A unified description of initial and final state interactions in heavy ion collisions

We have investigated the gauge field of a fast moving projectile passing through a dense medium. We provide a simple and unified derivation, in light cone gauge, of the gluon production cross-section in proton-nucleus (initial state interactions), and the radiative gluon spectrum of a hard parton produced in a nucleus-nucleus collision (final state interactions). Finally, we discuss the validity of the eikonal approximation in proton-nucleus collisions at RHIC energies.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. talk given at International Conference on Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM 2006), Upton, New York, 10-13 May 200

Adiabatic times for Markov chains and applications

We state and prove a generalized adiabatic theorem for Markov chains and provide examples and applications related to Glauber dynamics of Ising model over Z^d/nZ^d. The theorems derived in this paper describe a type of adiabatic dynamics for l^1(R_+^n) norm preserving, time inhomogeneous Markov transformations, while quantum adiabatic theorems deal with l^2(C^n) norm preserving ones, i.e. gradually changing unitary dynamics in C^n

Forward Quark Jets from Protons Shattering the Colored Glass

We consider the single-inclusive minijet cross section in pA at forward rapidity within the Color Glass Condensate model of high energy collisions. We show that the nucleus appears black to the incident quarks except for very large impact parameters. A markedly flatter p_t distribution as compared to QCD in the dilute perturbative limit is predicted for transverse momenta about the saturation scale, which could be as large as Q_s^2 ~ 10 GeV^2 for a gold nucleus boosted to rapidity ~10 (as at the BNL-RHIC).Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Comparing AdS/CFT Calculations to HERA F_2 Data

We show that HERA data for the inclusive structure function F_2(x,Q^2) at small Bjorken-x and Q^2 can be reasonably well described by a color-dipole model with an AdS/CFT-inspired dipole-proton cross section. The model contains only three free parameters fitted to data. In our AdS/CFT-based parameterization the saturation scale varies in the range of 1-3 GeV becoming independent of energy/Bjorken-x at very small x. This leads to the prediction of x-independence of the F_2 and F_L structure functions at very small x. We provide predictions for F_2 and F_L in the kinematic regions of future experiments. We discuss the limitations of our approach and its applicability region, and argue that our AdS/CFT-based model of non-perturbative physics could be viewed as complimentary to the perturbative description of data based on saturation/Color Glass Condensate physics.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures; v3: new plots added showing our model predictions for charm and longitudinal structure functions and photoproduction cross-section, discussion extended. The version to appear in PR

R-Current DIS on a Shock Wave: Beyond the Eikonal Approximation

We find the DIS structure functions at strong coupling by calculating R-current correlators on a finite-size shock wave using AdS/CFT correspondence. We improve on the existing results in the literature by going beyond the eikonal approximation for the two lowest orders in graviton exchanges. We argue that since the eikonal approximation at strong coupling resums integer powers of 1/x (with x the Bjorken-x variable), the non-eikonal corrections bringing in positive integer powers of x can not be neglected in the small-x limit, as the non-eikonal order-x correction to the (n+1)st term in the eikonal series is of the same order in x as the nth eikonal term in that series. We demonstrate that, in qualitative agreement with the earlier DIS analysis based on calculation of the expectation value of the Wilson loop in the shock wave background using AdS/CFT, after inclusion of non-eikonal corrections DIS structure functions are described by two momentum scales: Q_1^2 ~ \Lambda^2 \, A^{1/3}/x and Q_2^2 ~ \Lambda^2 \, A^{2/3}, where \Lambda is the typical transverse momentum in the shock wave and A is the atomic number if the shock wave represents a nucleus. We discuss possible physical meanings of the scales Q_1 and Q_2.Comment: 44 pages, 3 figures; v2: typos corrected, refs added, discussion extende

Genuine collective flow from Lee-Yang zeroes

We propose to use the theory of phase transitions of Lee and Yang as a practical tool to analyze long-range correlations in a finite-size system. We apply it to the analysis of anisotropic flow in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and show that this method is more reliable than any other used so far.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figures, RevTeX. v2: overall presentation modifie

Directed flow at RHIC from Lee-Yang zeroes

Directed flow in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed using the reaction plane from elliptic flow, which reduces the bias from nonflow effects. We combine this method with the determination of elliptic flow from Lee-Yang zeroes. The resulting method is more consistent and somewhat easier to implement than the previously used method based on three-particle cumulants, and is also less biased by nonflow correlations. Error terms from residual nonflow correlations are carefully estimated, as well as statistical errors. We discuss the application of the method at RHIC and LHC.Comment: 10 pages. Final version, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Dilepton production from the Color Glass Condensate

We consider dilepton production in high energy proton-nucleus (and very forward nucleus-nucleus) collisions. Treating the target nucleus as a Color Glass Condensate and describing the projectile proton (nucleus) as a collection of quarks and gluons as in the parton model, we calculate the differential cross section for dilepton production in quark-nucleus scattering and show that it is very sensitive to the saturation scale characterizing the target nucleus.Comment: 9 pages LaTeX document, 1 postscript figur

The initial energy density of gluons produced in very high energy nuclear collisions

In very high energy nuclear collisions, the initial energy of produced gluons per unit area per unit rapidity, $dE/L^2/d\eta$, is equal to $f(g^2\mu L) (g^2\mu)^3/g^2$, where $\mu^2$ is proportional to the gluon density per unit area of the colliding nuclei. For an SU(2) gauge theory, we perform a non--perturbative numerical computation of the function $f(g^2\mu L)$. It decreases rapidly for small $g^2\mu L$ but varies only by $\sim 25$%, from $0.208\pm 0.004$ to $0.257\pm 0.005$, for a wide range 35.36--296.98 in $g^2\mu L$, including the range relevant for collisions at RHIC and LHC. Extrapolating to SU(3), we estimate the initial energy per unit rapidity for Au-Au collisions in the central region at RHIC and LHC.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, 3 figures; revised version-includes additional numerical data; reference adde

Cronin Effect and High-p_T Suppression in pA Collisions

We review the predictions of the theory of Color Glass Condensate for gluon production cross section in p(d)A collisions. We demonstrate that at moderate energies, when the gluon production cross section can be calculated in the framework of McLerran-Venugopalan model, it has only partonic level Cronin effect in it. At higher energies/rapidities corresponding to smaller values of Bjorken x quantum evolution becomes important. The effect of quantum evolution at higher energies/rapidities is to introduce suppression of high-p_T gluons slightly decreasing the Cronin enhancement. At still higher energies/rapidities quantum evolution leads to suppression of produced gluons at all values of p_T.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, v2: extended and improved discussion, references adde