The Boltzmann equation for colourless plasmons in hot QCD plasma. Semiclassical approximation

Within the framework of the semiclassical approximation, we derive the Boltzmann equation describing the dynamics of colorless plasmons in a hot QCD plasma. The probability of the plasmon-plasmon scattering at the leading order in the coupling constant is obtained. This probability is gauge-independent at least in the class of the covariant and temporal gauges. It is noted that the structure of the scattering kernel possesses important qualitative difference from the corresponding one in the Abelian plasma, in spite of the fact that we focused our study on the colorless soft excitations. It is shown that four-plasmon decay is suppressed by the power of $g$ relative to the process of nonlinear scattering of plasmons by thermal particles at the soft momentum scale. It is stated that the former process becomes important in going to the ultrasoft region of the momentum scale.Comment: 41, LaTeX, minor changes, identical to published versio

Energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations in heavy ion collisions

The energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations was studied for the most central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A and 158A GeV by the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS. The multiplicity distribution for negatively and positively charged hadrons is significantly narrower than Poisson one for all energies. No significant structure in energy dependence of the scaled variance of multiplicity fluctuations is observed. The measured scaled variance is lower than the one predicted by the grand-canonical formulation of the hadron-resonance gas model. The results for scaled variance are in approximate agreement with the string-hadronic model UrQMD

Anisotropic Flow of Strange Particles at SPS

The elliptic flow for Lambda hyperons and K0s mesons was measured by the NA49 experiment in semicentral Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV. The standard method of correlating particles with an event plane has been used. Measurements of v2 near mid-rapidity are reported as a function of centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum. Elliptic flow of Lambda and K0s particles increases both with the impact parameter and with the transverse momentum. It is compared with v2 for pions and protons as well as with various model predictions. The NA49 results are compared with data from NA45/CERES and STAR experiments.The elliptic flow for Lambda hyperons and K0s mesons was measured by the NA49 experiment in semicentral Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV. The standard method of correlating particles with an event plane has been used. Measurements of v2 near mid-rapidity are reported as a function of centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum. Elliptic flow of Lambda and K0s particles increases both with the impact parameter and with the transverse momentum. It is compared with v2 for pions and protons as well as with various model predictions. The NA49 results are compared with data from NA45/CERES and STAR experiments

Revised data taking schedule with ion beams

This document presents the revised data taking schedule of NA61 with ion beams. The revision takes into account limitations due to the new LHC schedule as well as final results concerning the physics performance with secondary ion beams. It is proposed to take data with primary Ar and Xe beams in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and to test and use for physics a secondary B beam from primary Pb beam fragmentation in 2010, 2011 and 2013

Proposal for secondary ion beams and update of data taking schedule for 2009-2013

This document presents the proposal for secondary ion beams and the updated data taking schedule of the NA61 Collaboration. The modification of the original NA61 plans is necessary in order to reach compatibility between the current I-LHC and NA61 schedules. It assumes delivery of primary proton beam in 2009-2012 and of primary lead beam in 2011-2013. The primary lead beam will be fragmented into a secondary beam of lighter ions. The modified H2 beam line will serve as a fragment separator to produce the light ion species for NA61 data taking. The expected physics performance of the NA61 experiment with secondary ion beams will be sufficient to reach the primary NA61 physics goals