbative) and physical vacua. Classical solutions which dominate transitions between the false and physical vacua are kinks that cannot be decomposed into perturbative series over the powers of $\alpha_s$. These kinks lead to color inflation and the Bose-Einstein condensation of quasiparticles. The account of the quantum fluctuations around the WKB solution reveals the appearance of the "massless" particles-- "phonons". It is explained that "phonons" are relevant for the black disc behaviour of small $x$ processes, leading to a Froissart rise of the cross-section. The condensation of the ladders produces a color network occupying a "macroscopic" longitudinal volume. We discuss briefly the possible detection of new QCD effects.Comment: 24 pages, 1 Figure. References added, and several misprints eliminate

The casuality and/or energy-momentum conservation constraints on QCD amplitudes in small x regime

The causality and/or the energy-momentum constraints on the amplitudes of high energy processes are generalized to QCD. The constraints imply that the energetic parton may experience at most one inelastic collision only and that the number of the constituents in the light cone wave function of the projectile is increasing with the collision energy and the atomic number.Comment: 24 pages,8 figures. The paper is streamlined, some references are changed and misprints are eliminate

Large distance behaviour of light cone operator product in perturbative and nonperturbative QCD regimes

We evaluate the coordinate space dependence of the matrix elements of the commutator of the electromagnetic and gluon currents in the vicinity of the light-cone but at large distances within the parton model, DGLAP, the resummation approaches to the small x behaviour of DIS processes, and for the Unitarity Bound. We find that an increase of the commutator with relative distance $py$ as $\propto (py)f(py,y^2=t^2-r^2)$ is the generic property of QCD at small but fixed space-time interval $y^2=t^2-r^2$ in perturbative and nonperturbative QCD regimes. We explain that the factor $py$ follows within the dipole model (QCD factorization theorem) from the properties of Lorents transformation. The increase of $f(r)$ disappeares at central impact parameters if cross section of DIS may achieve the Unitarity Limit. We argue that such long range forces are hardly consistent with thermodynamic equilibrium while a Unitarity Limit may signal equilibration. Possible implications of this new long range interaction are briefly discussed.Comment: 23 page

Analytic Expression for the Joint x and Q^2 Dependences of the Structure Functions of Deep Inelastic Scattering

We obtain a good analytic fit to the joint Bjorken-x and Q^2 dependences of ZEUS data on the deep inelastic structure function F_2(x, Q^2). At fixed virtuality Q^2, as we showed previously, our expression is an expansion in powers of log (1/x) that satisfies the Froissart bound. Here we show that for each x, the Q^2 dependence of the data is well described by an expansion in powers of log Q^2. The resulting analytic expression allows us to predict the logarithmic derivatives {({\partial}^n F_2^p/{{(\partial\ln Q^2}})^n)}_x for n = 1,2 and to compare the results successfully with other data. We extrapolate the proton structure function F_2^p(x,Q^2) to the very large Q^2 and the very small x regions that are inaccessible to present day experiments and contrast our expectations with those of conventional global fits of parton distribution functions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, a few changes in the text. Version to be published in Physical Review Letter

Prompt neutrino fluxes from atmospheric charm

We calculate the prompt neutrino flux from atmospheric charm production by cosmic rays, using the dipole picture in a perturbative QCD framework, which incorporates the parton saturation effects present at high energies. We compare our results with the next-to-leading order perturbative QCD result and find that saturation effects are large for neutrino energies above 10^6 GeV, leading to a substantial suppression of the prompt neutrino flux. We comment on the range of prompt neutrino fluxes due to theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 13 pages with 11 figures; expanded discussion, added references, version to be published in Phys. Rev.