Heavy ion event generator HYDJET++ (HYDrodynamics plus JETs)

HYDJET++ is a Monte-Carlo event generator for simulation of relativistic heavy ion AA collisions considered as a superposition of the soft, hydro-type state and the hard state resulting from multi-parton fragmentation. This model is the development and continuation of HYDJET event generator (Lokhtin & Snigirev, 2006, EPJC, 45, 211). The main program is written in the object-oriented C++ language under the ROOT environment. The hard part of HYDJET++ is identical to the hard part of Fortran-written HYDJET and it is included in the generator structure as a separate directory. The soft part of HYDJET++ event is the "thermal" hadronic state generated on the chemical and thermal freeze-out hypersurfaces obtained from the parameterization of relativistic hydrodynamics with preset freeze-out conditions. It includes the longitudinal, radial and elliptic flow effects and the decays of hadronic resonances. The corresponding fast Monte-Carlo simulation procedure, C++ code FAST MC (Amelin et al., 2006, PRC, 74, 064901; 2008, PRC, 77, 014903) is adapted to HYDJET++. It is designed for studying the multi-particle production in a wide energy range of heavy ion experimental facilities: from FAIR and NICA to RHIC and LHC.Comment: 44 pages including 6 figures as EPS-files; prepared using LaTeX package for publication in Computer Physics Communication

Saturation and parton level Cronin effect: enhancement vs suppression of gluon production in p-A and A-A collisions

We note that the phenomenon of perturbative saturation leads to transverse momentum broadening in the spectrum of partons produced in hadronic collisions. This broadening has a simple interpretation as parton level Cronin effect for systems in which saturation is generated by the "tree level" Glauber-Mueller mechanism. For systems where the broadening results form the nonlinear QCD evolution to high energy, the presence or absence of Cronin effect depends crucially on the quantitative behavior of the gluon distribution functions at transverse momenta kt outside the so called scaling window. We discuss the relation of this phenomenon to the recent analysis by Kharzeev-Levin-McLerran of the momentum and centrality dependence of particle production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC.Comment: 22 pages LaTex, 7 eps-figures, discussion of evolved gluon distribution revised significantl

Improved Determination of the Mass of the 1−+1^{-+} Light Hybrid Meson From QCD Sum Rules

We calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) $\alpha_s$-corrections to the contributions of the condensates $$ and $^2$ in the current-current correlator of the hybrid current g\barq(x)\gamma_{\nu}iF_{\mu\nu}^aT^aq(x) using the external field method in Feynman gauge. After incorporating these NLO contributions into the Laplace sum-rules, the mass of the $J^{PC}$=$1^{-+}$ light hybrid meson is recalculated using the QCD sum rule approach. We find that the sum rules exhibit enhanced stability when the NLO $\alpha_s$-corrections are included in the sum rule analysis, resulting in a $1^{-+}$ light hybrid meson mass of approximately 1.6 GeV.Comment: revtex4, 10 pages, 7 eps figures embedded in manuscrip

Confirmation of a pi_1^0 Exotic Meson in the \eta \pi^0 System

The exclusive reaction $\pi^- p \to \eta \pi^0 n$, $\eta \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$ at 18 GeV$/c$ has been studied with a partial wave analysis on a sample of 23~492 $\eta \pi^0 n$ events from BNL experiment E852. A mass-dependent fit is consistent with a resonant hypothesis for the $P_+$ wave, thus providing evidence for a neutral exotic meson with $J^{PC} = 1^{-+}$, a mass of $1257 \pm 20 \pm 25$ MeV$/c^2$, and a width of $354 \pm 64 \pm 60$ MeV$/c^2$. New interpretations of the meson exotics in neutral $\eta \pi^0$ system observed in E852 and Crystal Barrel experiments are discussed.Comment: p3, rewording the paragraph (at the bottom) about the phase variations. p4, rewording paragrath "The second method ..." . p4, at the bottom of paragrath "The third method ..." added consistent with the results of methods 1 and 2

Color Transparency versus Quantum Coherence in Electroproduction of Vector Mesons off Nuclei

So far no theoretical tool for the comprehensive description of exclusive electroproduction of vector mesons off nuclei at medium energies has been developed. We suggest a light-cone QCD formalism which is valid at any energy and incorporates formation effects (color transparency), the coherence length and the gluon shadowing. At medium energies color transparency (CT) and the onset of coherence length (CL) effects are not easily separated. Indeed, although nuclear transparency measured by the HERMES experiment rises with Q^2, it agrees with predictions of the vector dominance model (VDM) without any CT effects. Our new results and observations are: (i) the good agreement with the VDM found earlier is accidental and related to the specific correlation between Q^2 and CL for HERMES kinematics; (ii) CT effects are much larger than have been estimated earlier within the two channel approximation. They are even stronger at low than at high energies and can be easily identified by HERMES or at JLab; (iii) gluon shadowing which is important at high energies is calculated and included; (iv) our parameter-free calculations explain well available data for variation of nuclear transparency with virtuality and energy of the photon; (v) predictions for electroproduction of \rho and \phi are provided for future measurements at HERMES and JLab.Comment: Latex 57 pages and 17 figure

Bouncing and Accelerating Solutions in Nonlocal Stringy Models

A general class of cosmological models driven by a non-local scalar field inspired by string field theories is studied. In particular cases the scalar field is a string dilaton or a string tachyon. A distinguished feature of these models is a crossing of the phantom divide. We reveal the nature of this phenomena showing that it is caused by an equivalence of the initial non-local model to a model with an infinite number of local fields some of which are ghosts. Deformations of the model that admit exact solutions are constructed. These deformations contain locking potentials that stabilize solutions. Bouncing and accelerating solutions are presented.Comment: Minor corrections, references added, published in JHE

Limiting fragmentation in hadron-hadron collisions at high energies

Limiting fragmentation in proton-proton, deuteron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed in the framework of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation in high energy QCD. Good agreement with experimental data is obtained for a wide range of energies. Further detailed tests of limiting fragmentation at RHIC and the LHC will provide insight into the evolution equations for high energy QCD.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures (2 new figures, text slightly expanded, and some additional references

Parton energy loss at strong coupling and the universal bound

The apparent universality of jet quenching observed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC for light and heavy quarks, as well as for quarks and gluons, is very puzzling and calls for a theoretical explanation. Recently it has been proposed that the synchrotron--like radiation at strong coupling gives rise to a universal bound on the energy of a parton escaping from the medium. Since this bound appears quite low, almost all of the observed particles at high transverse momentum have to originate from the surface of the hot fireball. Here I make a first attempt of checking this scenario against the RHIC data and formulate a "Universal Bound Model" of jet quenching that can be further tested at RHIC and LHC.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, invited plenary talk given at "Hard Probes 2008" Conference, 8-14 June 2008, Illa da Toxa, Galicia, Spai