Direct photon and photon-jet measurement capability of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC

Direct photon and photon-jet correlations are perfect tools for tomographic studies of the dense medium produced in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies. Due to their weak interactions with the medium, direct photons serve as standard candles for hard-scattering processes, providing a clean calibration of the momentum of the associated jets. The ATLAS detector has powerful opportunities to carry out these measurements. The combination of fine granularity, longitudinal segmentation and large acceptance is unique for the LHC detectors. We show how it will provide optimal capability to distinguish direct photon clusters from neutral meson clusters based on their shower profile over a wide acceptance in η−?$\eta -?$ up to 200 GeV in pT$p_T$. We show that combined with a photon isolation cut ATLAS would be able to measure a relatively background-free direct photon yield from 50–200 GeV along with the corresponding gamma-jet correlations in one nominal LHC Pb+Pb year. These high pT$p_T$ photons provide clean and statistically significant measurements of gamma-jet correlations and the fragmentation function for photon-tagged jets.     

LHC capabilities for quarkonium

The measurement of the charmonium and bottomonium resonances in nucleus-nucleus collisions provides crucial information on high-density QCD matter. First, the suppression of quarkonia production is generally agreed to be one of the most direct probes of quark-gluon plasma formation. The observation of anomalous J/ψ suppression at the CERN-SPS and at RHIC is well established but the clarification of some important remaining questions requires equivalent studies of the ϒ family, will be possible at the LHC. Second, the production of heavy-quarks proceeds mainly via gluon-gluon fusion processes and, as such, is sensitive to saturation of the gluon density at low-x in the nucleus. Measured departures from the expected vacuum quarkonia cross-sections in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC will thus provide valuable information not only on the thermodynamical state of the produced partonic medium, but also on the initial-state modifications of the nuclear parton distribution functions. The capabilities of the LHC detectors (ALICE, ATLAS and CMS) to study quarkonia production in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.5 TeV per nucleon pair are discussed.     

Photon multiplicity measurements: From SPS to RHIC and LHC

Results from the photon multiplicity measurements using a fine granularity pre-shower photon multiplicity detector (PMD) at CERN SPS are discussed. These include study of pseudorapidity distributions of photons, scaling of photon multiplicity with number of participating nucléons, centrality dependence of 〈p _T〉 of photons, event-by-event fluctuations in photon multiplicity and localised charged-neutral fluctuations. Basic features of the PMD to be used in STAR experiment at RHIC and in ALICE experiment at LHC are also discussed.     

Large contribution of virtual Delbrück scattering to the emission of photons by relativistic nuclei in nucleus–nucleus and electron–nucleus collisions

Delbrück scattering is the elastic scattering of a photon in the Coulomb field of a nucleus via a virtual electron loop. The contribution of this virtual subprocess to the emission of a photon in the collision of ultra-relativistic nuclei, Z₁Z₂→Z₁Z₂γ, is considered. We identify the incoming virtual photon as being generated by one of the relativistic nuclei involved in the binary collision and the scattered photon as being emitted in the process. The energy and angular distributions of the photons are calculated. The discussed process has no infrared divergence. The total cross section obtained is 14 barn for Au–Au collisions at the RHIC collider and 50 barn for Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC collider. These cross sections are considerably larger than those for ordinary tree-level nuclear bremsstrahlung in the considered photon energy range, m_e⪡E_γ⪡m_eγ, where γ is the Lorentz factor of the nucleus. Finally, photon emission in electron–nucleus collisions, eZ→eZγ, is discussed in the context of the eRHIC option.     

Photoproduction of η -mesons off nuclei for Eγ ? 2.2 GeV

The photoproduction of η -mesons off ¹²C , ⁴⁰Ca , ⁹³Nb , and ^nat Pb nuclei has been measured with a tagged photon beam with energies between 0.6 and 2.2GeV. The experiment was performed at the Bonn ELSA accelerator with the combined setup of the Crystal Barrel and TAPS calorimeters. It aimed at the in-medium properties of the S ₁₁(1535) nucleon resonance and the study of the absorption properties of nuclear matter for η -mesons. Careful consideration was given to contributions from ηπ final states and secondary production mechanisms of η -mesons, e.g. from inelastic πN reactions of intermediate pions. The analysis of the mass number scaling shows that the nuclear absorption cross-section for η -mesons is constant over a wide range of the η momentum. The comparison of the excitation functions to data off the deuteron and to calculations in the framework of a BUU model show no unexplained in-medium modifications of the S ₁₁(1535) .     

Direct photons measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC on direct photon production in p+p, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at  =200 GeV are presented. In p+p collisions, direct photon production at high p_T behaves as expected from perturbative QCD calculations. The p+p measurement serves as a baseline for direct photon production in Au+Au collisions. In d+Au collisions, no effects of cold nuclear matter are found within the large uncertainty of the measurement. In Au+Au collisions, the production of high p_T direct photons scales as expected for particle production in hard scatterings. This supports jet quenching models, which attribute the suppression of high p_T hadrons to the energy loss of fast partons in the medium produced in the collision. Low p_T direct photons, measured via e⁺e^- pairs with small invariant mass, are possibly related to the production of thermal direct photons.     

Measurement of photons via conversion pairs in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ =200 GeV Au+Au collisions with the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Thermal photons can provide information on the temperature of the new state of matter created at RHIC. In the p_T region of 1–3 GeV/c thermal photons are expected to be the dominant direct photon source. Therefore, a possible excess compared to a pure decay photon signal due to a thermal photon contribution should be seen in the double ratio (γ/γ(π⁰))_Measured/(γ/γ(π⁰))_Simulated, if sufficient accuracy can be reached. We present a method to reconstruct direct photons by measuring e⁺e^--pairs from external photon conversions.     

Systematic study of photon production at forward rapidity in STAR

We present the measurement of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of photons production at forward rapidity (−2.3 ≤ η ≤ −3.8) for Cu + Cu collisions at $ \sqrt {S_{NN} } $ \sqrt {S_{NN} } = 62.4 and 200 GeV. Photons are measured using the Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) in STAR experiment at RHIC. The distributions of (η−η _beam), where η _beam is beam rapidity is presented. Pseudorapidity distributions of photons at forward rapidities, when ob-served in the frame of one of the colliding particles show the signature of energy independent scaling at forward rapidities known as Limiting Fragmentation. Measurement of inclusive photons reflect the distribution for π ⁰ as most of the photons come from π ⁰ decay. Gluon saturation at initial conditions of the collisions is one of the possible explanations for this scaling. Study of system-size and incident energy dependence of this phenomenon help us understand the mechanisms better. The system-size and energy dependence of the widths of scaling in pseudorapidity and comparison with model predictions are presented.     

Search for Z’ → WW at LHC with the ATLAS detector

The potential for measuring the Z‘WW coupling with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is investigated under conditions of low and high luminosity. It is estimated that detection of the decay channel Z’ → WW → lν _l jj is possible with 300 fb ⁻¹, for a Z’ boson with sequential model couplings and with a mass up to 2.2 TeV.     

Measurement of isolated photon production in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA

The production of isolated photons in deep-inelastic scattering ep→eγX is measured with the H1 detector at HERA. The measurement is performed in the kinematic range of negative four-momentum transfer squared 4<Q²<150 GeV² and a mass of the hadronic system W_X>50 GeV. The analysis is based on a total integrated luminosity of 227 pb^-1. The production cross section of isolated photons with a transverse energy in the range 3<E_T ^γ<10 GeV and pseudorapidity range -1.2<η^γ<1.8 is measured as a function of E_T ^γ, η^γ and Q². Isolated photon cross sections are also measured for events with no jets or at least one hadronic jet. The measurements are compared with predictions from Monte Carlo generators modelling the photon radiation from the quark and the electron lines, as well as with calculations at leading and next to leading order in the strong coupling. The predictions significantly underestimate the measured cross sections.     

Photon — jet correlations measurement with ALICE at LHC: a feasibility study in proton-proton collisions

The feasibility to measure the imbalance distribution between direct isolated photons and charged hadrons is discussed within the context of the ALICE experiment at LHC. The case of proton-proton collisions at ?s\sqrt s TeV is studied with Monte-Carlo simulations. Performances for prompt photon identification and rejection of the π ⁰ decay photons are presented. Such a measurement will offer the possibilty to probe the medium formed in AA collisions with jets of energies below 50 GeV, which cannot be reconstructed in the heavy-ion environment.     

Measurement of the beam asymmetry in η photoproduction off the proton

The beam asymmetry, Σ , was measured at ELSA in the reaction p → ηp using linearly polarised tagged photon beams, produced by coherent bremsstrahlung off a diamond. The crystal was oriented to provide polarised photons in the energy range E _γ = 800 to 1400MeV with the maximum polarisation of P _γ = 49 % obtained at 1305MeV. Both dominant decay modes of the η into two photons and 3π⁰ were used to extract the beam asymmetry from the azimuthal modulation of the cross-section. The measurements cover the angular range Θ_cm ≃ 50 -150 degrees. Large asymmetries up to 80% are observed, in agreement with a previous measurement. The eta-MAID model and the Bonn-Gatchina partial wave analysis describe the measurements, but the required partial waves differ significantly.     

CMS ridge effect at LHC as a manifestation of bremsstrahlung of gluons off quarks accelerated in a strong color field

The recently reported effect of long-range near-side angular correlations at LHC occurs for large multiplicities of particles with 1 GeV<p _T <3 GeV. To understand the effect several possibilities have been discussed. In the letter we propose a simple qualitative mechanism which corresponds to gluon bremsstrahlung of quarks moving with acceleration defined by the string tension. The smallness of azimuthal angle difference Δφ along with large Δη at large multiplicities in this interval of p _T are natural in this mechanism. The mechanism predicts also bremsstrahlung photons with mean values of p _T ≈2.9 and 0.72 GeV.     

Study of dimuon rare beauty decays with ATLAS and CMS

The LHC experiments will perform sensitive tests of physics beyond the standard model (BSM). The investigation of decays of beauty hadrons represents an alternative approach in addition to direct BSM searches. The ATLAS and CMS efforts concentrate on those B-decays that can be efficiently selected already at the first and second level trigger. The most favorable trigger signature will be for B-hadron decays with muons in the final state. Using this trigger, ATLAS and CMS will be able to accommodate very high statistics in the rare decay sector. These are purely dimuon decays, and families of semimuonic exclusive channels. Already with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1 fb^-1, the sensitivity in the dimuon channels will be comparable to present measurements (world average). The strategy is to carry on the dimuon channel program up to nominal LHC luminosity. In particular the B_s→μμ signal with ∼5 sigma significance can be measured combining low luminosity 10³³ cm^-2 s^-1 samples with those of one year of LHC operation at a luminosity of 10³⁴ cm^-2 s^-1. PACS 13.30.Ce; 13.20.He     

Measurement of light mesons at RHIC by the PHENIX experiment

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured a variety of light neutral mesons (π ⁰, K _S ⁰, η, ω, η ^′, φ) via multi-particle decay channels over a wide range of transverse momentum. A review of the recent results on the production rates of light mesons in p + p and their nuclear modification factors in d + Au, Cu + Cu and Au + Au collisions at different energies is presented.     

In-medium spectral functions of charmonia studied by ¯p + A reactions<Superscript>a</Superscript>

We study the perspectives of resonant charmonium production in ˉp + A reactions within the Multiple Scattering Monte Carlo (MSMC) approach. We calculate the production of the resonances Ψ(2S) and Ψ(3770) on various nuclei, their propagation and decay to dileptons and D + ˉD in the medium and vacuum, respectively, employing parametrizations for the D,ˉD self-energies taken from QCD sum rule studies. The elastic and inelastic interactions of the charmonia and open-charm mesons in the medium are taken into account, too. It is found that the D,ˉD invariant-mass spectra from light and heavy nuclei are not sufficiently sensitive to the in-medium properties of the Ψ(2S) and Ψ(3770). However, a “suppression” of low-mass dileptons from the Ψ(3770) might be seen experimentally as well as a small broadening of the Ψ(2S) dilepton spectra. Received: 19 December 2002 / Accepted: 28 February 2003 / Published online: 5 June 2003     

The p/π ratio pT dependence in the RHIC range of baryo-chemical potential

The BRAHMS measurement of proton-to-pion ratios in Au+Au and p+p collisions at $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 62.4 GeV and $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 200 GeV is presented as a function of transverse momentum and collision centrality within the pseudorapidity range 0 ≤ η ≤ 3. The baryo-chemical potential, μ _B , for the indicated data spans from μ _B ≈ 26 MeV ($ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } 200 GeV, η ≈ 0) to μ _B ∼ 260 MeV ($ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } = 62.4 GeV, η ≈ 3) [1]. The p/πratio measured for Au+Au system at $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } $ \sqrt {s_{NN} } 62.4 GeV, η ≈ 3 reaches astounding value of 8–10 at p _T > 1.5 GeV/c. For these energy and pseudorapidity interval no centrality dependency of p/π ratio is observed. Moreover, the baryon-to-meson ratio of nucleus-nucleus data are consistent with results obtained for p+p interactions.     

The form factors for the photon to pseudoscalar meson transitions—an update

The form factors for the transitions πγ, ηγ, η′γ and η _c γ are analyzed within the modified perturbative approach in which quark transverse degrees of freedom are retained. The results for the form factors are compared to experiment in detail. As compared to previous calculations within the same approach only little modifications of the meson distribution amplitudes are required in general in order to achieve reasonable agreement with experiment. Only for the πγ form factor a strong contribution from the second Gegenbauer term is found. It also commented on the case of two virtual photons and on the transition form factors in the time-like region.     

Slow components of the emission decay in fluoride crystals doped with Ce3+

Spatially separated defects created by photons with energies 6–8 eV in alkali-earth fluoride crystals doped with cerium are investigated with the help of thermoluminescence. Measuring the spectra of creation of V_k and H peaks of thermostimulated luminescence inBaF ₂:Ce³⁺. we demonstrate that photons with energies higher than 6eV induce H centers (self-trapped holes captured by interstitialF ions), whereas the formation of self-trapped holes begins on exposure to photons with energies greater than 7 eV. The influence of photoionization on theCe ³⁺ luminescence inBaF ₂, SrF₂, CaF₂, andCeF ₃ crystals is investigated in the range of photon energies 4–8 eV. An exponentialCe ³⁺-emisson decay was observed for excitation energy lying in the range 4–6 eV. Slow and fast decay components were observed under excitation by photons with energies higher than 6 eV. We believe that the slow and fast components are due to the tunnel recombination of trapped electrons with hole centers. A. P. Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 43–49, March, 2000.     

Photoproduction of η -mesons off protons

Photoproduction of η -mesons was studied with the Crystal-Barrel detector at ELSA for photon energies in the range from 0.75 to 3GeV. Total and differential cross-sections are presented. The η mesons are detected in two decay modes, in η → 2γ and in η → 3π⁰ → 6γ . The cross-sections vary slowly as functions of energy and η production angle suggesting that only few resonances make significant contributions to the cross-section. For photon energies above 1.5GeV, the differential cross-sections show a strong forward peak due to meson exchanges in the t channel. A comparison of the η -photoproduction cross-sections with SAID and MAID as well as with a partial-wave analysis performed on our data in combination with other data sets shows good agreement. The Bonn-Gatchina partial-wave analysis suggests that the largest contribution to η photoproduction for energies below 3GeV proceeds via three resonances, the well-known N(1535)S ₁₁ , via N(1720)P ₁₃ , and a newly suggested N(2070)D ₁₅ .