Causality Constraints on Hadron Production In High Energy Collisions

For hadron production in high energy collisions, causality requirements lead to the counterpart of the cosmological horizon problem: the production occurs in a number of causally disconnected regions of finite space-time size. As a result, globally conserved quantum numbers (charge, strangeness, baryon number) must be conserved locally in spatially restricted correlation clusters. This provides a theoretical basis for the observed suppression of strangeness production in elementary interactions (pp, e^+e^-). In contrast, the space-time superposition of many collisions in heavy ion interactions largely removes these causality constraints, resulting in an ideal hadronic resonance gas in full equilibrium.Comment: 16 pages,8 figure

Hawking-Unruh Hadronization and Strangeness Production in High Energy Collisions

The thermal multihadron production observed in different high energy collisions poses many basic problems: why do even elementary, $e^+e^-$ and hadron-hadron, collisions show thermal behaviour? Why is there in such interactions a suppression of strange particle production? Why does the strangeness suppression almost disappear in relativistic heavy ion collisions? Why in these collisions is the thermalization time less than $\simeq 0.5$ fm/c? We show that the recently proposed mechanism of thermal hadron production through Hawking-Unruh radiation can naturally answer the previous questions. Indeed, the interpretation of quark- antiquark pairs production, by the sequential string breaking, as tunneling through the event horizon of colour confinement leads to thermal behavior with a universal temperature, $T \simeq 170$ Mev,related to the quark acceleration, a, by $T=a/2\pi$. The resulting temperature depends on the quark mass and then on the content of the produced hadrons, causing a deviation from full equilibrium and hence a suppression of strange particle production in elementary collisions. In nucleus-nucleus collisions, where the quark density is much bigger, one has to introduce an average temperature (acceleration) which dilutes the quark mass effect and the strangeness suppression almost disappears.Comment: Contribution to special issue of Adv. High Energy Phys. entitled "Experimental Tests of Quantum Gravity and Exotic Quantum Field Theory Effects

Quarkonium Feed-Down and Sequential Suppression

About 40-50 % of the quarkonium ground states J/psi(1S) and Upsilon(1S) produced in hadronic collisions originate from the decay of higher excitations. In a hot medium, these higher states are dissociated at lower temperatures than the more tightly bound ground states, leading to a sequential suppression pattern. Using new finite temperature lattice results, we specify the in-medium potential between heavy quarks and determine the dissociation points of different quarkonium states. On the basis of recent CDF data on bottomonium production, we then obtain first predictions for sequential Upsilon suppression in nuclear collisions.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 11 figure

Sequential Quarkonium Suppression

We use recent lattice data on the heavy quark potential in order to determine the dissociation temperatures of different quarkonium states in hot strongly interacting matter. Our analysis shows in particular that certain quarkonium states dissociate below the deconfinement point.Comment: Talk presented on the International Workshop on the Physics of the Quark - Gluon Plasma, September 4-7, 2001, Palaisea

Thermal Hadronization and Hawking-Unruh Radiation in QCD

We conjecture that because of color confinement, the physical vacuum forms an event horizon for quarks and gluons which can be crossed only by quantum tunneling, i.e., through the QCD counterpart of Hawking radiation by black holes. Since such radiation cannot transmit information to the outside, it must be thermal, of a temperature determined by the chromodynamic force at the confinement surface, and it must maintain color neutrality. We explore the possibility that the resulting process provides a common mechanism for thermal hadron production in high energy interactions, from $e^+e^-$ annihilation to heavy ion collisions.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figure

Universal strangeness production and size fluctuactions in small and large systems

Strangeness production in high multiplicity events gives indications on the transverse size fluctuactions in nucleus-nucleus ($AA$), proton-nucleus ($pA$) and proton-proton ($pp$) collisions. In particular the behavior of strange particle hadronization in "small" ($pp,pA$) and "large" ($AA$) initial configurations of the collision can be tested for the specific particle species, for different centralities and for large fluctuations of the transverse size in $pA$ and $pp$ by using the recent ALICE data. A universality of strange hadron production emerges by introducing a dynamical variable proportional to the initial parton density in the transverse plane.Comment: talk at EPS-HEP conference , Venice, 201

Statistical J/psi production and open charm enhancement in Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS

Production of open and hidden charm hadrons in heavy ion collisions is considered within the statistical coalescence model. Charmed quarks and antiquarks are assumed to be created at the initial stage of the reaction and their number is conserved during the evolution of the system. They are distributed among open and hidden charm hadrons at the hadronization stage in accordance with laws of statistical mechanics. The model is in excellent agreement with the experimental data on J/psi production in lead-lead collisions at CERN SPS and predicts strong enhancement of the open charm multiplicity over the standard extrapolation from nucleon-nucleon to nucleus-nucleus collisions. A possible mechanism of the charm enhancement is proposed.Comment: Presented at 6th International Conference on Strange Quarks in Matter, Frankfurt am Main, 2001. 4 pages, LaTeX, 1 PS-figur

String Breaking and Quarkonium Dissociation at Finite Temperatures

Recent lattice studies of string breaking in QCD with dynamical quarks determine the in-medium temperature dependence of the heavy quark potential. Comparing this to the binding energies of different quarkonium states, we check if these can decay into open charm/beauty in a confined hadronic medium. Our studies indicate in particular that the chi_c and the psi dissociate into open charm below the deconfinement point.Comment: 8 pages LaTeX, 4 figure

The production of charm mesons from quark matter at CERN SPS and RHIC

We study the production of charm mesons and other charm baryons from quark matter at CERN SPS and RHIC energies. Using quark coalescence models as hadronization mechanism, we predict particle ratios, absolute yields and transverse momentum spectra.Comment: 4 pages in Latex, 2 PS figure, to be published in the proceedings of the SQM'2000 Conference, Berkeley, CA, July 20-25, 2000. Submitted to J. Phys.

An Introduction to the Spectral Analysis of the QGP

This is an introduction to the study of the in-medium behavior of quarkonia and its application to the quark-gluon plasma search in high energy nuclear collisions.Comment: 17 pages, 20 figures; Lecture given at the QGP Winter School Jaipur 2008 (QGPWS08), Feb 1st-3rd, 2008, Jaipur, Indi