Jet energy loss and bulk parton collectivity in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC produce high temperature and high energy density matter which exhibits paxtonic degrees of freedom. We will discuss measurements of nuclear modification factors for light hadrons and non-photonic electrons from heavy quark decays, which reflect the flavor dependence of energy loss of high momentum partons traversing the dense QCD medium. The dense QCD medium responds to energy loss of high momentum patrons in a pattern consistent with that expected from a hydrodynamic fluid. The hadronization of bulk partonic matter exhibits collectivity with effective partonic degrees of freedom. Nuclear collisions at RHIC provide an intriguing environment, where many constituent quark ingredients are readily available for possible formation of exotic particles through quark coalescence or recombinations.     

Hadronization in heavy-ion collisions: recombination and fragmentation of partons

We argue that the emission of hadrons with transverse momentum up to about 5 GeV/c in central relativistic heavy ion collisions is dominated by recombination, rather than fragmentation of partons. This mechanism provides a natural explanation for the observed constant baryon-to-meson ratio of about one and the apparent lack of a nuclear suppression of the baryon yield in this momentum range. Fragmentation becomes dominant at higher transverse momentum, but the transition point is delayed by the energy loss of fast partons in dense matter.     

Azimuthal angle correlations for rapidity separated Hadron pairs in d+Au collisions at square root of sNN=200 GeV

Deuteron-gold (d+Au) collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider provide ideal platforms for testing QCD theories in dense nuclear matter at high energy. In particular, models suggesting strong saturation effects for partons carrying small nucleon momentum fraction (x) predict modifications to jet production at forward rapidity (deuteron-going direction) in d+Au collisions. We report on two-particle azimuthal angle correlations between charged hadrons at forward/backward (deuteron/gold going direction) rapidity and charged hadrons at midrapidity in d+Au and p+p collisions at square root of sNN=200 GeV. Jet structures observed in the correlations are quantified in terms of the conditional yield and angular width of away-side partners. The kinematic region studied here samples partons in the gold nucleus with x~0.1 to ~0.01. Within this range, we find no x dependence of the jet structure in d+Au collisions.     

Transverse-energy correlations and jet shape in collisions of ultrarelativistic nuclei

Measurement of angular correlations between energy fluxes is one of the promising methods for analyzing the structure of events in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The possibility of diagnosing the rescattering and the energy loss of hard partons in dense QCD matter is studied here on the basis of an analysis of the transverse-energy correlation function. It is shown that, if events are chosen for an analysis in a special way (that is, if at least one jet is required to have a transverse energy above some threshold) and if the procedure of background subtraction is applied in each event, the energy correlation function is sensitive to the parton energy loss and the angular spectrum of gluons emitted in a medium. The transverse-energy correlation function calculated for all events reflects the global structure of the transverse energy flux: it is independent of the azimuthal anisotropy of the energy flux for central collisions and is sensitive to the azimuthal anisotropy of the energy flux, reproducing all of its Fourier harmonics for noncentral collisions, but the coefficients of these harmonics are squared. A special correlation function in the vicinity of the maximum energy deposition in each event makes it possible to study changes in the jet shape. Within the conventional scenario of the scattering of hard jet partons on accompanying medium constituents, the correlation function is independent of the rapidity position of the jet axis and becomes much broader (symmetrically in the rapidity and azimuthal angle) than in proton-proton collisions. In the case of scattering on slow medium constituents, the broadening of the correlation function depends on the rapidity position of the jet axis and, in relation to the preceding scenario, increases sizably for jets of rather high rapidity.     

Hard QCD processes and impact-parameter dependence of parton energy losses in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

Special features of particle and jet production in hard QCD processes induced by ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions are investigated. The energy loss of partons produced in hard collisions that is due to their multiple scattering in dense quark-gluon matter is analyzed as a function of the impact parameter of a nucleus-nucleus collision. The possibility of experimentally observing effects that are expected in this connection and which include different impact-parameter dependences of radiative and collision hard-jet energy losses, a modification to the shape of the impact-parameter distribution of dijets, and the suppression of the yield of muon pairs having large invariant masses is discussed.     

Perturbative universality in soft particle production b

The spectrum of partons in a QCD jet becomes independent of the primary energy in the low momentum limit. This follows within the perturbative QCD from the colour coherence in soft gluon branching. Remarkably, the hadrons follow such behaviour closely, suggesting the parton hadron duality picture to be appropriate also for the low momentum particles. More generally, this scaling property holds for particles of low transverse and arbitrary longitudinal momentum, which explains an old experimental observation (“fan invariance”). Further tests of the perturbatively based picture for soft particle production are proposed for three-jet events in annihilation and di-jet production events in , and collisions. They are based upon the difference in the intensity of the soft radiation from primary and antennae. Received: 19 November 1997 / Published online: 26 February 1998     

Comparison of radiative energy loss models in a hot QCD medium

The suppression of high pT$p_T$ hadron production in heavy ion collisions is thought to be due to energy loss by gluon radiation off hard partons in a QCD medium. Existing models of QCD radiative energy loss in a color-charged medium give estimates of the coupling strength of the parton to the medium which differ by a factor of 5. We will present a side-by-side comparison of two different formalisms to calculate the energy loss of light quarks and gluons: the multiple soft scattering approximation (ASW-MS) and the opacity expansion formalism (ASW-SH and WHDG-rad). A common time-temperature profile is used to characterize the medium. The results are compared to the single hadron suppression R_AA$R_{AA}$ at RHIC energies.     

Parton coalescence and the antiproton/pion anomaly at RHIC

Coalescence of minijet partons with partons from the quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions is suggested as the mechanism for production of hadrons with intermediate transverse momentum. The resulting enhanced antiproton and pion yields at intermediate transverse momenta give a plausible explanation for the observed large antiproton to pion ratio. With further increasing momentum, the ratio is predicted to decrease and approach the small value given by independent fragmentations of minijet partons after their energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma.     

Two-particle angular correlations in pp and heavy-ion collisions

This paper presents a selected review of recent experimental results on two-particle angular correlations in AuAu and pp collisions. Two-particle correlations in AuAu collisions exhibit a rich structure as a function of hadron transverse momentum, carrying information about the expansion of the medium produced in nuclear collisions, the energy loss of high-p_T partons in the medium and the medium response to these high-p_T partons or other initial state inhomogeneities. Evidence on the interplay between initial state fluctuations and the final state correlation structure is discussed.     

Heavy quark energy loss in a nuclear medium

Multiple scattering, modified fragmentation functions, and radiative energy loss of a heavy-quark propagating in a nuclear medium are investigated in perturbative QCD. Because of the quark mass dependence of the gluon formation time, the medium size dependence of heavy-quark energy loss is found to change from a linear to a quadratic form when the initial energy and momentum scale are increased relative to the quark mass. The radiative energy loss is also significantly suppressed relative to a light quark due to the suppression of collinear gluon emission by a heavy quark.     

Effects of jet quenching on the hydrodynamical evolution of quark-gluon plasma

We study the effects of jet quenching on the hydrodynamical evolution of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) fluid created in a heavy-ion collision. In jet quenching, a hard QCD parton, before fragmenting into a jet of hadrons, deposits a fraction of its energy in the medium, leading to suppressed production of high-pT hadrons. Assuming that the deposited energy quickly thermalizes, we simulate the subsequent hydrodynamic evolution of the QGP fluid. For partons moving at supersonic speed, vp>cs, and sufficiently large energy loss, a shock wave forms leading to conical flow. The PHENIX Collaboration recently suggested that observed structures in the azimuthal angle distribution might be caused by conical flow. We show here that, for phenomenologically acceptable values of parton energy loss, conical flow effects are too weak to explain these structures.     

Transverse momentum diffusion and broadening of the back-to-back di-hadron correlation function

We extend the Gyulassy–Levai–Vitev reaction operator approach to multiple elastic scattering of fast partons traversing dense nuclear matter to take into account the leading power corrections due to the medium recoil and to derive the change in the partons' longitudinal momentum. We employ a boost-invariant formalism to generalize previous treatments of the problem, which were specific to the target rest frame. We apply the transverse momentum diffusion results in a simple analytic model to evaluate the broadening of the back-to-back di-hadron correlation function in d+Au reactions.     

Jet tomography in the forward direction at RHIC

Hadron production at high p_T displays a strong suppression pattern in a wide rapidity region in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. This finding indicates the presence of strong final state effects for both transversally and longitudinally traveling partons, namely induced energy loss. We have developed a perturbative QCD based model to describe hadron production in pp collisions, which can be combined with the Glauber–Gribov model to describe hadron production in heavy ion collisions. Investigating AuAu and CuCu collisions at energy at mid-rapidity, we find the opacity of the strongly interacting hot matter to be proportional to the participant nucleon number. Considering forward rapidities, the suppression pattern indicates the formation of a longitudinally contracted dense deconfined zone in central heavy ion collisions. We determine the parameters for the initial geometry from the existing data. PACS 12.38.Mh, 24.85.+p, 25.75.-q     

Forward Z-boson production and the unintegrated sea quark density

Drell–Yan production in the forward region at the Large Hadron Collider is sensitive to multiple radiation of QCD partons not collinearly ordered, emitted over large rapidity intervals. We propose a method to take account of these radiative contributions via a factorization formula which depends on the unintegrated, or transverse momentum dependent, splitting function associated with the evolution of the initial-state sea quark distribution. We analyze this formula numerically, and point out kinematic effects from the initial-state transverse momentum on the vector boson spectrum.     

高能重离子非对心碰撞中的整体夸克极化

There exists a large local relative orbital angular momentum between produced partons along the direction opposite to the reaction plane in the early stage of non-central heavy-ion collisions. This initial local orbital angular momentum can lead to quark polarization along the same direction due to spin-orbital coupling in QCD. We present the quark polarization by using hard thermal loop gluon propagator for quark-quark scattering in quark-gluon plasma and compare it with the result obtained from the static potential model.     

Q-PYTHIA: a medium-modified implementation of final state radiation

We present a Monte Carlo implementation of medium-induced gluon radiation in the final-state branching process. Medium effects are introduced through an additive term in the splitting functions. We have implemented such modification within PYTHIA. We show the medium effects on the hump-backed plateau, and the transverse-momentum and angular distributions with respect to the parent parton. As expected, with increasing medium densities there is an increase (decrease) of partons with small (large) momentum fraction, and angular broadening is observed. The effects on the transverse-momentum distributions are more involved, with an enhancement of low- and intermediate-p _T partons and a decrease at large p _T, which is related to energy conservation, and to the lack of momentum exchange with the medium in our approach.     

Implementation of a medium-modified parton shower algorithm

We present a Monte Carlo implementation of medium-induced gluon radiation in the final-state branching process. Medium effects are introduced through an additive term in the splitting functions. We have implemented such modification within PYTHIA. We show the medium effects on the hump-backed plateau, and the transverse-momentum and angular distributions with respect to the parent parton. As expected, with increasing medium densities there is an increase (decrease) of partons with small (large) momentum fraction, and angular broadening is observed. The effects on the transverse-momentum distributions are more involved, with an enhancement of low- and intermediate-p _T partons and a decrease at large p _T, which is related to energy conservation, and to the lack of momentum exchange with the medium in our approach.