Dileptons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

The current status of our understanding of dilepton production in ultra-relativistic heavyion collisions is discussed with special emphasis on signals from the (approach towards) chirally restored and deconfined phases. In particular, recent results of the CERN-SPS low-energy runs are compared to model predictions and interpreted. Prospects for RHIC experiments are given.     

Low-mass lepton pair production in Pb-Au collisions at 40 A.GeV

The CERES/NA45 experiment at the CERN SPS has previously measurede ⁺ e ^- pair production in 160 A.GeV Pb-Au collisions. In the mass regionm > 02 GeV/c², an enhancement of 2.7±04(stat.)±0.5(syst.) compared to the expectation from known hadronic decay sources was observed. In the 40 A.GeV data taken in 1999, an enhancement is again found; a preliminary analysis gives an even larger value of 50 ±13(stat.). The results are compared to theoretical model calculations based on π⁺π^- annihilation with a modified ρ-propagator; they may be related to chiral symmetry restoration.     

Thermal dileptons in high-energy nuclear collisions

Clear signs of excess dileptons above the known sources have been found at the SPS for a long time. However, a real clarification of these observations was only recently achieved by NA60, measuring dimuons with unprecedented precision in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The excess mass spectrum in the region is consistent with a dominant contribution from π⁺π⁻→ρ→μ⁺μ⁻ annihilation. The associated ρ spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. In the region , the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production. The inverse slope parameter associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the ρ, followed by a sudden decline above. While the initial rise, coupled to a hierarchy in hadron freeze-out, points to radial flow of a hadronic decay source, the decline above signals a transition to a low-flow source, presumably of partonic origin. The mass spectra show a steep rise towards low masses characteristic of Planck-like radiation. The polarization of the excess referred to the Collins Soper frame is found to be isotropic. All observations are consistent with a global interpretation of the excess as thermal radiation. We conclude with a short discussion of a possible link to direct photons.     

Jet charge in high-energy nuclear collisions

The averaged jet charge characterizes the electric charge of the initiating parton and provides a powerful tool to distinguish quark jets from gluon jets.We predict,for the first time,the medium modification of the averaged jet charge in the heavy-ion collisions at the LHC,where jet productions in p+p collisions are simulated by PYTHIA6,and the parton energy loss in QGP is calculated with two Monte Carlo models of jet quenching:PYQUEN and JEWEL.We found that the distribution of averaged jet charge is significantly suppressed by initial state isospin effects due to the participation of neutrons with zero electric charge during nuclear collisions.The considerable enhancement of the averaged jet charge in central Pb+Pb collisions is observed relative to peripheral collisions,since the jet quenching effect is more pronounced in central collisions.The distinct feature of the averaged jet charge between quark and gluon jets,along with the sensitivity of medium modifications on the jet charge to flavor dependence of the parton energy loss,could be very useful to discriminate the energy loss pattern between quark and gluon jets in heavy-ion collisions.     

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: A review

I review recent results from the heavy-ion programme at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and their interpretation.     

Systematics of elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions

We analyze elliptic flow from SIS to RHIC energies systematically in a realistic dynamical cascade model. We compare our results with the recent data from STAR and PHOBOS collaborations on elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity in Au+ Au collisions at RHIC. In the analysis of elliptic flow at RHIC energy, we find a good fitting with data at 1.5 times a scaling factor to our model, which characterizes that the model is required to have extra pressure generated from the subsequent parton scattering after the initial minijet production. In energy dependence of elliptic flow, we notice re-hardening nature at RHIC energies. Both these two observations would probably imply the possible formation of quark-gluon plasma.     

高能重离子碰撞中的参与者数和核子-核子碰撞数

采用核-核碰撞的Glauber模型, 给出了高能重离子碰撞中的参与者数和核子-核子碰撞数随碰撞参数的分布方程, 并用其讨论了\{s_NN\}^1/2=200GeV的Au+Au碰撞中的参与者数与核子-核子碰撞数随对心度的变化关系, 所得结果与PHENIX合作组所给出的实验结果符合得很好. 关键词： Glauber 模型 参与者数 核子-核子碰撞数     

Azimuthal angle and rapidity dependence of di-hadron correlations in QCD

I discuss novel QCD phenomena recently observed in p+p, p+A and A+A collisions, that result from the non-linear dynamics of small-x gluons. I focus on di-hadron correlation measurements, as opposed to single-hadron observables often too inclusive to distinguish possible new effects from established mechanisms. Specifically, I discuss angular correlations of forward di-hadrons in d+Au collisions and long-range rapidity correlations in high-multiplicity p+p and Au+Au collisions.     

Mesonic atom production in high-energy nuclear collisions

Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and nuclei - The production probability ofπ-mesonic atom in high-energy nuclear collisions is estimated by a coalescence model. The production cross...     

Thermal photon production in Au + Au collisions: Viscous corrections in two different hydrodynamic formalisms

We calculate the spectra of produced thermal photons in Au + Au collisions taking into account the nonequilibrium contribution to photon production due to finite shear viscosity. The evolution of the fireball is modeled by second-order as well as by divergence-type 2+1$2+1$ dissipative hydrodynamics, both with an ideal equation of state and with one based on Lattice QCD that includes an analytical crossover. The spectrum calculated in the divergence-type theory is considerably enhanced with respect to the one calculated in the second-order theory, the difference being entirely due to differences in the viscous corrections to photon production. Our results show that the differences in hydrodynamic formalisms are an important source of uncertainty in the extraction of the value of η/s$\eta /s$ from measured photon spectra. The uncertainty in the value of η/s$\eta /s$ associated with different hydrodynamic models used to compute thermal photon spectra is larger than the one occurring in matching hadron elliptic flow to RHIC data.     

Z0 boson associated b-jet production in high-energy nuclear collisions

The production of vector boson tagged heavy quark jets potentially provides new tools to probe the jet quenching effect. In this paper, we present the first theoretical study on the angular correlations (\begin{document}$ \Delta\phi_{bZ} $\end{document}), transverse momentum imbalance (\begin{document}$ x_{bZ} $\end{document}), and nuclear modification factor (\begin{document}$ I_{AA} $\end{document}) of \begin{document}$ Z^0 $\end{document} boson tagged b-jets in heavy-ion collisions, which was performed using a Monte Carlo transport model. We find that the medium modification of the \begin{document}$ \Delta\phi_{bZ} $\end{document} for \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + b-jet has a weaker dependence on \begin{document}$ \Delta\phi_{bZ} $\end{document} than that for \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + jet, and the modification patterns are sensitive to the initial jet \begin{document}$ p_T $\end{document} distribution. Additionally, with the high purity of the quark jet in \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + (b-) jet production, we calculate the momentum imbalance \begin{document}$ x_{bZ} $\end{document} and the nuclear modification factor \begin{document}$ I_{AA} $\end{document} of \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + b-jet in Pb+Pb collisions. We observe a smaller \begin{document}$ \Delta \langle x_{jZ} \rangle $\end{document} and larger \begin{document}$ I_{AA} $\end{document} of \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + b-jet in Pb+Pb collisions relative to those of \begin{document}$ Z^0$\end{document} + jet, which may be an indication of the mass effect of jet quenching and can be tested in future measurements.     

Strangeness production in proton—proton and proton—nucleus collisions

We discuss the investigation of the strange meson production in proton-proton (pp) and proton-nucleus (pA) reactions within an effective Lagrangian model. The kaon production proceeds mainly via excitations ofN*(1650),N*(1710), andN* (1720) resonant intermediate nucleonic states, in the collision of two initial state nucleons. Therefore, the strangeness production is expected to provide information about the resonances lying at higher excitation energies. For beam energies very close to the kaon production threshold the hyperon-proton final state interaction effects are quite important. Thus, these studies provide a check on the models of hyperon-nucleon interactions. The inmedium production of kaons shows strong sensitivity to the self-energies of the intermediate mesons     

Charm and bottom production at RHIC

The current status of charm and bottom production measurements at RHIC is summarized. Heavy-flavor data from p+p collisions at provide a crucial testing ground for perturbative QCD calculations and serve as a baseline for measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Due to their large mass heavy quarks are produced in hard parton scattering processes in the earliest phase of a nucleus-nucleus collisions such that they can be used to probe the hot and dense medium that is formed in the course of Au+Au collisions at RHIC.     

The production of high-energy protons in central relativistic nuclear collisions

We extend our model of transport theory to be applicable to the inclusive production of protons with very high energy. We then consider the angular distribution of such protons, produced in a central collision of Ar on KC1 at 800 MeV per nucleon. The slight anisotropy observed in the data can be explained by a finite value of the friction constant which in turn determines the number of collisions needed for equilibrium to be reached. We also show that these data are quite sensitive to the reaction geometry and cannot be explained by the firestreak model.     

Radiative parton energy loss and jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

We study within the light-cone path integral approach [3] the effect of the induced gluon radiation on high-p _T hadrons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The induced gluon spectrum is represented in a new form which is convenient for numerical simulations. For the first time, computations are performed with a realistic parameterization of the dipole cross section. The results are in reasonable agreement with the suppression of high-p _T hadrons in Au + Au collisions at \(\sqrt s = 200\)GeV observed at RHIC.     

Photon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions with equilibrium and non-equilibrium QGP

We consider the production sources of prompt and thermal photons which include the contribution of gluons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Considering in our calculation the shadowing and iso-spin effects of the nucleus we can properly estimate the prompt photon production. We develop a new thermal jet-photon conversion mechanism which plays a vital role in the low transverse momentum region. The effect of the non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma enhances the contribution of thermal photons.     

Photon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions with equilibrium and non-equilibrium QGP

We consider the production sources of prompt and thermal photons which include the contribution of gluons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Considering in our calculation the shadowing and iso-spin effects of the nucleus we can properly estimate the prompt photon production. We develop a new thermal jet-photon conversion mechanism which plays a vital role in the low transverse momentum region. The effect of the non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma enhances the contribution of thermal photons.