A microscopic calculation of secondary Drell-Yan production in heavy ion collisions

A study of secondary Drell-Yan production in nuclear collisions is presented for SPS energies. In addition to the lepton pairs produced in the initial collisions of the projectile and target nucleons, we consider the potentially high dilepton yield from hard valence antiquarks in produced mesons and antibaryons. We calculate the secondary Drell-Yan contributions taking the collision spectrum of hadrons from the microscopic model URQMD. The contributions from meson-baryon interactions, small in hadron-nucleus interactions, are found to be substantial in nucleus-nucleus collisions at low dilepton masses. Preresonance collisions of partons may further increase the yields. Received: 9 July 1997 / Revised version: 17 December 1997 / Published online: 10 March 1998     

Soft quark annihilation contribution to the low mass dimuon production in high-p T jet events

The soft quark annihilation contribution to the low-mass, unlike-sign dimuon production in high-p _T jet events, which has recently been observed by the UA1 collaboration at the CERN protonantiproton collider, is estimated within a model that successfully describes the anomalous dilepton production in soft hadroni? collisions. A method is proposed for disentangling the various production mechanisms, based on comparing the mean multiplicity of hadrons accompanying a dimuon with a quantity calculated from the lowest multiplicity moments in events without dimuons.     

e+ e− production from pp reactions at BEVALAC energies

We have performed a detailed study of dilepton production from pp collisions including the subthreshold ϱ production via baryonic resonances (N(1520), N(1700)) in addition to the conventional dilepton sources as π⁰, η, ω and Δ Dalitz decays and direct decays of vector mesons (ϱ, ω). The role of baryonic resonances in ϱ production from nucleon-nucleon collisions is studied in comparison to the DLS data which are well described.     

Dilepton emission from dense hadron gas

Using a Hagedorn resonance gas picture and quark-hadron duality we estimate the dilepton emission rate in the vicinity of the QCD deconfinement phase transition. The result is then used to calculate a dilepton spectrum in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. We show that multibody contributions taken into account in the Hagedorn resonance gas approach provide an enhancement of the production rate massive dileptons as compared to the previously considered sources. Received: 20 October 1997 / Published online: 10 March 1998     

Rescattering production of dileptons in nucleus-nucleus collisions

We present a space-time formulation for the rescattering of hard partons produced in primary QCD subcollisions within a nucleus-nucleus collision. As an application we calculate the rescattering rate for dilepton production in 100 GeV/A+100 GeV/A uranium-uranium collisions.     

在RHIC和LHC中光子-核子碰撞产生的大横动量双轻子

研究了RHIC和LHC能区的Au-Au和Pb-Pb周边重离子碰撞中,来自光子-核子相互作用产生的大横动量双轻子。利用微扰QCD 参数化和Weizs?cker-Williams近似计算了双轻子的产率。经过与领头阶和碎裂过程的双轻子产生数值计算结果相比较,光-核碰撞过程产生的大横动量双轻子在RHIC能区是可忽略的。但是在LHC能区,光-核碰撞在大横动量区域是周边重离子碰撞的一个重要的双轻子源。     

Perturbative QCD and weak asymmetries in lepton pair production

The interference of electromagnetic and weak production mechanisms for lepton pair production may give rise to several effects which violate parity and charge symmetry. These effects are generally of the order of 1% for dilepton masses of 10 GeV. The theoretical calculations presented here show that experimental studies of these asymmetries may be useful. In particular, measurements of these asymmetries in collisions of pions with polarized protons may lead to a greatly enhanced understanding of the polarization distribution of quarks in a polarized proton. The polarization structure of the d quark is shown to be of special interest. Measurement of the parity-violating asymmetries in proton-polarized proton collisions may prove to be a sensitive probe of the flavor symmetry of the proton antiquark sea. Analysis of the parity conserving charge asymmetry (which is predicted to occur in collisions of unpolarized hadrons) allows a unique further test of the Drell-Yan model for lepton pair production, as well as of our understanding of weak interactions.The above asymmetries mentioned are computed within the framework of the parton model. The focus of this work is on the asymmetries calculated with the inclusion of first-order perturbative QCD effects. The asymmetries are calculated in a differential form for values of the dilepton transverse momentum large compared with the typical (～1 GeV) scale of nonperturbative effects, and also in a form in which this transverse momentum has been integrated over. Corrections to the parton model results, which can be large, show rather different structure for the various asymmetries.A parity-violating asymmetry which may occur in collisions of unpolarized hadrons is also discussed. This asymmetry is very sensitive to the nonperturbative structure of hadrons, and is estimated to be approximately 0.01% for dilepton masses of 10 GeV.     

Dile pton production in p+ p,Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV

We study dilepton production in proton–proton, Cu+Cu as well as in Au+Au collisions at the center-of-mass energy \(\sqrt{s} =200\) GeV per participating nucleon pair within an extended statistical hadronization model. In extension to earlier studies we incorporate transport calculations for an estimate of uncorrelated e ⁺ e ^? -pairs from semileptonic D meson decays. While the invariant mass spectrum of dielectrons is well understood in the p+p collisions, severe discrepancies among different model scenarios based on hadronic degrees of freedom and recent data from the PHENIX Collaboration are found in heavy-ion collisions in the low-mass region from 0.15 to 0.6 GeV as well as in the intermediate mass regime from 1.1 to 3 GeV when employing the standard dilepton sources. We investigate, furthermore, the background from correlated dileptons that are not emitted as a pair from a parent hadron but emerge from semileptonic decays of two correlated daughter hadrons. Our calculations suggest a sizeable contribution of such sources in central heavy-ion collisions in the low-mass region. However, even the upper limits of our calculations are found to be far below the dilepton mass spectra of the PHENIX Collaboration.     

Can one discriminate the thermal dilepton signal against the open charm and bottom decay background in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions?

In ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at 20 (120) AGeV a copious production of charm (bottom) production sets in which, via correlated semileptonic () decays, gives rise to a dilepton yield at invariant mass 2–3 GeV in excess of the Drell-Yan yield and the thermal dilepton signal from deconfined matter as well. We show that appropriate single-electron transverse momentum cuts (suitable for ALICE at LHC) cause a threshold like behavior of the dilepton spectra from heavy-quark meson decays and the Drell-Yan process and can allow to observe a thermal dilepton signal from hot deconfined matter. Received: 28 September 1998 / Revised version: 27 November 1998 / Published online: 22 March 1999     

Sensitivity of electromagnetic spectra to equation of state and initial energy density in the Pb + Pb collisions at SPS

We study Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c using hydrodynamical approach. We test different equations of state (EoSs) and different initial conditions and show that there are more than one initial state for each EoS which reproduce the observed hadronic spectra. We also find that different equations of state favor different freeze-out temperature. Simultaneously we calculate the thermal dilepton and photon spectra for each EoS and initial state. We compare the dilepton mass spectrum to data measured by the CERES collaboration and find that the differences in spectra obtained using different EoSs and initial states are not resolvable within the current experimental resolution. However, at invariant masses over 2 GeV the difference in the yield due to various initial states is close to an order of magnitude. We also study the rapidity distribution of lepton pairs and find that for masses around 800 MeV the shape of the distribution depends strongly on the EoS.     

胶子非弹性散射过程对夸克胶子等离子体中双轻子产生的影响

双轻子是研究夸克物质的形成和性质的重要探针.本文基于化学平衡化的黏滞性夸克胶子等离子体演化模型,计算了相对论重离子碰撞能量下金-金对心碰撞形成的夸克胶子等离子体中的双轻子产额.在黏滞性计算中加入了胶子非弹性散射过程对黏滞系数的贡献.相较仅考虑夸克和胶子弹性散射的情况,双轻子的产额有较明显的降低.这表明在黏滞系数中加入胶子非弹性散射的贡献使得系统的演化过程加快,演化时间变短.     

Low mass dilepton production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Mechanisms of formation for low mass dilepton excess observed in the relativistic heavy ion collisions are considered. The experimental data are reviewed. In addition to discussing the standard mechanisms of dilepton production specific to the collisions of relativistic nuclei (the pion annihilation in the hadron-gas stage and the quark-antiquark annihilation in the quark-gluon phase), the mechanism of dilepton production in the mixed phase of nuclear matter is proposed, and its contribution to the low mass dilepton spectrum is estimated. In addition, the first-order corrections in the strong-interaction coupling constant to the dilepton production in the parton medium and the nonperturbative approaches are considered.     

In-Medium η′ Mass Reduction

In this talk, we present the reduction of the mass of η′-meson at finite temperature which leads to the enhancement of η′ contributions to the dilepton spectra from relativistic heavy ion collisions. QCD low energy theorem, together with the Witten–Veneziano formula, provides the relation of the η′ mass with gluon condensates.     

Two-photon exchange in p⊆)p→ℓ+ℓ−X and a comparison with QCD

A thorough study of lepton-pair production from two-photon annihilation in p?)p collisions is presented. The differential cross section is calculated over a large range of energies (27?√s?800 GeV as a function of the dilepton mass M as well as the dilepton transverse momentum Q_T and the Feynman variable x_F. No kinematical approximations (such as the equivalent photon approximation) are made. For Q_T ≈ 0 the two-photon mechanism represents an important fraction of the pp→e⁺e^?X cross section already at ISR energies, whereas at ISABELLE energies it dramatically dominates in the interval 0?Q_T?1 GeV. At ISR energies these conclusions follow from a direct comparison of the two-photon contribution with pp→e⁺e^?X data. For the ISABELLE energy range the expected O(α_s) QCD contribution to pp→?⁺?^?X, corrected for soft gluon radiation to all orders (in leading bilogarithmic approximation), was taken as a reference. At larger Q_T and ISR energies the γγ contribution is negligible, whereas at √s = 800 GeV γγ/QCD? 10–20% almost everywhere. Furthermore, two-photon candidate events from the ISR are shown to be in reasonable agreement with theory. A decomposition of the γγ cross section into contributions from both proton vertices being elastic, inelastic and of mixed configuration is given. The results provide important clues for a future isolation of the two-photon mechanism.     

Polarization effects in proton-proton collisions

The single-spin and double-spin asymmetries in pp→(γ*, Z)+X processes induced by collisions of polarized protons are investigated on the basis of QCD and electroweak interaction by using the method of helicity amplitudes. Analytic expressions for the single-spin (A _L) and double-spin (A _LL) asymmetries are obtained, and their dependence on the dilepton transverse momentum is investigated at three values of the dilepton invariant mass. The results obtained in this study make it possible to explore the spin structure of the proton.     

A pQCD-based approach to parton production and equilibration in high-energy nuclear collisions

A pQCD-based model for parton production and equilibration in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is reviewed. The model combines pQCD processes including initial and final state radiations together with string phenomenology for nonperturbative soft processes. Nuclear effects on the initial parton production, such as multiple parton scattering and nuclear shadowing of parton distribution functions are considered. Comparisons with existing data are made and further tests of the model to constrain model parameters are proposed. With the obtained space-time history of the parton production, evolution of the minijet gas toward a fully equilibrated parton plasma is studied. Direct probes of the early parton dynamics, such as pre-equilibrium photon and dilepton production, open charm production, J/ψ suppression and jet quenching are also reviewed.     

Momentum dependence of the pion cloud for ϱ-mesons in nuclear matter

We extend hadronic models for ϱ-meson propagation in cold nuclear matter via coupling to in-medium pions to include finite three-momentum. Special care is taken to preserve gauge invariance. Consequences for photoabsorption on the proton and on nuclei as well as for the dilepton production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are discussed.     

Anomalies and asymmetries in quark-gluon matter

The manifestations of axial anomaly and related effects in heavy-ion collisions are considered. Special role is played by various asymmetries. The azimuthal correlational asymmetries of neutron pairs at NICA/FAIR energy range may probe the global rotation of strongly interacting matter. The conductivity is related to the angular asymmetries of dilepton pairs. The strong magnetic field generated in heavy-ion collisions leads to the excess of soft dileptons flying predominantly in the scattering plane.     

Effects of nuclear charge fluctuations on dilepton photoproduction

Fluctuations of dilepton production from two photon interactions γγ→l~+l~- are studied in semicentral and peripheral nuclear collisions.Based on the Weizsacker-Williams approach,electromagnetic(EM) fields generated by moving nuclear charges are approximated as quasi-real photons.As fluctuating EM fields in each collision event are hard to be measured directly in experiments due to its short lifetime,we study the dilepton photoproduction with fluctuating EM fields,which are crucial for the EM fields induced chiral and charged particle evolutions,and calculate the relative standard deviation of the dilepton mass spectrum with the event-by-event fluctuating nuclear charge distributions.This fluctuation effect becomes smaller in more peripheral collisions where the shift of proton positions is implicit for EM fields outside the nucleus.The uncertainty of effective impact parameter △b on the standard deviation is also studied,and its effect is around one-third of the effect of nuclear charge fluctuations when △b is taken as～1 fm.