What is the Brightest Source for Dilepton Emissions at RHIC?

We calculate the dilepton emissions as the decay product of the charm and bottom quarks produced in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energy. We take into account the next-to-leading-order radiative corrections in perturbative QCD to the heavy quark production from both an initial hard parton-parton scattering and an ideal quark-gluon plasma. We find that the thermal charm decay dominates the dilepton production in the low dilepton mass region ($<2$ GeV), while the heavy quark production from the initial scattering takes over the intermediate and high mass regions ($> 2$ GeV). Our result also indicates the importance of the bottom quark in the high mass region ($>4$ GeV ) due to its large mass and cascade decay. If the initial scattering produced charm suffers a significant energy loss due to the secondary interaction, the bottom decay constitutes the major background for the thermal dileptons.Comment: 12 pages in RevTeX, 3 epsf figures embedde

Multiplicity difference correlators under first-order QGP phase transition

The multiplicity difference correlators between two well-separated bins in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are studied as a means to detect evidence of a first-order quark-hadron phase transition. Analytical expressions for the scaled factorial moments of multiplicity difference distribution are obtained for small bin size $\delta$ with mean multiplicity in the bin ${\bar s}\le 1.0$ within Ginzburg-Landau description. The scaling behaviors between the moments are still valid, though they behave completely different from the so-called intermittency patterns. A universal exponent $\gamma=1.4066$ is given to describe the dynamical fluctuations in the phase transition in small $\delta$ limit.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures in EPS forma

Summary: Working Group on QCD and Strong Interactions

In this summary of the considerations of the QCD working group at Snowmass 2001, the roles of quantum chromodynamics in the Standard Model and in the search for new physics are reviewed, with empahsis on frontier areas in the field. We discuss the importance of, and prospects for, precision QCD in perturbative and lattice calculations. We describe new ideas in the analysis of parton distribution functions and jet structure, and review progress in small-$x$ and in polarization.Comment: Snowmass 2001. Revtex4, 34 pages, 4 figures, revised to include additional references on jets and lattice QC

Universal behavior of multiplicity differences in quark-hadron phase transition

The scaling behavior of factorial moments of the differences in multiplicities between well separated bins in heavy-ion collisions is proposed as a probe of quark-hadron phase transition. The method takes into account some of the physical features of nuclear collisions that cause some difficulty in the application of the usual method. It is shown in the Ginzburg-Landau theory that a numerical value $\gamma$ of the scaling exponent can be determined independent of the parameters in the problem. The universality of $\gamma$ characterizes quark-hadron phase transition, and can be tested directly by appropriately analyzed data.Comment: 15 pages, including 4 figures (in epsf file), Latex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Propagation of Muons and Taus at High Energies

The photonuclear contribution to charged lepton energy loss has been re-evaluated taking into account HERA results on real and virtual photon interactions with nucleons. With large $Q^2$ processes incorporated, the average muon range in rock for muon energies of $10^9$ GeV is reduced by only 5% as compared with the standard treatment. We have calculated the tau energy loss for energies up to $10^9$ GeV taking into consideration the decay of the tau. A Monte Carlo evaluation of tau survival probability and range show that at energies below $10^7-10^8$ GeV, depending on the material, only tau decays are important. At higher energies the tau energy losses are significant, reducing the survival probability of the tau. We show that the average range for tau is shorter than its decay length and reduce to 17 km in water for an incident tau energy of $10^9$ GeV, as compared with its decay length of 49 km at that energy. In iron, the average tau range is 4.7 km for the same incident energy.Comment: 25 pages including 8 figure

Tracing very high energy neutrinos from cosmological distances in ice

Astrophysical sources of ultrahigh energy neutrinos yield tau neutrino fluxes due to neutrino oscillations. We study in detail the contribution of tau neutrinos with energies above PeV relative to the contribution of the other flavors. We consider several different initial neutrino fluxes and include tau neutrino regeneration in transit through the Earth and energy loss of charged leptons. We discuss signals of tau neutrinos in detectors such as IceCube, RICE and ANITA.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figure

Open Charm Production in an Equilibrating Parton Plasma

Open charm production during the equilibration of a gluon dominated parton plasma is calculated, with both the time-dependent temperature and parton densities given by a set of rate equations. Including pre-thermal production, the total enhancement of open charm production over the initial gluon fusion depends sensitively on the initial parton density and the effective temperature. The dependence of the pre-thermal charm production on the space-momentum correlation in the initial parton phase-space distribution is also discussed.Comment: 23 pages REVTEX, 7 uuencoded postscript figures include

On the possible space-time fractality of the emitting source

Using simple space-time implementation of the random cascade model we investigate numerically a conjecture made some time ago which was joining the intermittent behaviour of spectra of emitted particles with the possible fractal structure of the emitting source. We demonstrate that such details are seen, as expected, in the Bose-Einstein correlations between identical particles. \\Comment: Thoroughly rewritten and modify version, to be published in Phys. Rev.

ER stress transcription factor Xbp1 suppresses intestinal tumorigenesis and directs intestinal stem cells

Unresolved endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the epithelium can provoke intestinal inflammation. Hypomorphic variants of ER stress response mediators, such as X-box–binding protein 1 (XBP1), confer genetic risk for inflammatory bowel disease. We report here that hypomorphic Xbp1 function instructs a multilayered regenerative response in the intestinal epithelium. This is characterized by intestinal stem cell (ISC) expansion as shown by an inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (Ire1α)–mediated increase in Lgr5+ and Olfm4+ ISCs and a Stat3-dependent increase in the proliferative output of transit-amplifying cells. These consequences of hypomorphic Xbp1 function are associated with an increased propensity to develop colitis-associated and spontaneous adenomatous polyposis coli (APC)–related tumors of the intestinal epithelium, which in the latter case is shown to be dependent on Ire1α. This study reveals an unexpected role for Xbp1 in suppressing tumor formation through restraint of a pathway that involves an Ire1α- and Stat3-mediated regenerative response of the epithelium as a consequence of ER stress. As such, Xbp1 in the intestinal epithelium not only regulates local inflammation but at the same time also determines the propensity of the epithelium to develop tumors

Neutrino Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies

We report new calculations of the cross sections for deeply inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering at neutrino energies between 10^{9}\ev and 10^{21}\ev. We compare with results in the literature and assess the reliability of our predictions. For completeness, we briefly review the cross sections for neutrino interactions with atomic electrons, emphasizing the role of the $W$-boson resonance in $\bar{\nu}_{e}e$ interactions for neutrino energies in the neighborhood of 6.3\pev. Adopting model predictions for extraterrestrial neutrino fluxes from active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursters, and the collapse of topological defects, we estimate event rates in large-volume water \v{C}erenkov detectors and large-area ground arrays.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, uses RevTeX and boxedep