Production of strange particles at intermediate pT at RHIC

The recombination model is applied to the production of $K, \phi, \Lambda$ and $\Omega$ at all $p_T$ in central Au+Au collisions. The thermal-shower component of the recombination is found to be important for $K$ and $\Lambda$, but only in a minor way for $\phi$ and $\Omega$ in the intermediate to high $p_T$ region. The normalization and inverse slope of the thermal partons in the strange sector are determined by fitting the low-$p_T$ data. At higher $p_T$ the data of $K, \phi, \Lambda$ and $\Omega$ in the log scale are all well reproduced in our study that extends the thermal contribution and includes the shower contribution. The calculated result on the $\Lambda/K$ ratio rises to a maximum of around 2 at $p_T\approx 4$ GeV/c, arching over the data in linear scale. The production of $\phi$ and $\Omega$ are shown to arise mainly from the recombination of thermal partons, thus exhibiting exponential $p_T$ dependences in agreement with the data. Their ratio, $R_{\Omega/\phi}$, rises linearly to $p_T\approx 4$ GeV/c and develops a maximum at $p_T\approx 5.5$ GeV/c. It is argued that the $p_T$ spectra of $\phi$ and $\Omega$ reveal directly the partonic nature of the thermal source that characterizes quark-gluon plasma. Comments are made on the $\Omega$ puzzle due to the simultaneous observation of both the exponential behavior of the $\Omega$ spectrum in $p_T$ and the existence of low-$p_T$ particles associated with $\Omega$ as trigger.Comment: Revised manuscript with new figure

Final-State Interaction as the Origin of the Cronin Effect

Instead of adhering to the usual explanation of the Cronin effect in terms of the broadening of the parton transverse momentum in the initial state, we show that the enhancement of hadron production at moderate $p_T$ in d+Au collisions is due to the recombination of soft and shower partons in the final state. Such a mechanism can readily explain the decrease of the Cronin effect with increasing rapidity. Furthermore, the effect should be larger for protons than for pions.Comment: 4 RevTeX pages including 3 figures and 1 table; Some notational changes and a corrected referenc

A Navier-Stokes Solution of Hull-Ring Wing-Thruster Interaction

Navier-Stokes simulations of high Reynolds number flow around an axisymmetric body supported in a water tunnel were made. The numerical method is based on a finite-differencing high resolution second-order accurate implicit upwind scheme. Four different configurations were investigated, these are: (1) barebody; (2) body with an operating propeller; (3) body with a ring wing; and (4) body with a ring wing and an operating propeller. Pressure and velocity components near the stern region were obtained computationally and are shown to compare favorably with the experimental data. The method correctly predicts the existence and extent of stern flow separation for the barebody and the absence of flow separation for the three other configurations with ring wing and/or propeller

On the Energy and Centrality Dependence of Higher Order Moments of Net-Proton Distributions in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The higher order moments of the net-baryon distributions in relativistic heavy ion collisions are useful probes for the QCD critical point and fluctuations. Within a simple model we study the colliding energy and centrality dependence of the net-proton distributions in the central rapidity region. The model is based on considering the baryon stopping and pair production effects in the processes. Based on some physical reasoning, the dependence is parameterized. Predictions for the net-proton distributions for Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions at different centralities at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=39 and 2760 GeV, respectively, are presented from the parameterizations for the model parameters. A possible test of our model is proposed from investigating the net proton distributions in the non-central rapidity region for different colliding centralities and energies.Comment: 6 pages in revtex4, 8 eps figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1107.474

Fast quantum information transfer with superconducting flux qubits coupled to a cavity

We present a way to realize quantum information transfer with superconducting flux qubits coupled to a cavity. Because only resonant qubit-cavity interaction and resonant qubit-pulse interaction are applied, the information transfer can be performed much faster, when compared with the previous proposals. This proposal does not require adjustment of the qubit level spacings during the operation. Moreover, neither uniformity in the device parameters nor exact placement of qubits in the cavity is needed by this proposal.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure