162 research outputs found
Cosmic-ray propagation properties for an origin in SNRs
We have studied the impact of cosmic-ray acceleration in SNR on the spectra
of cosmic-ray nuclei in the Galaxy using a series expansion of the propagation
equation, which allows us to use analytical solutions for part of the problem
and an efficient numerical treatment of the remaining equations and thus
accurately describes the cosmic-ray propagation on small scales around their
sources in three spatial dimensions and time. We found strong variations of the
cosmic-ray nuclei flux by typically 20% with occasional spikes of much higher
amplitude, but only minor changes in the spectral distribution. The locally
measured spectra of primary cosmic rays fit well into the obtained range of
possible spectra. We further showed that the spectra of the secondary element
Boron show almost no variations, so that the above findings also imply
significant fluctuations of the Boron-to-Carbon ratio. Therefore the commonly
used method of determining CR propagation parameters by fitting
secondary-to-primary ratios appears flawed on account of the variations that
these ratios would show throughout the Galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Jet quenching in relativistic heavy ion collisions
Parton propagation in dense nuclear matter results in elastic, inelastic and
coherent multiple soft scattering with the in-medium color charges. Such
scattering leads to calculable modifications of the hadron production cross
section that is evaluated in the framework of the perturbative QCD
factorization approach. Final state medium-induced gluon bremsstrahlung is
arguably the most efficient way of suppressing large transverse momentum
particle production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The observed hadronic
attenuation, known as jet quenching, can be related to the properties of the
medium, such as density and temperature, and carries valuable information about
the early stages of heavy ion reactions. Non-Abelian energy loss in the
quark-gluon plasma can be studied in much greater detail through the
modification of the two particle back-to-back correlations. Perturbative
calculations give good description of the redistribution of the lost energy in
lower transverse momentum particles and predict significant increase of the
correlation width of away-side di-hadrons. In contrast, energy loss in cold
nuclear matter was found to be small but for large values of Feynman-x is
expected to complement the dynamical higher twist shadowing in experimentally
observable forward rapidity hadron suppression.Comment: Invited plenary talk at the V-th international conference on the
physics and astrophysics of the quark-gluon plasma. 8 pages, 4 figure
Relevance of baseline hard proton-proton spectra for high-energy nucleus-nucleus physics
We discuss three different cases of hard inclusive spectra in proton-proton
collisions: high single hadron production at 20 GeV and
at = 62.4 GeV, and direct photon production at = 200 GeV;
with regard to their relevance for the search of Quark Gluon Plasma signals in
A+A collisions at SPS and RHIC energies.Comment: Proceeds. Hot Quarks 2004 Int. Workshop on the Physics of
Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions. 26 pages. 26 figs. [minor
corrs., refs. added
On possible interpretations of the high energy electron-positron spectrum measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
The Fermi-LAT experiment recently reported high precision measurements of the
spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons-plus-positrons (CRE) between 20 GeV and 1 TeV.
The spectrum shows no prominent spectral features, and is significantly harder
than that inferred from several previous experiments. Here we discuss several
interpretations of the Fermi results based either on a single large scale
Galactic CRE component or by invoking additional electron-positron primary
sources, e.g. nearby pulsars or particle Dark Matter annihilation. We show that
while the reported Fermi-LAT data alone can be interpreted in terms of a single
component scenario, when combined with other complementary experimental
results, specifically the CRE spectrum measured by H.E.S.S. and especially the
positron fraction reported by PAMELA between 1 and 100 GeV, that class of
models fails to provide a consistent interpretation. Rather, we find that
several combinations of parameters, involving both the pulsar and dark matter
scenarios, allow a consistent description of those results. We also briefly
discuss the possibility of discriminating between the pulsar and dark matter
interpretations by looking for a possible anisotropy in the CRE flux.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures. Final version accepted for publication in
Astroparticle Physic
Electromagnetic probes
We introduce the seminal developments in the theory and experiments of
electromagnetic probes for the study of the dynamics of relativistic heavy ion
collisions and quark gluon plasma.Comment: 47 pages, 33 Figures; Lectures delivered by Dinesh K. Srivastava at
QGP Winter School (QGPWS08) at Jaipur, India, February 1-3, 200
Azimuthal Anisotropy of Photon and Charged Particle Emission in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c
The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to
the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb
collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The
anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier
analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two
Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The
observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the
expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. The manuscript has undergone a major revision.
The unwanted correlations were enhanced in the random subdivision method used
in the earlier version. The present version uses the more established method
of division into subevents separated in rapidity to minimise short range
correlations. The observed results for charged particles are in agreement
with results from the other experiments. The observed anisotropy in photons
is explained using flow results of pions and the correlations arising due to
the decay of the neutral pion
Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c Studied by Pion-Pion Interferometry
Two-particle correlations have been measured for identified negative pions
from central 158 AGeV Pb+Pb collisions and fitted radii of about 7 fm in all
dimensions have been obtained. A multi-dimensional study of the radii as a
function of kT is presented, including a full correction for the resolution
effects of the apparatus. The cross term Rout-long of the standard fit in the
Longitudinally CoMoving System (LCMS) and the vl parameter of the generalised
Yano-Koonin fit are compatible with 0, suggesting that the source undergoes a
boost invariant expansion. The shapes of the correlation functions in Qinv and
Qspace have been analyzed in detail. They are not Gaussian but better
represented by exponentials. As a consequence, fitting Gaussians to these
correlation functions may produce different radii depending on the acceptance
of the experimental setup used for the measurement.Comment: 13 pages including 10 figure
Suppression of High-p_T Neutral Pion Production in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.3 GeV Relative to p+C and p+Pb Collisions
Neutral pion transverse momentum spectra were measured in p+C and p+Pb
collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.4 GeV at mid-rapidity 2.3 < eta_lab < 3.0 over
the range 0.7< p_T < 3.5 GeV/c. The spectra are compared to pi0 spectra
measured in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.3 GeV in the same experiment.
For a wide range of Pb+Pb centralities (N_part < 300) the yield of pi0's with
p_T > 2 GeV/c is larger than or consistent with the p+C or p+Pb yields scaled
with the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions (N_coll), while for central Pb+Pb
collisions with N_part > 350 the pi0 yield is suppressed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Search for Disoriented Chiral Condensates in 158 AGeV Pb+Pb Collisions
The restoration of chiral symmetry and its subsequent breaking through a
phase transition has been predicted to create regions of Disoriented Chiral
Condensates (DCC). This phenomenon has been predicted to cause anomalous
fluctuations in the relative production of charged and neutral pions in
high-energy hadronic and nuclear collisions. The WA98 experiment has been used
to measure charged and photon multiplicities in the central region of 158 AGeV
Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. In a sample of 212646 events, no clear DCC
signal can be distinguished. Using a simple DCC model, we have set a 90% C.L.
upper limit on the maximum DCC production allowed by the data.Comment: 20 Pages, LaTeX, uses elsart.cls, 8 eps figures included, submitted
to Physics Letters
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