Hyperon Enhancement in the Dual Parton Model

We review the two sources of hyperon enhancement in the dual parton model: strings originating from diquark-antidiquark pairs in the nucleon sea and net baryons containing two or three sea quarks with a yield controlled by the observed stopping. We show that adding final state interactions (including strangeness exchange reactions as well as the inverse reactions required by detailed balance) with a single averaged cross-section $\sigma=0.2$ mb, we can explain the observed hyperon enhancement in PbPb collisions at CERN SPS.Comment: 6 pages, 2 eps-figure

Centrality Dependence of Hadron Multiplicities in Nuclear Collisions in the Dual Parton Model

We show that, even in purely soft processes, the hadronic multiplicity in nucleus-nucleus interactions contains a term that scales with the number of binary collisions. In the absence of shadowing corrections, this term dominates at mid rapidities and high energies. Shadowing corrections are calculated as a function of impact parameter and the centrality dependence of mid-rapidity multiplicities is determined. The multiplicity per participant increases with centrality with a rate that increases between SPS and RHIC energies, in agreement with experiment.Comment: 15 pages, 4 postscript figure

Nucleus-nucleus collisions: what we have learned from the heavy ion program at CERN

In the first part, I give a brief description of the quark-gluon plasma search at CERN and of some experimental results. In the second part, I review a dynamical model of nucleus-nucleus interactions and propose a physical interpretation of those results.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, uses fleqn.sty and espcrc2.sty. Figures available from the author. Invited talk at the XVth European Cosmic Ray Symposium, Perpignan (France), August 1996; to appear in the proceeding

J/ψ\psi suppression at s=\sqrt{{\bf s}} = 200 GeV in the comovers interaction model

The yield of $J/\psi$ per binary nucleon-nucleon collision in $AuAu$ and $CuCu$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV is computed in the framework of the dual parton model, supplemented with final state interaction (comovers interaction). For the latter we use the same value of the cross-section, $\sigma_{co} = 0.65$ mb, which describes the anomalous $J/\psi$ suppression observed at CERN-SPS energies. Several possibilities for the value of the absorptive cross-section are considered. Shadowing is introduced in both the comovers and the $J/\psi$ yields. A comparison with the results at CERN-SPS, including a prediction for $InIn$ collisions, is also presented.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Charged Multiplicities at SPS and RHIC and consequences for J/ψJ/\psi suppression

Hadron multiplicities in nucleus--nucleus interactions are calculated in the Dual Parton Model and its dependence on the number of collisions and the number of participants is analyzed. Shadowing corrections are calculated as a function of impact parameter and the multiplicity per participant as a funtion of centrality is found to be in agreement with experiment at SPS and RHIC energies. The obtained results are used to compute the $J/\psi$ suppression in a comover approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures. Talk given at XXXVI Rencontres de Moriond, Les Arcs, France, March 200

Baryon stopping and hyperon enhancement in the improved dual parton model

We present an improved version of the dual parton model which contains a new realization of the diquark breaking mechanism of baryon stopping. We reproduce in this way the net baryon yield in nuclear collisions. The model, which also considers strings originating from diquark-antidiquark pairs in the nucleon sea, reproduces the observed yields of p and Lambda and their antiparticles and underestimates cascades by less than 50 %. However, Omega's are underestimated by a factor five. Agreement with data is restored by final state interaction, with an averaged cross-section as small as 0.14 mb. Hyperon yields increase significantly faster than antihyperons, in agreement with experiment.Comment: 40 pages, 18 postscript figure

The Primakoff effect on a proton target

Primakoff effect offers us with a way to determine the radiative decay width of pseudo-scalar mesons when they are photo-produced in the electromagnetic field of hadronic systems. Taking advantage of recent developments in the Regge description of the production of mesons in the strong hadronic field, this paper evaluates the relative importance of the electromagnetic and the strong amplitudes, and assesses the possibilities which become opened by modern experimental facilities.Comment: 4 pages; 5 Figure