2,626 research outputs found
Charm quenching in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC
D-meson suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC due to charm quark
in-medium energy loss is estimated within a model that describes the available
quenching measurements at RHIC. The result is compared to that previously
published by the author. The expected sensitivity of the ALICE experiment for
studying charm energy loss via fully-reconstructed D^0-meson decays is also
presented.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2004:
Workshop for Young Scientists on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Taos Valley, New Mexico, 18-24 July 2004.
Submitted to J. Phys.
Charm and beauty of the Large Hadron Collider
With the acceleration of lead nuclei in the LHC, heavy-ion physics will enter
a new energy domain. One of the main novelties introduced by the 30-fold
energy-jump from RHIC to the LHC is the abundant heavy-quark production. After
discussing a few examples of physics issues that can be addressed using heavy
quarks, we present a selection of results on the expected experimental
capability of ALICE, the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC, in the
open-heavy-flavour sector.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Invited talk at Strangeness in Quark Matter
(SQM) 2004, Cape Town, South Africa, 15-20 September 2004. Submitted to J.
Phys.
Transition from Baryonic to Mesonic Freeze-Out
The recently discovered sharp peak in the K+/pi+ ratio is discussed in the
framework of the statistical model. In this model a rapid change is expected as
the hadronic gas undergoes a transition from a baryon-dominated to a
meson-dominated gas. The transition happens at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 8.16 GeV,
temperature T = 140 MeV and baryon chemical potential mu_B = 410 MeV. The
maximum in the Lambda/pi ratio is well reproduced by the statistical model, but
the change in the K+/pi+ ratio is much less pronounced than the one observed by
the NA49 collaboration. Further experimental tests are proposed to clarify the
nature of the transition. In particular, the maxima expected in the statistical
model for the Xi/pi and Omega/pi ratios occur at slightly higher beam energies
than the maxima for the Lambda/pi and K+/pi+ ratios.Comment: 5 pages, 5 postscript figures, uses elsart.st
Prevention of recurrent hip fracture
Our objective was to describe the interventions aimed at preventing a recurrent hip fracture, and other injurious falls, which were provided during hospitalization for a first hip fracture and during the two following years. A secondary objective was to study some potential determinants of these preventive interventions. The design of the study was an observational, two-year follow-up of patients hospitalized for a first hip fracture at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. The participants were 163 patients (median age 82 years, 83% women) hospitalized in 1991 for a first hip fracture, among 263 consecutively admitted patients (84 did not meet inclusion criteria, e.g., age >50, no cancer, no high energy trauma, and 16 refused to participate). Preventive interventions included: medical investigations performed during the first hospitalization and aimed at revealing modifiable pathologies that raise the risk of injurious falls; use of medications acting on the risk of falls and fractures; preventive recommendations given by medical staff; suppression of environmental hazards; and use of home assistance services. The information was obtained from a baseline questionnaire, the medical record filled during the index hospitalization, and an interview conducted 2 years after the fracture. Potential predictors of the use of preventive interventions were: age; gender; destination after discharge from hospital; comorbidity; cognitive functioning; and activities of daily living. Bi- and multivariate associations between the preventive interventions and the potential predictors were measured. Inhospital investigations to rule out medical pathologies raising the risk of fracture were performed in only 20 patients (12%). Drugs raising the risk of falls were reduced in only 17 patients (16%). Preventive procedures not requiring active collaboration by the patient (e.g., modifications of the environment) were applied in 68 patients (42%), and home assistance was provided to 67 patients (85% of the patients living at home). Bivariate analyses indicated that prevention was less often provided to patients in poor general conditions, but no ascertainment of this association was found in multivariate analyses. In conclusion, this study indicates that, in the study setting, measures aimed at preventing recurrent falls and injuries were rarely provided to patients hospitalized for a first hip fracture at the time of the study. Tertiary prevention could be improved if a comprehensive geriatric assessment were systematically provided to the elderly patient hospitalized for a first hip fracture, and passive preventive measures implemente
A Cone Jet-Finding Algorithm for Heavy-Ion Collisions at LHC Energies
Standard jet finding techniques used in elementary particle collisions have
not been successful in the high track density of heavy-ion collisions. This
paper describes a modified cone-type jet finding algorithm developed for the
complex environment of heavy-ion collisions. The primary modification to the
algorithm is the evaluation and subtraction of the large background energy,
arising from uncorrelated soft hadrons, in each collision. A detailed analysis
of the background energy and its event-by-event fluctuations has been performed
on simulated data, and a method developed to estimate the background energy
inside the jet cone from the measured energy outside the cone on an
event-by-event basis. The algorithm has been tested using Monte-Carlo
simulations of Pb+Pb collisions at TeV for the ALICE detector at
the LHC. The algorithm can reconstruct jets with a transverse energy of 50 GeV
and above with an energy resolution of .Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Hydrodynamic modeling of deconfinement phase transition in nuclear collisions
The (3+1)-dimensional ideal hydrodynamics is used to simulate collisions of
gold nuclei with bombarding energies from 1 to 160 GeV per nucleon. The initial
state is represented by two cold Lorentz-boosted nuclei. Two equations of
state: with and without the deconfinement phase transition are used. We have
investigated dynamical trajectories of compressed baryon-rich matter as
functions of various thermodynamical variables. The parameters of collective
flow and hadronic spectra are calculated. It is shown that presence of the
deconfinement phase transition leads to increase of the elliptic flow and to
flattening of proton rapidity distributions.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
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