Baseline Cold Matter Effects on J/psi Production in AA Collisions

We present baseline calculations of initial-state shadowing and final-state absorption effects on J/psi production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We show predictions for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at \sqrt{S_{NN}}=200 GeV and Cu+Cu collisions at \sqrt{S_{NN}} = 62 GeV as a function of the rapidity, y, and the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, N_{\rm coll}.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, uses hiph-art.sty, one figure replaced, some corrections to tex

Systematics of Heavy Quark Production at RHIC

We discuss a program for systematic studies of heavy quark production in $pp$, $pA$ and $AA$ interactions. The $Q \bar Q$ production cross sections themselves cannot be accurately predicted to better than 50% at RHIC. For studies of deviations in $Q \bar Q$ production such as those by nuclear shadowing and heavy quark energy loss, the $pp$ cross section thus needs to be measured. We then show that the ratio of $pA$ to $pp$ dilepton mass distributions can provide a measurement of the nuclear gluon distribution. With total rates and nuclear shadowing under control it is easier to study energy loss and to use $c \bar c$ as a normalization of $J/\psi$ production.Comment: 10 pages, uses special included style file, 4 eps figures, for proceedings of the 18th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Jan. 200

The total charm cross section

We assess the theoretical uncertainties on the total charm cross section. We discuss the importance of the quark mass, the scale choice and the parton densities on the estimate of the uncertainty. We conclude that due to the small charm quark mass, which amplifies the effect of the other parameters in the calculation, the uncertainty on the total charm cross section is difficult to quantify.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, for Zimanyi memorial conferenc

What is the Real K Factor?

The theoretical K factor, describing the difference between the leading and higher order cross sections, has no precise definition. The definition is sensitive to the order of the fit to the parton densities and the number of loops at which alpha_s is evaluated. We describe alternate ways to define the K factor and show how the definition affects its magnitude and shape for examples of hadroproduction of W^+ bosons, Drell-Yan lepton pairs, and heavy quarks. We discuss which definition is appropriate under certain circumstances.Comment: 25 pages, uses special included style file, 14 eps figures, submitted to Heavy Ion Physic

Phenomenology of Charm and Bottom Production

We discuss the renormalization and factorization scale dependence of charm and bottom production both at fixed-target energies and at present and future colliders. We investigate whether distributions calculable at leading order can be extrapolated to next-to-leading order by a constant multiplicative factor.Comment: 18 pages, 10 Postscript figures, compressed and uuencoded, included in a separate file or available from the author. To be published in Z. Phys.

Iterated Monoidal Categories

We develop a notion of iterated monoidal category and show that this notion corresponds in a precise way to the notion of iterated loop space. Specifically the group completion of the nerve of such a category is an iterated loop space and free iterated monoidal categories give rise to finite simplicial operads of the same homotopy type as the classical little cubes operads used to parametrize the higher H-space structure of iterated loop spaces. Iterated monoidal categories encompass, as a special case, the notion of braided tensor categories, as used in the theory of quantum groups.Comment: 55 pages, 3 PostScript figure