Identified charged particles in quark and gluon jets

A sample of 2.2 million hadronic Z decays, selected from the data recorded by the Delphi detector at Lep during 1994–1995 was used for an improved measurement of inclusive distributions of and p and their antiparticles in gluon and quark jets. The production spectra of the individual identified particles were found to be softer in gluon jets compared to quark jets, with a higher multiplicity in gluon jets as observed for inclusive charged particles. A significant proton enhancement in gluon jets is observed indicating that baryon production proceeds directly from colour objects. The maxima, , of the -distributions for kaons in gluon and quark jets are observed to be different. Received: 24 January 2000 / Revised version: 15 May 2000 / Published online: 8 September 2000     

Baryon production in the string fragmentation picture

An improved version of the “pop-corn” model for baryon production in quark and gluon jets is presented. With a reduced number of parameters the model reproduces well both production rates for different baryon species and baryon momentum distributions. Predictions are presented for a set of baryon-antibaryon correlations.     

α(Q) corrections to particle multiplicity ratios in gluon and quark jets

The order α(Q²) correction to the particle multiplicity ratio in gluon and quark jets is calculated in QCD. Through α(Q²) we find , with r = <n>_{gluon jet}/<n>_{quark jet}. This ratio is independent of the opening angle chosen to define the jets.     

Parton energy loss in glasma

We study the synchrotron-like gluon emission in AA-collisions from fast partons due to interaction with the coherent glasma color fields. Our results show that for RHIC and LHC conditions the contribution of this mechanism to parton energy loss is much smaller than the radiative energy loss in the plasma phase.     

A comparison of b and uds quark jets to gluon jets

Symmetric three-jet events are selected from hadronic Z⁰ decays such that the two lower energy jets are each produced at an angle of about 150° with respect to the highest energy jet. In some cases, a displaced secondary vertex is reconstructed in one of the two lower energy jets, which permits the other lower energy jet to be identified as a gluon jet through anti-tagging. In other cases, the highest energy jet is tagged as a b jet or as a light quark (uds) jet using secondary vertex or track impact parameter and momentum information. Comparing the two lower energy jets of the events with a tag in the highest energy jet to the anti-tagged gluon jets yields a direct comparison of b, uds and gluon jets, which are produced with the same energy of about 24 GeV and under the same conditions. We observe b jets and gluon jets to have similar properties as measured by the angular distribution of particle energy around the jet directions and by the fragmentation functions. In contrast, gluon jets are found to be significantly broader and to have a markedly softer fragmentation function than uds jets. For thek _⊥ jet finder withy _cut=0.02, we find as the ratios of the mean charged particle multiplicity in the gluon jets compared to the b and uds jets. Results are also reported using the cone jet finder.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis><Superscript>0</Superscript>-tagged quark jets at the large hadron collider

The Large Hadron Collider will allow studies of hard probes in nucleus-nucleus collisions which were not accessible at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider—even the study of small cross-section Z ⁰-tagged jets becomes possible. Going beyond the measurement of back-to-back correlations of two strongly interacting particles to measure plasma properties, we replace one side by an electromagnetic probe which propagates through the plasma undisturbed and therefore provides a measurement of the energy of the initial hard scattering. We show that at sufficiently high transverse momentum the Z ⁰-tagged jets originate predominately from the fragmentation of quarks and anti-quarks while gluon jets are suppressed. We propose to use lepton-pair tagged jets to study medium-induced partonic energy loss and to measure in-medium parton fragmentation functions to determine the opacity of the quark gluon plasma.     

Flavour equilibration studies of quark-gluon plasma with non-zero baryon density

Flavour equilibration for a thermally equilibrated but chemically non-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma is presented. Flavour equilibration is studied enforcing baryon number conservation. In addition to the usual processes like single additional gluon production gg ⇌ ggg and its reverse and quark-antiquark pair production by gluon pair fusion gg ⇌ q _i q _ı and reverse thereof, processes like quark-flavour interchanging q _i q _ı ⇌ q _j $ q_{\bar j} $ q_{\bar j} is also considered. The degree of equilibration is studied comparatively for various reactions/constraints that are being considered.     

Bi-local baryon interpolating fields with two flavors

We construct bi-local interpolating field operators for baryons consisting of three quarks with two flavors, assuming good isospin symmetry. We use the restrictions following from the Pauli principle to derive relations/identities among the baryon operators with identical quantum numbers. Such relations that follow from the combined spatial, Dirac, color, and isospin Fierz transformations may be called the (total/complete) Fierz identities. These relations reduce the number of independent baryon operators with any given spin and isospin. We also study the Abelian and non-Abelian chiral transformation properties of these fields and place them into baryon chiral multiplets. Thus we derive the independent baryon interpolating fields with given values of spin (Lorentz group representation), chiral symmetry (U _L (2)×U _R (2) group representation) and isospin appropriate for the first angular excited states of the nucleon.     

Observation of meson central production in baryon exchange processes

The central production of ⁰,f ₂ and ₃ ⁰ mesons is observed for the first time in processes which are originated by ⁺ p reactions proceeding via baryon exchange mechanism. The data come from the CERN WA56 experiment designed to separate the baryon exchange reactions in ⁺ p-collisions at 20 GeV/c. We report on the measured integral and differential cross sections and also give the density matrix elements of the meson resonances observed.     

Tagging diquarks by protons of high transverse momentum inpp collisions at the ISR

Events are analyzed in which a high transverse momentum proton was produced at polar angles of 10°, 20° and 45°. The experiment was performed with the Split Field Magnet detector at the CERN ISR at \(\sqrt s \) =62 GeV. A 4-jet structure of these events is found [1]. The measured charge structure of spectator jets is compatible with proton production from hard diquark scattering. This is supported by a study of baryon number compensation in the towards jets. The observed charge compensation in the towards jets suggests dominance of hard (ud) scattering. Evidence forΔ ⁺⁺ production at high transverse momentum indicates the presence of an additional (uu) scattering component. The properties of the recoiling away jets are compatible with the fragmentation of a valence quark and/or of a gluon as in the case of meson triggers.     

Diffraction at HERA, Color Opacity and Nuclear Shadowing in DIS off nuclei

The QCD factorization theorem for diffractive processes in DIS is used to derive formulae for the leading twist contribution to the nuclear shadowing of parton distributions in the low thickness limit (due to the coherent projectile (photon) interactions with two nucleons). Based on the current analyzes of diffraction at HERA we find that the average strength of the interactions which govern diffraction in the gluon sector at x≤ 10⁻³, Q ₀= 2 GeV is ∼50mb. This is three times larger than in the quark sector and suggests that applicability of DGLAP approximation requires significantly larger Q ₀ in the gluon sector. We use this information on diffraction to estimate the higher order shadowing terms due to the photon interactions with N≥ 3 nucleons which are important for the scattering of heavy nuclei and to calculate nuclear shadowing and Q ² dependence of gluon densities. For the heavy nuclei the amount of the gluon shadowing: G _A(x,Q ₀ ²) /AG _N(x,Q ₀ ²)_{|x ≤ 10−3}∼ 0.25–0.4 is sensitive to the probability of the small size configurations within wave function of the gluon “partonometer” at the Q ₀ scale. At this scale for A∼ 200 the nonperturbative contribution to the gluon density is reduced by a factor of 4–5 at x≤ 10⁻³ unmasking PQCD physics in the gluon distribution of heavy nuclei. We point out that the shadowing of this magnitude would strongly modify the first stage of the heavy ion collisions at the LHC energies, and also would lead to large color opacity effects in eA collisions at HERA energies. In particular, the leading twist contribution to the cross section of the coherent J/ψ production off A≥ 12 nuclei at s ⁻²≥ 70 GeV is strongly reduced as compared to the naive color transparency expectations. The Gribov black body limit for F _2A(x,Q ²) is extended to the case of the gluon distributions in nuclei and shown to be relevant for the HERA kinematics of eA collisions. Properties of the final states are also briefly discussed. Received: 12 March 1999     

Phase transition between three- and two-flavor QCD?

We explore the possibility that QCD may undergo a phase transition as a function of the strange quark mass. This would hint towards models with ”spontaneous color symmetry breaking” in the vacuum. For two light quark flavors we classify possible colored quark-antiquark, diquark and gluon condensates that are compatible with a spectrum of integer charged states and conserved isospin and baryon number. The ”quark mass phase transition” would be linked to an unusual realization of baryon number in QCD₂ and could be tested in lattice simulations. We emphasize, however, that at the present stage the Higgs picture of the vacuum cannot predict a quark mass phase transition - a smooth crossover remains as a realistic alternative. Implications of the Higgs picture for the high-density phase transition in QCD₂ suggest that this transition is characterized by the spontaneous breaking of isospin for nuclear and quark matter. Received: 12 March 2001 / Revised version: 2 April 2003 / Published online: 2 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: C.Wetterich@thphys.uni-heidelberg.de     

A comparison of b and uds quark jets to gluon jets

Symmetric three-jet events are selected from hadronic Z⁰ decays such that the two lower energy jets are each produced at an angle of about 150° with respect to the highest energy jet. In some cases, a displaced secondary vertex is reconstructed in one of the two lower energy jets, which permits the other lower energy jet to be identified as a gluon jet through anti-tagging. In other cases, the highest energy jet is tagged as a b jet or as a light quark (uds) jet using secondary vertex or track impact parameter and momentum information. Comparing the two lower energy jets of the events with a tag in the highest energy jet to the anti-tagged gluon jets yields a direct comparison of b, uds and gluon jets, which are produced with the same energy of about 24 GeV and under the same conditions. We observe b jets and gluon jets to have similar properties as measured by the angular distribution of particle energy around the jet directions and by the fragmentation functions. In contrast, gluon jets are found to be significantly broader and to have a markedly softer fragmentation function than uds jets. For the k _⊥ jet finder with y _cut=0.02, we find $${«ngle n^{? ch.}»ngle {? gluon}?er «ngle n^{? ch.}»ngle {? b} {? quark}}=1.089pm 0.024 ({? stat.})pm0.024 ({? syst.})$$ $${«ngle n^{? ch.}»ngle {? gluon}?er «ngle n^{? ch.}»ngle {? uds} {? quark}}=1.390pm 0.038 ({? stat.})pm0.032 ({? syst.})$$ as the ratios of the mean charged particle multiplicity in the gluon jets compared to the b and uds jets. Results are also reported using the cone jet finder.     

Nonequilibrium parton dynamics in the strongly interacting QGP

The dynamics of partons, hadrons and strings in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed within the novel Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach, which is based on a dynamical quasiparticle model for partons (DQPM) matched to reproduce recent lattice-QCD results—including the partonic equation of state—in thermodynamic equilibrium. The transition from partonic to hadronic degrees of freedom is described by covariant transition rates for the fusion of quark-antiquark pairs or three quarks (antiquarks), respectively, obeying flavor current-conservation, color neutrality as well as energymomentum conservation. Since the dynamical quarks and antiquarks become very massive close to the phase transition, the formed resonant ‘pre-hadronic’ color-dipole states (q [`(q)]\bar q or qqq) are of high invariant mass, too, and sequentially decay to the groundstate meson and baryon octets increasing the total entropy. When applying the PHSD approach to Pb + Pb colllisions at 158 A GeV we find a significant effect of the partonic phase on the production of multi-strange antibaryons due to a slightly enhanced s [`(q)]\bar q pair production from massive time-like gluon decay and a larger formation of antibaryons in the hadronization process.     

Studying gluon properties experimentally

We argue in this paper the following. (i) A large part of what is observed in high-energy hadron reactions may be rather directly interpretable in terms of gluon interactions. Since gluons do not interact directly with leptons and photons this could be a valuable way to study them experimentally. Earlier work in this direction is briefly summarized. We suggest how several quantities can be reinterpreted in terms of gluon interactions; the rise in σ_tot, and the more rapid increase of multiplicity with energy at very high energies, are particularly fruitful to examine. The possibility of interpreting inclusive polarization data in terms of gluon spin properties is considered. Most importantly, we propose that if certain of our predictions on central region particle ratios are correct, then the gluon distribution as a function of x may be measurable at energies in the ISABELLE range. (ii) The structure of gluon jets in mass, multiplicity and momentum is discussed; we suggest that gluon jets will be quite different from quark jets, with more of the energy of the gluon jet going into mass, so hard gluon jets may not exist.     

Particle multiplicity of unbiased gluon jets from \mathrme^+\mathrme^- three-jet events

The charged particle multiplicities of two- and three-jet events from the reaction ee Z are measured for Z decays to light quark (uds) flavors. Using recent theoretical expressions to account for biases from event selection, results corresponding to unbiased gluon jets are extracted over a range of jet energies from about 11 to 30 GeV. We find consistency between these results and direct measurements of unbiased gluon jet multiplicity from and Z decays. The unbiased gluon jet data including the direct measurements are compared to corresponding results for quark jets. We perform fits based on analytic expressions for particle multiplicity in jets to determine the ratio of multiplicities between gluon and quark jets as a function of energy. We also determine the ratio of slopes, , and of curvatures, , where y specifies the energy scale. At 30 GeV, we find and , where the uncertainties are the statistical and systematic terms added in quadrature. These results are in general agreement with theoretical predictions. In addition, we use the measurements of the energy dependence of and to determine an effective value of the ratio of QCD color factors, . Our result, (total), is consistent with the QCD value of 2.25. Received: 25 October 2001 / Revised version: 20 January 2002 / Published online: 5 April 2002     

Energy dependence of the differences between the quark and gluon jet fragmentation

Three jet events arising from decays of the Z boson, collected by the DELPHI detector, were used to measure differences in quark and gluon fragmentation. Gluon jets were anti-tagged by identifying b quark jets. Unbiased quark jets came from events with two jets plus one photon. Quark and gluon jet properties in different energy ranges were compared for the first time within the same detector. Quark and gluon jets of nearly the same energy in symmetric three jet event topologies were also compared. Using three independent methods, the average value of the ratio of the mean charged multiplicities of gluon and quark jets is $$< r >=1.241 pm 0.015 (stat.)pm 0.025 (syst.).$$ Gluon jets are broader and produce fragments with a softer energy spectrum than quark jets of equivalent energy. The string effect has been observed in fully symmetric three jet events. The measured ratio R_γ of the charged particle flow in the qq? inter-jet region of the qq?g and qq?γ samples agrees with the perturbative QCD expectation. The dependence of the mean charged multiplicity on the hadronic center-of-mass energy was analysed in photon plus n-jet events. The value for α_s(M _Z) determined from these data using a QCD prediction with corrections at leading and next-to-leading order is $$←pha_s(M_Z)=0.116pm 0.003 (stat.)pm 03009 (syst.).$$     

Higgs boson production at hadron collidersin the kT-factorization approach

We consider the Higgs boson production at high energy hadron colliders in the framework of the k_T-factorization approach. The attention is focused on the dominant gluon-gluon fusion subprocess. We calculate the total cross section and transverse momentum distributions of the inclusive Higgs production using unintegrated gluon distributions in a proton obtained from the full CCFM evolution equation. We show that k_T-factorization gives a possibility to investigate the associated Higgs boson and jets production. We calculate the transverse momentum distributions and study the Higgs-jet and jet-jet azimuthal correlations in the Higgs + one or two jet production processes. We demonstrate the importance of the higher-order corrections within the k_T-factorization approach. These corrections should be developed and taken into account in the future applications. Received: 26 January 2005, Revised: 8 July 2005, Published online: 6 October 2005