Baryon deceleration and partonic plasma creation by strong chromofields in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Strong chromofields generated at early stages of ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions may explain not only creation of the quark-gluon plasma but also collective deceleration of net baryons. This is demonstrated by solving classical equations of motion for baryonic slabs under the action of a time-dependent chromofield. We have studied sensitivity of the slab trajectories and their final rapidities to the initial strength and decay time of the chromofield, as well as to the back reaction of the produced plasma. By proper choice of the initial chromofield energy density we can reproduce significant baryon stopping, an average rapidity loss of about two units, observed for Au + Au collisions at RHIC. Using a Bjorken-like hydrodynamical model with the particle production source, we also study the evolution of partonic plasma produced as the result of the chromofield decay. Due to the delayed formation and expansion of plasma its maximum energy density is significantly lower than the initial energy density of the chromofield. It is shown that the fluctuations of the chromofield due to the stochastic distribution of color charges help to populate the midrapidity region in the net-baryon distribution. To fit the midrapidity data we need the chromofields with initial energy densities in the range of 30 to 60 GeV/fm³. Predictions of baryon stopping for Pb + Pb collisions at LHC energies are made.     

Influence of shear viscosity of quark-gluon plasma on elliptic flow in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the influence of a temperature-dependent shear viscosity over entropy density ratio η/s on the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the elliptic flow in √S(NN)=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC is dominated by the viscosity in the hadronic phase and in the phase transition region, but largely insensitive to the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). At the highest LHC energy, the elliptic flow becomes sensitive to the QGP viscosity and insensitive to the hadronic viscosity.     

Electromagnetic and hadronic interactions of ultrarelativistic nuclei

Beam nuclei accelerated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN are lost due to interactions with the counter-rotating beam, residual gas, and accelerator elements. Proper modelling of the beam transport and radiation load on accelerator components requires reliable prediction of the yields of nuclear fragments produced in electromagnetic dissociation and hadronic fragmentation of beam nuclei. We investigate electromagnetic and hadronic fragmentation of lead nuclei in collisions with various nuclei and single electrons at the injection and collision energies of the LHC. The consideration is based on the RELDIS and abrasion-ablation models. Since this approach well describes Pb fragmentation data at 30 and 158 A GeV, its validity for Pb nuclei at the LHC collision energy is also expected.     

Electromagnetic excitation and fragmentation of ultrarelativistic nuclei

Electromagnetic interactions of high-energy nuclei in ultraperipheral collisions are considered. Such collisions, which take place without any overlap of nuclear densities, can be considered as irradiation of nuclei by intense photon beams with a broad energy spectrum. This leads to several unusual phenomena, such as mutual electromagnetic excitation of nuclei, including exotic double and triple excitations of giant resonances, and multifragmentation of nuclei. The RELDIS model is presented, which describes fragmentation of nuclei and meson production by equivalent photons. It is shown that the RHIC and LHC colliders provide unique opportunities to study electromagnetic interactions of ultrarelativistic nuclei. The cross sections calculated by the RELDIS model are used in the method of monitoring the LHC luminosity on the basis of neutron emission rates, as well as to simulate interactions of beam nuclei with LHC construction elements.     

Scattering of ultrarelativistic deuterons by nuclei

Theoretical study of the interaction of ultrarelativistic hadrons with one another and with nuclei is stimulated by a number of experiments on the scattering of these particles with energies of ten billion electronvolt and more. It is difficult to explain the data obtained in such experiments because of the absence of a consistent relativistic quantum theory of hadrons. However, the existing experiments on the interaction of hadrons with hadrons and nuclei at high and superhigh energies can be well described phenomenologically in the framework of the diffraction approximation [1, 2], which was also used successfully earlier but at much lower, nonrelativistic energies [3, 4]. In the present paper, we derive a general formula for Hyugens's principle for monochromatic vector waves describing particles with spin 1 (for example, deuterons); this is used to obtain formulas for the cross sections of elastic and inelastic (accompanied by the emission of photons without disintegration of the particles) scattering of ultrarelativistic deuterons by nuclei with allowance for the spin and structure of the deuteron and the target nucleus; some special cases are also considered. The internal structure of the colliding nuclei, and also the possibility of excitation and disintegration of the target nuclei are taken into account by means of a generalization of the diffraction method to the case of the collision of any two nuclei, consideration being given to the interaction between each nucleon of the incident nucleus and all the nucleons of the target nucleus. In particular, this generalizes the results of [3–6] (in which diffraction scattering of elementary charged particles with spins 0, 1/2, and 1 with emission of photons was studied) to the case of composite incident particles with spin.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchbenykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 3–8, September, 1980.     

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma are discussed in the framework of relativistic kinetic theory with the relaxation time approximation of Boltzmann transport equation. The expressions for the coefficients of shear and volume viscosities and heat conductivity are derived assuming quark-gluon plasma to be a non-reactive mixture of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons. A lowest order in deviations from local thermal equilibrium and in plasma phase, lowest order in coupling constant are assumed. Entropy production due to irreversible processes is discussed.     

Physics of the quark-gluon plasma

Some features of the high temperature gluonic matter, such as the break-down of the fundamental group symmetry by the kinetic energy, the screening of test quarks by some unusual gluon states and the explanation of the absence of isolated quarks in the vacuum without the help of infinities are presented in this talk. Special attention is paid to separate the dynamical imput inferred from the numerical results of lattice gauge theory from the kinematics.     

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.     

The QCD vacuum and quark-gluon plasma

In this talk we consider present status in understanding of the QCD vacuum structure and the nature of phase transitions, separating hadronic matter from the quark-gluon plasma. We also briefly discuss the simplest signals for this phase transition in high energy collisions.     

Heavy hadrons in quark-gluon plasma

We use the nonperturbative quark-antiquark potential derived within the Field Correlator Method and the screened Coulomb potential to calculate binding energies and melting temperatures of heavy mesons and baryons in the deconfined phase of quark-gluon plasma.     

Coherent inelastic processes on nuclei at ultrarelativistic energies

The coherent inelastic processes of the type a → b, which may take place in the interaction of hadrons and γ quanta with nuclei at very high energies (the nucleus remains the same), are theoretically investigated. For taking into account the influence of the nucleus matter, the optical model, based on the conception of the refraction index, is used. Analytical formulas for the effective cross section σ _coh (a → b) are obtained, taking into account that, at ultrarelativistic energies, the main contribution into σ _coh (a → b) is provided by very small transferred momenta in the vicinity of the minimal longitudinal momentum transferred to the nucleus. It is shown that the cross section σ _coh (a → b) may be expressed through the “forward” amplitudes of inelastic scattering f _a+N+b+N (0) and elastic scattering f _a+N+a+N(0), f _b+N+b+N(0) on a separate nucleon, and it depends on the ratios L _a /R and L _b /R (L _a and L _b are the mean lengths of the free path in the nucleus matter for the particles a and b, respectively, and R is the nucleus radius). In particular, when L _a /R ≫ 1, but L _b /R ≪ 1 (or L _a /R ≪ 1, but L _b /R ≫ 1), σ _coh (a → b) is equal to the ratio of the “forward” cross sections of inelastic scattering a + N → b + N and elastic scattering of the particle b (or a) on a nucleon, multiplied by the cross section of scattering on the “black” nucleus πR ². When both conditions L _a /R ≫ 1 and L _b /R ≫ 1 are satisfied, σ _coh (a → b) is proportional to the factor R ⁴/k ², where k is the initial energy of particle a in the laboratory frame. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Strangeness production in quark-gluon plasma

In this paper it is shown that the strangeness production in quark-gluon plasma might not serve as an experimental signature for the formation of quark-gluon plasma. Our results are completely based on the computer simulation of the plasma. We have taken into account the full three-dimensional hydrodynamic expansion of the plasma.     

Charmonium states in quark-gluon plasma

We discuss how the spectral changes of quarkonia at T _c can reflect the ‘critical’ behaviour of QCD phase transition. Starting from the temperature dependencies of the energy density and pressure from lattice QCD calculation, we extract the temperature dependencies of the scalar and spin-2 gluon condensates near T _c. We also parametrize these changes into the electric and magnetic condensate near T _c. While the magnetic condensate hardly changes across T _c, we find that the electric condensate increases abruptly above T _c. Similar abrupt change is also seen in the scalar condensate. Using the QCD second-order Stark effect and QCD sum rules, we show that these sudden changes induce equally abrupt changes in the mass and width of J/ψ, both of which are larger than 100 MeV at slightly above T _c.      

Casimir effect on quark-gluon plasma

We study the Casimir effect on baryon-free quark-gluon plasma confined in a slab region. The energy and entropy densities of confined QGP at the transition temperature are 2～3 times as large as those of unconfined QGP when the width of the slab is about 1 fm.