333 research outputs found
Strangeness and the discovery of quark-gluon plasma
Strangeness flavor yield s and the entropy yield S are the observables of the
deconfined quark-gluon state of matter which can be studied in the entire
available experimental energy range at AGS, SPS, RHIC, and, in near future, at
the LHC energy range. We present here a comprehensive analysis of strange, soft
hadron production as function of energy and reaction volume. We discuss the
physical properties of the final state and argue how evidence about the
primordial QGP emerges.Comment: 16 pages: Invited talk at 5th International Conference on Physics and
Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma, February 8 - 12, 2005, Salt Lake City,
Kolkata, India, to appear in: Journal of Physics: Conference Serie
Strangeness Conservation in Hot Nuclear Fireballs
A constraint between thermal fireball parameters arises from the requirement
that the balance of strangeness in a fireball is (nearly) zero. We study the
impact of this constraint on (multi-)strange (anti-)baryon multiplicities and
compare the hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma predictions. We explore the
relation between the entropy content and particle multiplicities and show that
the data are compatible with the quark-gluon plasma hypothesis, but appear to
be inconsistent with the picture of an equilibrated hadron gas fireball. We
consider the implications of the results on the dynamics of evolution and decay
of the particle source.Comment: 35 pages, 11 postscript figures, report PAR/LPTHE/92--2
Quark-Gluon Plasma Fireball
Lattice-QCD results provide an opportunity to model, and extrapolate to
finite baryon density, the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Upon
fixing the scale of the thermal coupling constant and vacuum energy to the
lattice data, the properties of resulting QGP equations of state (EoS) are
developed. We show that the physical properties of the dense matter fireball
formed in heavy ion collision experiments at CERN-SPS are well described by the
QGP-EoS we presented. We also estimate the properties of the fireball formed in
early stages of nuclear collision, and argue that QGP formation must be
expected down to 40A GeV in central Pb--Pb interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 postscript figures, 1 table, uses revtex, V3: introduced
difference between n_f and n_s; fireball restframe energy corrected,
references added. Publisched version in press Phys. Rev.
Strangeness and Quark Gluon Plasma
A brief summary of strangeness mile stones is followed by a chemical
non-equilibrium statistical hadronization analysis of strangeness results at
SPS and RHIC. Strange particle production in AA interactions at
\sqrt{s_{NN}}\ge 8.6 GeV can be understood consistently as originating from the
deconfined quark--gluon plasma in a sudden hadronization process. Onset of QGP
formation as function of energy is placed in the beam energy interval 10--30A
GeV/c. Strangeness anomalies at LHC are described.Comment: 30 pages including numerouse figures, tables. Opening Lecture:
Strangeness and Quark Gluon Plasma -- what has been learned so far and where
do we go at SQM2003, North Carolina, March 2003, submitted to J. Phys.
Heavy Flavor Hadrons in Statistical Hadronization of Strangeness-rich QGP
We study b, c quark hadronization from QGP. We obtain the yields of charm and
bottom flavored hadrons within the statistical hadronization model. The
important novel feature of this study is that we take into account the high
strangeness and entropy content of QGP, conserving strangeness and entropy
yields at hadronization.Comment: v2 expended: 20 pages, 23 figures, 5 tables, in press EPJ-
Observing Quark-Gluon Plasma with Strange Hadrons
We review the methods and results obtained in an analysis of the experimental
heavy ion collision research program at nuclear beam energy of 160-200A GeV. We
study strange, and more generally, hadronic particle production experimental
data. We discuss present expectations concerning how these observables will
perform at other collision energies. We also present the dynamical theory of
strangeness production and apply it to show that it agrees with available
experimental results. We describe strange hadron production from the
baryon-poor quark-gluon phase formed at much higher reaction energies, where
the abundance of strange baryons and antibaryons exceeds that of nonstrange
baryons and antibaryons.Comment: 39 journal pages (155kb text), 8 postscript figures, 8 table
A Constant Spectral Index for Sagittarius A* During Infrared/X-ray Intensity Variations
We report the first time-series of broadband infrared (IR) color measurements
of Sgr A*, the variable emission source associated with the supermassive black
hole at the Galactic Center. Using the laser and natural guide star AO systems
on the Keck II telescope, we imaged Sgr A* in multiple near-infrared broadband
filters with a typical cycle time of ~3 min during 4 observing runs
(2005-2006), two of which were simultaneous with Chandra X-ray measurements. In
spite of the large range of dereddened flux densities for Sgr A* (2-30 mJy),
all of our near-IR measurements are consistent with a constant spectral index
of alpha = -0.6+-0.2. Furthermore, this value is consistent with the spectral
indices observed at X-ray wavelengths during nearly all outbursts; which is
consistent with the synchrotron self-Compton model for the production of the
X-ray emission. During the coordinated observations, one IR outburst occurs <36
min after a possibly associated X-ray outburst, while several similar IR
outbursts show no elevated X-ray emission. A variable X-ray to IR ratio and
constant infrared spectral index challenge the notion that the IR and X-ray
emission are connected to the same electrons. We, therefore, posit that the
population of electrons responsible for both the IR and X-ray emission are
generated by an acceleration mechanism that leaves the bulk of the electron
energy distribution responsible for the IR emission unchanged, but has a
variable high-energy cutoff. Occasionally a tail of electrons >1 GeV is
generated, and it is this high-energy tail that gives rise to the X-ray
outbursts. One possible explanation for this type of variation is from the
turbulence induced by a magnetorotational instability, in which the outer scale
length of the turbulence varies and changes the high-energy cutoff.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures (color), Accepted for publication in ApJ.
Resolution (Fig 1&2) downgraded for astro-ph. For full resolution, see
http://casa.colorado.edu/~hornstei/sgracolor.pd
Strangeness Enhancement in Heavy Ion Collisions - Evidence for Quark-Gluon-Matter ?
The centrality dependence of (multi-)strange hadron abundances is studied for
Pb(158 AGeV)Pb reactions and compared to p(158 GeV)Pb collisions. The
microscopic transport model UrQMD is used for this analysis. The predicted
Lambda/pi-, Xi-/pi- and Omega-/pi- ratios are enhanced due to rescattering in
central Pb-Pb collisions as compared to peripheral Pb-Pb or p-Pb collisions. A
reduction of the constituent quark masses to the current quark masses m_s \sim
230 MeV, m_q \sim 10 MeV, as motivated by chiral symmetry restoration, enhances
the hyperon yields to the experimentally observed high values. Similar results
are obtained by an ad hoc overall increase of the color electric field strength
(effective string tension of kappa=3 GeV/fm). The enhancement depends strongly
on the kinematical cuts. The maximum enhancement is predicted around
midrapidity. For Lambda's, strangeness suppression is predicted at
projectile/target rapidity. For Omega's, the predicted enhancement can be as
large as one order of magnitude. Comparisons of Pb-Pb data to proton induced
asymmetric (p-A) collisions are hampered due to the predicted strong asymmetry
in the various rapidity distributions of the different (strange) particle
species. In p-Pb collisions, strangeness is locally (in rapidity) not
conserved. The present comparison to the data of the WA97 and NA49
collaborations clearly supports the suggestion that conventional (free)
hadronic scenarios are unable to describe the observed high (anti-)hyperon
yields in central collisions. The doubling of the strangeness to nonstrange
suppression factor, gamma_s \approx 0.65, might be interpreted as a signal of a
phase of nearly massless particles.Comment: published version, discussion on strange mesons and new table added,
extended discussion on strange baryon yields. Latex, 20 pages, including 5
eps-figure
Chemical Nonequilibrium in High Energy Nuclear Collisions
Strange particles produced in S-Au/W/Pb 200 A GeV and Pb-Pb 158 A GeV
reactions are described invoking final hadronic phase space in thermal
equilibrium, but allowing chemical non-equilibrium. Several sets of statistical
freeze-out parameters are obtained for each system, invoking different models
of dense matter. We show that only when allowing for strange and non-strange
flavor abundance non-equilibrium, a statistically significant description of
the experimental results is obtained. Physical properties of the fireball at
chemical freeze-out condition are evaluated and considerable universality of
hadron freeze-out between the two different collision systems is established.
The relevance of the Coulomb effect in the highly charged Pb-Pb fireballs for
the chemical analysis are discussed. The influence of explosive collective
matter flow is also described.Comment: Presented at the International Conference Strangeness in Quark Matter
held in Padova, July 1998 To appear in: Journal of Physics G 16 pages incl.
one figure; v2: minor typos correcte
What's Interesting About Strangeness Production? - An Overview of Recent Results
In this paper I highlight a few selected topics on strange particle
production in heavy-ion collisions. By studying the yield and spectra of
strange particles we hope to gain understanding of the conditions reached in,
and the ensuing dynamics of, the systems produced when ultra-relativistic
heavy-ions are collided.Comment: 17 Pages, 18 figures, Hot Quarks 2004 Proceeding
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