The PreAmplifier ShAper for the ALICE TPC-Detector

In this paper the PreAmplifier ShAper (PASA) for the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the ALICE experiment at LHC is presented. The ALICE TPC PASA is an ASIC that integrates 16 identical channels, each consisting of Charge Sensitive Amplifiers (CSA) followed by a Pole-Zero network, self-adaptive bias network, two second-order bridged-T filters, two non-inverting level shifters and a start-up circuit. The circuit is optimized for a detector capacitance of 18-25 pF. For an input capacitance of 25 pF, the PASA features a conversion gain of 12.74 mV/fC, a peaking time of 160 ns, a FWHM of 190 ns, a power consumption of 11.65 mW/ch and an equivalent noise charge of 244e + 17e/pF. The circuit recovers smoothly to the baseline in about 600 ns. An integral non-linearity of 0.19% with an output swing of about 2.1 V is also achieved. The total area of the chip is 18 mm$^2$ and is implemented in AMS's C35B3C1 0.35 micron CMOS technology. Detailed characterization test were performed on about 48000 PASA circuits before mounting them on the ALICE TPC front-end cards. After more than two years of operation of the ALICE TPC with p-p and Pb-Pb collisions, the PASA has demonstrated to fulfill all requirements

Collective flow in central Au-Au collisions at 150, 250 and 400 A MeV

Radial collective flow and thermalization are studied in gold on gold collisions at 150, 250 and 400 A MeV bombarding energies with a relativistically covariant formulation of a QMD code. We find that radial flow and "thermal" energies calculated for all the charged fragments agree reasonably with the experimental values. The experimental hardware filter at small angles used in the FOPI experiments at higher energies selects mainly the thermalized particles.Comment: 4 pages with 4 EPS figures included. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Momentum--dependent nuclear mean fields and collective flow in heavy ion collisions

We use the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck model to simulate the dynamical evolution of heavy ion collisions and to compare the effects of two parametrizations of the momentum--dependent nuclear mean field that have identical properties in cold nuclear matter. We compare with recent data on nuclear flow, as characterized by transverse momentum distributions and flow ($F$) variables for symmetric and asymmetric systems. We find that the precise functional dependence of the nuclear mean field on the particle momentum is important. With our approach, we also confirm that the difference between symmetric and asymmetric systems can be used to pin down the density and momentum dependence of the nuclear self consistent one--body potential, independently. All the data can be reproduced very well with a momentum--dependent interaction with compressibility K = 210 MeV.Comment: 15 pages in ReVTeX 3.0; 12 postscript figures uuencoded; McGill/94-1

Imaging Sources with Fast and Slow Emission Components

We investigate two-proton correlation functions for reactions in which fast dynamical and slow evaporative proton emission are both present. In such cases, the width of the correlation peak provides the most reliable information about the source size of the fast dynamical component. The maximum of the correlation function is sensitive to the relative yields from the slow and fast emission components. Numerically inverting the correlation function allows one to accurately disentangle fast dynamical from slow evaporative emission and extract details of the shape of the two-proton source.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Highly strained III-V-V coaxial nanowire quantum wells with strong carrier confinement

Coaxial quantum wells (QWs) are ideal candidates for nanowire (NW) lasers, providing strong carrier confinement and allowing close matching of the cavity mode and gain medium. We report a detailed structural and optical study and the observation of lasing for a mixed group-V GaAsP NW with GaAs QWs. This system offers a number of potential advantages in comparison to previously studied common group-V structures (e.g., AlGaAs/GaAs) including highly strained binary GaAs QWs, the absence of a lower band gap core region, and deep carrier potential wells. Despite the large lattice mismatch (∼1.7%), it is possible to grow defect-free GaAs coaxial QWs with high optical quality. The large band gap difference results in strong carrier confinement, and the ability to apply a high degree of compressive strain to the GaAs QWs is also expected to be beneficial for laser performance. For a non-fully optimized structure containing three QWs, we achieve low-temperature lasing with a low external (internal) threshold of 20 (0.9) μJ/cm2/pulse. In addition, a very narrow lasing line width of ∼0.15 nm is observed. These results extend the NW laser structure to coaxial III–V–V QWs, which are highly suitable as the platform for NW emitters

Directed flow in Au+Au, Xe+CsI and Ni+Ni collisions and the nuclear equation of state

We present new experimental data on directed flow in collisions of Au+Au, Xe+CsI and Ni+Ni at incident energies from 90 to 400A MeV. We study the centrality and system dependence of integral and differential directed flow for particles selected according to charge. All the features of the experimental data are compared with Isospin Quantum Molecular Dynamics (IQMD) model calculations in an attempt to extract information about the nuclear matter equation of state (EoS). We show that the combination of rapidity and transverse momentum analysis of directed flow allow to disentangle various parametrizations in the model. At 400A MeV, a soft EoS with momentum dependent interactions is best suited to explain the experimental data in Au+Au and Xe+CsI, but in case of Ni+Ni the model underpredicts flow for any EoS. At 90A MeV incident beam energy, none of the IQMD parametrizations studied here is able to consistently explain the experimental data.Comment: RevTeX, 20 pages, 30 eps figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C. Data files available at http://www.gsi.de/~fopiwww/pub

Particle density fluctuations

Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons at SPS energies are discussed. Fluctuations are studied by controlling the centrality of the reaction and rapidity acceptance of the detectors. Results are also presented on the event-by-event study of correlations between the multiplicity of charged particles and photons to search for DCC-like signals.Comment: Talk presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, Franc

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 DCC in 158A GeV Pb+Pb Collisions

A detailed analysis of the phase space distributions of charged particles and photons have been carried out using two independent methods. The results indicate the presence of nonstatistical fluctuations in localized regions of phase space.Comment: Talk at the PANIC99 Conference, June 9-16, 199

Present Status and Future of DCC Analysis

Disoriented Chiral Condensates (DCC) have been predicted to form in high energy heavy ion collisions where the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD has been restored. This leads to large imbalances in the production of charged to neutral pions. Sophisticated analysis methods are being developed to disentangle DCC events out of the large background of events with conventionally produced particles. We present a short review of current analysis methods and future prospects.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Invited talk presented at the 13th International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 97), Tsukuba, Japan, 1-5 Dec 199