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

We consider a novel mechanism for J/Psi production in nuclear collisions arising due to the high density of gluons. We calculate the resulting J/Psi production cross section as a function of rapidity and centrality. We evaluate the nuclear modification factor and show that the rapidity distribution of the produced J/Psi's is significantly more narrow in AA collisions due to the gluon saturation effects. Our results indicate that gluon saturation in the colliding nuclei is a significant source of J/Psi suppression that can be disentangled from the quark-gluon plasma effects.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: typos corrected; presentation improve

D-instantons and multiparticle production in N=4 SYM

N=4 Super-symmetric Yang-Mills theory (N=4 SYM) in the strong coupling regime has been successfully applied (through the AdS/CFT correspondence) to the description of strongly coupled plasma which is a multiparticle state. Yet, the high-energy scattering in the strong coupling limit of N=4 SYM is purely elastic, so this multiparticle final state can never be produced: this is because in this limit the theory is dual to weak supergravity, and the dominant interaction is the elastic graviton exchange. Here we propose a resolution of this dilemma by considering the contribution of D-instantons in $AdS_5$ bulk space to the scattering amplitude. We argue that D-instantons coupled to dilatons and axions are responsible for multiparticle production in strongly coupled N=4 SYM, and the corresponding cross section increases with energy. We evaluate the intercept and the slope of the corresponding Pomeron trajectory in terms of the typical size of the D-instanton, and argue that the resulting physical picture may resemble the real world.Comment: 22 pp and 11 figures in the eps forma

Which User Interaction for Cross-Language Information Retrieval? Design Issues and Reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. This paper presents three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for rare languages, and shows how the user interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focussed on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Entanglement of two-qubit photon beam by magnetic field

We have studied the possibility of affecting the entanglement measure of 2-qubit system consisting of two photons with different fixed frequencies but with two arbitrary linear polarizations, moving in the same direction, by the help of an applied external magnetic field. The interaction between the magnetic field and the photons in our model is achieved through intermediate electrons that interact with both the photons and the magnetic field. The possibility of exact theoretical analysis of this scheme is based on known exact solutions that describe the interaction of an electron subjected to an external magnetic field (or a medium of electrons not interacting with each other) with a quantized field of two photons. We adapt these exact solutions to the case under consideration. Using explicit wave functions for the resulting electromagnetic field, we calculate the entanglement measure of the photon beam as a function of the applied magnetic field and parameters of the electron medium

Blind Normalization of Speech From Different Channels

We show how to construct a channel-independent representation of speech that has propagated through a noisy reverberant channel. This is done by blindly rescaling the cepstral time series by a non-linear function, with the form of this scale function being determined by previously encountered cepstra from that channel. The rescaled form of the time series is an invariant property of it in the following sense: it is unaffected if the time series is transformed by any time-independent invertible distortion. Because a linear channel with stationary noise and impulse response transforms cepstra in this way, the new technique can be used to remove the channel dependence of a cepstral time series. In experiments, the method achieved greater channel-independence than cepstral mean normalization, and it was comparable to the combination of cepstral mean normalization and spectral subtraction, despite the fact that no measurements of channel noise or reverberations were required (unlike spectral subtraction).Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

The twin paradox in compact spaces

Twins travelling at constant relative velocity will each see the other's time dilate leading to the apparent paradox that each twin believes the other ages more slowly. In a finite space, the twins can both be on inertial, periodic orbits so that they have the opportunity to compare their ages when their paths cross. As we show, they will agree on their respective ages and avoid the paradox. The resolution relies on the selection of a preferred frame singled out by the topology of the space.Comment: to be published in PRA, 3 page

Hadron multiplicity in pp and AA collisions at LHC from the Color Glass Condensate

We provide quantitative predictions for the rapidity, centrality and energy dependencies of inclusive charged-hadron productions for the forthcoming LHC measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions based on the idea of gluon saturation in the color-glass condensate framework. Our formulation gives very good descriptions of the first data from the LHC for the inclusive charged-hadron production in proton-proton collisions, the deep inelastic scattering at HERA at small Bjorken-x, and the hadron multiplicities in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures; v3: minor changes, one reference added, results unchanged, the version to appear in Phys. Rev.