Latest results for the antikaon-nucleon optical potential

The key question of this letter is whether the K-nucleus optical potential is deep, as it is prefered by the phenomenological fits to kaonic atoms data, or shallow, as it comes out from unitary chiral model calculations. The current experimental situation is reviewed.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Presented at the 21st European Conference on the Few-Body problems in Physics (EFB21), Salamanca, Spain, August 29 - September 3, 201

Recent developments in chiral dynamics of hadrons and hadrons in a nuclear medium

In this talk I present recent developments in chiral dynamics of hadrons and hadrons in a medium addressing the following points: interaction of the octet of pseudoscalar mesons with the octet of baryons of the nucleon, showing recent experimental evidence on the existence of two $\Lambda(1405)$ states, the interaction of the octet of pseudoscalar mesons with the decuplet of baryons of the $\Delta$, with particular emphasis on the $\Lambda(1520)$ resonance, dynamically generated by this interaction. Then I review the interaction of kaons in a nuclear medium and briefly discuss the situation around the claims of deeply bound states in nuclei. The large renormalization of the $\Lambda(1520)$ in the nuclear medium is shown as another example of successful application of the chiral unitary techniques.Comment: Talk at the Fifth International Conference on Perspectives in Hadronic Physics: Particle-Nucleus and Nucleus-Nucleus Scattering at Relativistic Energies, Trieste, May 200

The (K-,p) reaction on nuclei with in-flight kaons

We perform a theoretical study of the spectrum of protons with kinetic energies of around 600 MeV, emitted following the interaction of 1 GeV/c kaons with nuclei. A recent experimental analysis of this (K-,p) reaction on 12C, based on the dominant quasielastic process, has suggested a deeply attractive kaon nucleus potential. Our Monte Carlo simulation considers, in addition, the one-and two-nucleon K- absorption processes producing hyperons that decay into \pi N pairs. We find that this kaon in-flight reaction is not well suited to determine the kaon optical potential due, essentially, to the limited sensitivity of the cross section to its strength, but also to unavoidable uncertainties from the coincidence requirement applied in the experiment. A shallow kaon nucleus optical potential obtained in chiral models is perfectly compatible with the observed spectrum.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics, Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan), 14-18 September, 200

Effective String Rope Model for the initial stages of Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Different approaches to describe initial stages of relativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed qualitatively and quantitatively. An Effective String Rope Model is presented for heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. Our model takes into account baryon recoil for both target and projectile, arising from the acceleration of partons in an effective field, produced in the collision. The typical field strength (string tension) for RHIC energies is about 5-12 GeV/fm, what allows us to talk about ``string ropes''. The results show that a QGP forms a tilted disk, such that the direction of the largest pressure gradient stays in the reaction plane, but deviates from both the beam and the usual transverse flow directions. The produced initial state can be used as an initial condition for further hydrodynamical calculations. Such initial conditions lead to the creation of third flow component.Comment: 47 pages, 14 figures. Minor changes were made, style was changed to "elsart". Paper is accepted to Nucl. Phys.

Can supercooling explain the HBT puzzle?

Possible hadronization of supercooled QGP, created in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and SPS, is discussed within a Bjorken hydrodynamic model. Such a hadronization is expected to be a very fast shock-like process, what, if hadronization coincides or shortly followed by freeze out, could explain a part of the HBT puzzle, i.e. the flash-like particle emission ($R_{out}/R_{side}\approx 1$). HBT data also show that the expansion time before freeze out is very short ($\sim 6-10 fm/c$). In this work we discuss question of supercooled QGP and the timescale of the reaction.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

The ϕ\phi meson width in the medium from proton induced ϕ\phi production in nuclei

We perform calculations for the production of $\phi$ mesons in nuclei at energies just above threshold and study the $A$ dependence of the cross section. We use results for the $\phi$ selfenergy in the medium obtained within a chiral unitary approach. We find a strong $A$ dependence which is tied to the distortion of the incident proton and to the absorption of the $\phi$ in its way out of the nucleus. The effect of this latter process reduces the cross section in about a factor two in heavy nuclei proving that the $A$ dependence of the cross section bears valuable information on the $\phi$ width in the nuclear medium. Calculations are done for energies which are accessible in an experimental facility like COSY.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures. More detailed calculations have been performed. Paper is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Large ptp_t enhancement from freeze out

Freeze out of particles across three dimensional space-time hypersurface is discussed in a simple kinetic model. The final momentum distribution of emitted particles, for freeze out surfaces with space-like normal, shows a non-exponential transverse momentum spectrum. The slope parameter of the $p_t$ distribution increases with increasing $p_t$, in agreement with recently measured SPS pion and $h^-$ spectra.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Bound states of Θ+\Theta^+ in nuclei

We study the binding energy and the width of the $\Theta^+$ in nuclei, associated to the $K N$ and $K \pi N$ components. The first one leads to negligible contributions while the second one leads to a sizeable attraction, enough to bind the $\Theta^+$ in nuclei. Pauli blocking and binding effects on the $K N$ decay reduce considerably the $\Theta^+$ decay width in nuclei and medium effects associated to the $K \pi N$ component also lead to a very small width, as a consequence of which one finds separation between the bound levels considerably larger than the width of the states.Comment: Presentation in the 10th International Baryon Conference BARYON0

Freeze-out in hydrodynamical models in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Freeze-out of particles across 3-dimensional space-time hypersurface with space-like normal is discussed in a simple kinetic model. The final momentum distribution of emitted particles shows a non-exponential transverse momentum spectrum, which is in quantitative agreement with recently measured SPS pion and $h^-$ spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Quark Matter'99 Proceeding

Statistical Hadronization of Supercooled Quark-Gluon Plasma

The fast simultaneous hadronization and chemical freeze out of supercooled quark-gluon plasma, created in relativistic heavy ion collisions, leads to the re-heating of the expanding matter and to the change in a collective flow profile. We use the assumption of statistical nature of the hadronization process, and study quantitatively the freeze out in the framework of hydrodynamical Bjorken model with different quark-gluon plasma equations of state.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure