Energy loss and thermalization of heavy quarks in a strongly-coupled plasma

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we compute the medium-induced energy loss of a decelerating heavy quark moving through a strongly-coupled supersymmetric Yang Mills plasma. In the regime where the deceleration is small, a perturbative calculation is possible and we obtain the first two corrections to the energy-loss rate of a heavy quark with constant velocity. The thermalization of the heavy quark is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collisions (QM09), Knoxville, USA, March 30-April 4 200

QCD traveling waves at non-asymptotic energies

Using consistent truncations of the BFKL kernel, we derive analytical traveling-wave solutions of the Balitsky-Kovchegov saturation equation for both fixed and running coupling. A universal parametrization of the ``interior'' of the wave front is obtained and compares well with numerical simulations of the original Balitsky-Kovchegov equation, even at non-asymptotic energies. Using this universal parametrization, we find evidence for a traveling-wave pattern of the dipole amplitude determined from the gluon distribution extracted from deep inelastic scattering data.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, minor revision, version to appear in PL

Saturation QCD predictions with heavy quarks at HERA

The measurement of the proton structure function at HERA is often seen as a hint for the observation of saturation in high-energy QCD e.g. through the observation of geometric scaling. Accordingly, the dipole picture provides a powerful framework in which the QCD-based saturation models can be confronted to the data. In this paper, we give a parametrisation of proton structure function which is directly constrained by the dynamics of QCD in its high-energy limit and fully includes the heavy quark effects. We obtain a good agreement with the available data. Furthermore, to the contrary of various models in the literature, we do not observe a significant decrease of the saturation momentum due to the heavy quark inclusion.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

On the probability distribution of the stochastic saturation scale in QCD

It was recently noticed that high-energy scattering processes in QCD have a stochastic nature. An event-by-event scattering amplitude is characterised by a saturation scale which is a random variable. The statistical ensemble of saturation scales formed with all the events is distributed according to a probability law whose cumulants have been recently computed. In this work, we obtain the probability distribution from the cumulants. We prove that it can be considered as Gaussian over a large domain that we specify and our results are confirmed by numerical simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, misprints corrected, version to appear in PL

Exclusive vector meson production at HERA from QCD with saturation

Following recent predictions that the geometric scaling properties of deep inelastic scattering data in inclusive gamma*-p collisions are expected also in exclusive diffractive processes, we investigate the diffractive production of vector mesons. Using analytic results in the framework of the BK equation at non-zero momentum transfer, we extend to the non-forward amplitude a QCD-inspired forward saturation model including charm, following the theoretical predictions for the momentum transfer dependence of the saturation scale. We obtain a good fit to the available HERA data and make predictions for deeply virtual Compton scattering measurements.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, full analysis including the charm contribution and J/PSI production. Conclusions confirme

Forward gluon production in hadron-hadron scattering with Pomeron loops

We discuss new physical phenomena expected in particle production in hadron-hadron collisions at high energy, as a consequence of Pomeron loop effects in the evolution equations for the Color Glass Condensate. We focus on gluon production in asymmetric, `dilute-dense', collisions : a dilute projectile scatters off a dense hadronic target, whose gluon distribution is highly evolved. This situation is representative for particle production in proton-proton collisions at forward rapidities (say, at LHC) and admits a dipole factorization similar to that of deep inelastic scattering (DIS). We show that at sufficiently large forward rapidities, where the Pomeron loop effects become important in the evolution of the target wavefunction, gluon production is dominated by `black spots' (saturated gluon configurations) up to very large values of the transverse momentum, well above the average saturation momentum in the target. In this regime, the produced gluon spectrum exhibits diffusive scaling, so like DIS at sufficiently high energy.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

Next-to-leading BFKL phenomenology of forward-jet cross sections at HERA

We show that the forward-jet measurements performed at HERA allow for a detailed study of corrections due to next-to-leading logarithms (NLL) in the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) approach. While the description of the d\sigma/dx data shows small sensitivity to NLL-BFKL corrections, these can be tested by the triple differential cross section d\sigma/dxdk_T^2dQ^2 recently measured. These data can be successfully described using a renormalization-group improved NLL kernel while the standard next-to-leading-order QCD or leading-logarithm BFKL approaches fail to describe the same data in the whole kinematic range. We present a detailed analysis of the NLL scheme and renormalization-scale dependences and also discuss the photon impact factors.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, new title, NLL-BFKL saddle-point approximation replaced by exact integratio

Consequences of strong fluctuations on high-energy QCD evolution

We investigate the behaviour of the QCD evolution towards high-energy, in the diffusive approximation, in the limit where the fluctuation contribution is large. Our solution for the equivalent stochastic Fisher equation predicts the amplitude as well as the whole set of correlators in the strong noise limit. The speed of the front and the diffusion coefficient are obtained. We analyse the consequences on high-energy evolution in QCD.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, more detailed discussions added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Balitsky-Kovchegov equation in full momentum space

We analyse the Balitsky-Kovchegov (BK) saturation equation in momentum space and solve it numerically. We confirm that, in the limit where the transverse momentum of the incident particle k is much bigger than the momentum transfer q, the equation admits travelling-wave solutions. We extract the q dependence of the saturation scale Q_s(Y) and verify that Q_s(Y=cste) scales as max(q,Q_T), where Q_T is the scale caracterizing the target.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, minor corrections, version appeared in Nucl. Phys.

Fate of trace metals in anaerobic digestion

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. A challenging, and largely uncharted, area of research in the field of anaerobic digestion science and technology is in understanding the roles of trace metals in enabling biogas production. This is a major knowledge gap and a multifaceted problem involving metal chemistry; physical interactions of metal and solids; microbiology; and technology optimization. Moreover, the fate of trace metals, and the chemical speciation and transport of trace metals in environments— often agricultural lands receiving discharge waters from anaerobic digestion processes— simultaneously represents challenges for environmental protection and opportunities to close process loops in anaerobic digestion.The authors acknowledge funding within the framework of the COST Action 1302 (‘European Network on Ecological Roles of Trace Metals in Anaerobic Biotechnologies’). GC is supported by a European Research Council Starting Grant (‘3C-BIOTECH; No. 261330).Peer Reviewe