Estimation of Collision Impact Parameter

We demonstrate that the nuclear collision geometry (i.e. impact parameter) can be determined with 1.5 fm accuracy in an event-by-event analysis by measuring the transverse energy flow in the pseudorapidity region $3 \le |\eta| \le 5$ with a minimal dependence on collision dynamics details at the LHC energy scale. Using the HIJING model we have illustrated our calculation by a simulation of events of nucleus-nucleus interactions at the c.m.s energy from 1 up to 5.5 TeV per nucleon and various type of nuclei.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Impact parameter profile of synchrotron radiation

The horizontal impact parameter profile of synchrotron radiation, for fixed vertical angle of the photon, is calculated. This profile is observed through an astigmatic optical system, horizontally focused on the electron trajectory and vertically focused at infinity. It is the product of the usual angular distribution of synchrotron radiation, which depends on the vertical angle $\psi$, and the profile function of a caustic staying at distance \bcl = (\gamma^{-2} + \psi^2) \RB/2 from the orbit circle, \RB being the bending radius and $\gamma$ the Lorentz factor. The {\it classical impact parameter} \bcl is connected to the Schott term of radiation damping theory. The caustic profile function is an Airy function squared. Its fast oscillations allow a precise determination of the horizontal beam width

Neural networks for impact parameter determination

Abstract: An accurate impact parameter determination in a heavy ion collision is crucial for almost all further analysis. The capabilities of an artificial neural network are investigated to that respect. A novel input generation for the network is proposed, namely the transverse and longitudinal momentum distribution of all outgoing (or actually detectable) particles. The neural network approach yields an improvement in performance of a factor of two as compared to classical techniques. To achieve this improvement simple network architectures and a 5 × 5 input grid in (pt, pz) space are suffcient

The Lund Model at Nonzero Impact Parameter

We extend the formulation of the longitudinal 1+1 dimensional Lund model to nonzero impact parameter using the minimal area assumption. Complete formulae for the string breaking probability and the momenta of the produced mesons are derived using the string worldsheet Minkowskian helicoid geometry. For strings stretched into the transverse dimension, we find probability distribution with slope linear in m_T similar to the statistical models but without any thermalization assumptions.Comment: 12 pages, 2 .eps figures, footnotes added, results unchanged, version to be published in Phys.Lett.

Parton Distributions in the Impact Parameter Space

Parton distributions in impact parameter space, which are obtained by Fourier transforming GPDs, exhibit a significant deviation from axial symmetry when the target and/or quark is transversely polarized. In combination with the final state interactions, this transverse deformation provides a natural mechanism for naive-T odd transverse single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive DIS. The deformation can also be related to the transverse force acting on the active quark in polarized DIS at higher twist.Comment: 9 pages, Proceedings Spin 200

Impact Parameter Dependence in the Balitsky-Kovchegov Equation

We study the impact parameter dependence of solutions to the Balitsky-Kovchegov (BK) equation. We argue that if the kernel of the BK integral equation is regulated to cutoff infrared singularities, then it can be approximated by an equation without diffusion in impact parameter. For some purposes, when momentum scales large compared to $\Lambda_{QCD}$ are probed, the kernel may be approximated as massless. In particular, we find that the Froissart bound limit is saturated for physical initial conditions and seem to be independent of the cutoff so long as the cutoff is sufficiently large compared to the momentum scale associated with the large distance falloff of the impact parameter distribution.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure