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.

Multiparticle correlations from momentum conservation

Using a generating-function formalism, we compute the contribution of momentum conservation to multiparticle correlations between the emitted particles in high-energy collisions. In particular, we derive a compact expression of the genuine M-particle correlation, for arbitrary M.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX. v2: typos corrected, to match journal versio

"Jets" and their distortion in heavy-ion collisions

After a discussion on the meaning of "jets" in the context of nucleus-nucleus collisions, the distortions of the profile of a parton shower induced by the presence of a medium is investigated in a QCD-inspired model that implements the conservation of energy at each step of the shower evolution.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; talk given at the workshop "High-pT physics at LHC 2009", February 4-7, Prague, Czech Republi

Multiparticle correlations and momentum conservation in nucleus-nucleus collisions

Particle correlations are very actively studied in heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. Here, an attempt is made at determining a proper reference for such studies, by taking properly into account the multiparticle correlations induced by the conservation of total momentum in the collisions.Comment: 9 pages, talk given at the workshop "High-pT physics at LHC", March 23-27, 2007, Jyvaskyla, Finland. v2: final versio

Hints of incomplete thermalization in RHIC data

The large elliptic flow observed in Au-Au collisions at RHIC is often put forward as a compelling evidence for the formation of a strongly-interacting quark-gluon plasma. The main argument is that the measured elliptic flow is as large as the value given by fluid-dynamics models that assume complete thermalization. It is argued that this claim may not be justified, since a detailed examination of experimental data rather suggests that the system created is not fully equilibrated at the time when anisotropic flow develops.Comment: 8 pages, 2 eps-figures, Talk given at the Workshop on QGP Thermalization (QGPTH05), Vienna, 10-12 Aug 200

Dynamical evolution of heavy quarkonia in a deconfined medium

We investigate some consequences of the possibility that heavy quarkonia in a quark-gluon plasma possess different (quasi-) bound states, between which transitions are possible. In particular, we show that the time-evolution eigenstates in the medium are mixtures of the vacuum eigenstates. This leads to abundance ratios of quarkonia that differ from those predicted in statistical models or in the sequential-melting picture.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure