Particle production in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

Recent data on the production of pions and strange particles at the Bevalac and Synchrophasotron accelerators are reviewed, covering pion spectra and multiplicity distributions, λ, K⁺ and K⁻ yields and spectra, and Λ polarization. Emphasis is placed on recent progress in determining the equation of state of compressed fireball nuclear matter from the observed pion yield in central collisions. Further, the information derived from apparent spectral temperatures is critically examined, along with a discussion of thermal and chemical equilibrium attainment in the reactions, as revealed by particle spectra and yields.     

Muon pair production in very high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

Characteristics of muon pair production in very high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are discussed. Particular attention is given to comparing the rate of muon pairs produced from thermalized quark-gluon matter to that of pairs produced via the usual Drell-Yan mechanism. The thermal rate is at least of the same order of magnitude as the direct Drell-Yan rate and will certainly dominate whenx _F for the pair approaches 1. Beyondx _F =1 the thermal rate is also substantial. This region is particularly easily accessible in fixed target experiments.     

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energy

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energy are described by a simple formula. The calculated results are in agreement with the experimental data of carbon and oxygen induced interactions at Dubna energy. The comparison between the calculated results and experimental data shows that particles are emitted isotropically in the rest frame of the emission sources, and the emission sources have movements in momentum space.     

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energy

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energy are described by a simple formula.The calculated results are in agreement with the experimental data of carbon and oxygen induced interactions at Dubna energy.The comparison between the calculated results and experimental data shows that particles are emitted isotropically in the rest frame of the emission sources,and the emission sources have movements in momentum space.     

Leading-particle suppression in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

Parton energy loss effects in heavy-ion collisions are studied with the Monte Carlo program PQM (Parton Quenching Model) constructed using the BDMPS quenching weights and a realistic collision geometry. The merit of the approach is that it contains only one free parameter that is tuned to the high-p _t nuclear modification factor measured in central Au-Au collisions at GeV. Once tuned, the model is consistently applied to all the high-p _t observables at 200 GeV: the centrality evolution of the nuclear modification factor, the suppression of the away-side jet-like correlations, and the azimuthal anisotropies for these observables. Predictions for the leading-particle suppression at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 62.4 and 5500 GeV are presented. The limits of the eikonal approximation in the BDMPS approach, when applied to finite-energy partons, are discussed.Received: 25 June 2004, Revised: 3 November 2004, Published online: 17 December 2004     

Peculiarities of Λ hyperon and π−-meson production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energy

The analysis of the data on the production of Λ hyperons and π^- in⁴He?Li,¹²C?C,¹²C?Ne and¹⁶O?Ne at 4.5 A GeV/c and¹²C?C collisions at 4.2 A GeV/c are presented. Kinematical features of Λ's are shown to depend on the collision centrality in contrast to the stable behaviour of the pion characteristics. The correlation between the characteristics of Λ's and accompanying pions is observed. The effects seem to be incompatible with the intranuclear cascade approach. The data suggest the formation of a fully stopped and thermalized hot source in central nucleus-nucleus collisions, in which Λ hyperons are produced.     

Microscopic theory of photon production in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions

The production of energetic photons in medium-energy proton and heavy-ion induced reactions is studied on the basis of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions. For this purpose we first evaluate covariantly the photon production from proton-neutron collisions in a vector (ω) and scalar meson (σ) exchange model with coupling constants given by the M2Y G-matrix in the nonrelativistic limit. We furthermore follow the proton-neutron collisional history by means of a phase-space simulation based on the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck approach for proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions adding up incoherently the yields from each individual collision. The satisfactory agreement we obtain in comparison with experimental data allows to conclude that energetic photons predominantly arise from proton-neutron bremsstrahlung during the early stage of the collision.     

Classical initial conditions in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

An iterative proceedure is proposed to compute the classical gauge field produced in the collision of two heavy nuclei. The leading order is obtained by linearizing the Yang-Mills equations in the light-cone gauge, and provides a simple formula for gluon production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. At this order k_t–factorization breaks down.     

Very high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and multi-chain model

Inclusive and semi-inclusive production of Λ and \(\bar \Lambda\) inK ⁺ p interactions is studied at an incident momentum of 70 GeV/c. Cross sections and single particle distributions are presented and compared with data at lower energies. Scaling is observed between 32 and 70 GeV/c in the Feynmanx variable in the target and the beam fragmentation regions for Λ and \(\bar \Lambda\) inclusive production respectively. An increase of Λ ( \(\bar \Lambda\) ) production is observed in the beam (target) fragmentation regions, whereas the data at 70 and 32 GeV/c are reasonably close in the central region. The dependence of the Λ( \(\bar \Lambda\) ) polarization as a function ofx is measured and found to be in general agreement with the results at 32 GeV/c. The (Λ \(\bar \Lambda\) ) pair production cross section increases significantly from 32 to 70 GeV/c. The Λ and \(\bar \Lambda\) production associated with an identified proton is also studied.     

Strange particle production in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energy regions

PACIAE, a parton and hadron cascade model, is utilized to systematically investigate strange particle production and strangeness enhancement in Au＋Au collisions and in Pb＋Pb collisions with the √SNN = 200 GeV at the RHIC and 2.76 TeV at the LHC, respectively. The experimental results at different centralities, using data from the STAR collaboration and the ALICE collaboration, are well described by the PACIAE model. This may represent the importance of the parton and hadron rescatterings, as well as the reduction mechanism for strange quark suppression, that are implemented in the PACIAE model.     

Strange particle production in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energy regions

PACIAE, a parton and hadron cascade model, is utilized to systematically investigate strange particle production and strangeness enhancement in Au+Au collisions and in Pb+Pb collisions with the √s_NN=200 GeV at the RHIC and 2.76 TeV at the LHC, respectively. The experimental results at different centralities, using data from the STAR collaboration and the ALICE collaboration, are well described by the PACIAE model. This may represent the importance of the parton and hadron rescatterings, as well as the reduction mechanism for strange quark suppression, that are implemented in the PACIAE model.     

Polarized prompt photon production in high energy\vec ep collisions

It is shown that high-p _T polarized prompt photons produced by high energy longitudinally polarized electrons scattered off unpolarized protons may be utilized to determine the spin-dependent parton distributions of the photon.     

Higgs-boson production in nucleus-nucleus collisions

Cross-section calculations are presented for the production of intermediate-mass Higgs bosons produced in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions via two-photon fusion. The calculations are performed in position space using Baur's method for folding together the Weizsacker-Williams virtual-photon spectra of the two colliding nuclei. It is found that two-photon fusion in nucleus-nucleus collisions is a plausible way of finding intermediate-mass Higgs bosons at the Superconducting Super Collider or the CERN Large Hadron Collider.     

Antiproton production in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN-SPS

A model for antiproton production in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon, based on the Wounded Nucleon Model is developed. The predictions are compared to published nucleon-nucleus and sulphur-nucleus data. The results suggest the presence of similar antiproton production processes in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions near midrapidity.     

Antiproton production in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN-SPS

A model for antiproton production in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon, based on the Wounded Nucleon Model is developed. The predictions are compared to published nucleon-nucleus and sulphur-nucleus data. The results suggest the presence of similar antiproton production processes in nucleon-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions near midrapidity.     

Dimuon and charm production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN-SPS

Muon pair production in p-A, S-U and Pb-Pb collisions has been studied by the NA38 and NA50 collaborations at the CERN SPS. In this paper we present an analysis of the dimuon invariant mass region between the and the J/. In p-A collisions we find that, after the subtraction of the combinatorial background due to and K decays, the superposition of dimuons from semi-leptonic decays of D mesons and from the Drell-Yan process reproduces well the measured mass and transverse momentum spectra. The yield of open charm dimuons required to fit our data leads to a charm production cross section in good agreement with previous measurements. A linear extrapolation of the p-A sources with the product of the mass numbers of the projectile and target nuclei, , underestimates the dimuon yield measured in S-U and Pb-Pb collisions. The excess increases with the number of participant nucleons, and the ratio between the observed dimuon yield and the expected sources reaches a factor 2 for central Pb-Pb interactions. The kinematical distributions of the measured dimuon excess are compatible with those expected from the open charm contribution. Received: 20 December 1999 / Revised version: 4 February 2000 / Published online: 14 April 2000     

Temperature measurement of quark-gluon plasma formed in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

We discuss lepton pair and real photon emission from quark-gluon plasma, which is very likely to be formed in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Measurement of pair production crosssection will provide one with accurate information of the temperature of this plasma.