Physics perspectives of the ALICE experiment at the large hadron collider

The large hadron collider (LHC) under construction at CERN will deliver ion beams up to centre of mass energies of the order of 5.5 TeV per nucleon, in case of lead. If compared to the available facilities for the study of nucleus-nucleus collisions (SpS and RHIC), this represents a huge step forward in terms of both volume and energy density that can be attained in nuclear interactions. ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) is the only detector specifically designed for the physics of nuclear collisions at LHC, even though it can also study high cross-section processes occurring in proton-proton collisions. The main goal of the experiment is to observe and study the phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined partonic matter (quark gluon plasma —QGP). ALICE is conceived as a general-purpose detector and will address most of the phenomena related to the QGP formation at LHC energies: for this purpose, a large fraction of the hadrons, leptons and photons produced in each interaction will be measured and identified.     

Tagged jets and jet reconstruction as a probe of the quark-gluon plasma

The large center-of-mass energies available to the heavy-ion program at the LHC and recent experimental advances at RHIC will enable QCD matter at very high temperatures and energy densities, that is, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), to be probed in unprecedented ways. Fully-reconstructed inclusive jets and the away-side hadron showers associated with electroweak bosons, that is, tagged jets, are among these exciting new probes. Full jet reconstruction provides an experimental window into the mechanisms of quark and gluon dynamics in the QGP which is not accessible via leading particles and leading particle correlations. Theoretical advances in these exciting new fields of research can help resolve some of the most controversial points in heavy ion physics today such as the significance of the radiative, collisional and dissociative processes in the QGP and the applicability of strong versus weak coupling regimes to describe jet production and propagation. In this proceedings, I will present results on the production and subsequent suppression of high energy jets tagged with Z bosons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies using the Gyulassy-Levai-Vitev (GLV) parton energy loss approach.     

Investigation of the ALICE muon forward spectrometer performances for upsilon measurement

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC detector dedicated to the study of nucleus–nucleus collisions, in which the formation of the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) is expected. Heavy quarkonia, especially the Upsilon states, are relevant for studying the QGP since they provide an essential probe of the earliest and hottest stages of heavy ion collisions. They will be measured via their dimuon decay channel in ALICE in the muon spectrometer. The muon spectrometer performance has been studied in simulations, the results will be presented with emphasis on the trigger efficiency and rate in Pb–Pb collisions. The expected yields of Upsilon states will be extracted from a simulation based on a global fit of the dimuon mass spectra for different collision centralities.     

Hard thermal photon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The recent status of hard thermal photon production in relativistic heavy ion collisions is reviewed and the current rates are presented with emphasis on corrected bremsstrahlung processes in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) and quark–hadron duality. Employing Bjorken hydrodynamics with an EOS supporting the phase transition from QGP to hot hadron gas (HHG), thermal photon spectra are computed. For SPS 158 GeV Pb + Pb collisions, comparison with other theoretical results and the WA98 direct photon data indicates significant contributions due to prompt photons. Extrapolating the presented approach to RHIC and LHC experiments, predictions of the thermal photon spectrum show a QGP outshining the HHG in the high-p_T-region.     

Production of multiply heavy flavored baryons from quark gluon plasma in relativistic heavy ion collisions

It is argued that in heavy ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) there could be a sizable production of baryons containing two or three heavy quarks from statistical coalescence. This production mechanism is peculiar of quark gluon plasma, and the predicted rates, in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies, exceed those from a purely hadronic scenario, particularly for Xi(bc) and Omega(ccc). Thus, in addition to the interest in the discovery of these new states, enhanced ratios of these baryons over singly heavy flavored hadrons, like B or D, in heavy ion collisions with respect to pp at the same energy, would be a clear indication of kinetic equilibration of heavy quarks in the quark gluon plasma.     

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.     

Direct hadron production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Hadrons emitted by the pre-surface layer of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) before the phase transition into a hadronic gas are considered as possible sources of direct information about QGP. It is shown that if QGP is created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, then these hadrons strongly contribute at soft p_t at SpS energy and dominate up to an order of magnitude at LHC energy.     

Search for Exotic Strange Dibaryon in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The exotic strange dibaryon particle (ΩΩ)0 with S = -6 can be produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The yields of this kind of exotic strange dibaryon particles can increase signitlcantly soon as the formation of QGP does exhibit after the collision. If there is no phase transition after the collision, the upper bound of the production of this diomega can be estimated from the free hadronic gas model for nuclear matter. The relative yield ratio of diomega to deuteron is less than 0.000205, this means that if there is no QGP creation it is difficult to observe the production of diomega in relativistic heavy ion collisions.     

非静态球形夸克-胶子等离子体的2π干涉学的检测

提出了一种相对论重离子碰撞中强子物质生成时的π膨胀源模型. 得到了该模型中的小相对论动量区域的2π关联函数及表观π源参数R_a与实际π源参数R_e的关系. 这一关系与QGP生成时的关系有所区别. 这一区别可以用来检测相对论重离子碰撞中产生的非静态球形夸克-胶子等离子体的存在性. 两个关系也显示了一种标度行为.     

Flavor-dependent photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions

Strong electromagnetic fields produced in the non-central heavy-ion collisions can induce vector meson photoproduction. In this paper, we study the photoproduction J/ψ and φ mesons in the relativistic heavy-ion collision from ultra-peripheral nuclear collisions to peripheral hadronic heavy ion collisions. And then include both initial hadronic production and thermal production in quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We find, for the charm anti-charm bound state J/ψ, the photoproduced J/ψs are mainly in the very low momentum region and clearly exceed the hadronic production. However, considering the thermal production of strange quark anti-quark pairs in QGP produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the photoproduced φ is usually smaller than the thermal production and only evident at very peripheral collisions as even their photoproduction is much larger than J/ψ.     

相对论重离子碰撞中的软探针和硬探针

简要回顾了高能核碰撞中夸克胶子等离子体的软探针和硬探针的一些最新进展,主要内容集中在相对论重离子对撞机和大型强子对撞机实验中各向异性集体流和喷注淬火的理论和唯象研究,对小系统中集体流的来源也做了简要的讨论。对于软探针,讨论了初态三维涨落和碰撞几何各向异性、相对论流体力学演化、末态各向异性集体流以及集体流的涨落、关联和纵向去关联等。通过与实验数据作系统的比较,可以探测重离子碰撞中夸克胶子等离子体的动力演化和各种输运性质。对于硬探针,集中讨论了部分子能量损失和喷注淬火对部分子味道的依赖性、重味夸克在夸克胶子等离子体中的强子化、整体喷注在核介质中的演化以及核介质对喷注的响应等。细致分析相关的观测量,可以帮助我们更全面地了解相对论核碰撞中喷注与核介质的相互作用以及重味粒子的生成。对于小系统,讨论初态和末态效应在解释小系统中轻强子和重味强子的集体流方面的贡献,这有助于我们理解大碰撞系统中集体流的起源成因。     

Open charm and beauty at ultrarelativistic heavy ion colliders

Important goals of BNL RHIC and CERN LHC experiments with ion beams include the creation and study of new forms of matter, such as the quark gluon plasma. Heavy quark production and attenuation provide unique tomographic probes of that matter. We predict the suppression pattern of open charm and beauty in Au+Au collisions at RHIC and LHC energies based on the DGLV formalism of radiative energy loss. A cancellation between effects due to the sqrt[s] energy dependence of the high p(T) slope and heavy quark energy loss is predicted to lead to surprising similarity of heavy quark suppression at RHIC and LHC.     

超高能诱发核反应的国际合作实验研究进展

综述超高能诱发核反应的国际合作实验进展及相关的重离子物理研究现状.内容包括:1.有关夸克物质(夸克胶子等离子体QGP)的理论预言.2.超高能重离子碰撞的实验:(1)BNL/AGS能区的固定靶实验回顾;(2)CERN/SPS能区的固定靶实验回顾;(3)BNL/RHIC能区的对撞实验现状;(4)CERN/LHC能区的对撞实验现状.     

Centrality Dependence of Charmed-Meson Photoproduction in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

We calculate the centrality dependence of inclusive cross section of large-p _(T )charmed-meson(D~0,D~*,D~(*+),and D_s~+)from heavy quark fragmentation by the hard photoproduction processes in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions.The numerical results indicate that the contribution of the hard photoproduction processes cannot be negligible for the inclusive charmed-meson production in Au-Au collisions at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider(RHIC)and Pb-Pb collisions at Large Hadron Collider(LHC).     

Effect of colour singletness of quark-gluon plasma in quark-hadron phase transition

Consequences of the constraint of SU(3) colour singletness of quark-gluon plasma are studied. This restriction increases the free energy barrier for the formation of hadronic bubble in supercooled phase and influences significantly the dynamics of the initial stage of quark-hadron phase transition. It also introduces terms dependent on the volume occupied by the plasma in the energy density and the pressure. These modifactions vanish in the limit of an infinite volume. The last stage of the hadronization of the QGP likely to be formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions is necessarily characterized by a decreasing volume containing the quark matter, and thus these corrections become important. The nucleation of plasma droplets at AGS energies is also seen to be strongly affected by the requirement of colour singletness, and the choice of prefactor. Received: 4 December 1997 / Published online: 15 May 1998     

Charm production in a quark-gluon plasma

A calculation is made for charm quark production in a longitudinally expanding quark-gluon plasma. A comparison is made with hadronic charm production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions assuming an extrapolation from p-p collisions and no plasma formation. The charm yield from a QGP begins to dominate purely hadronic production for plasma temperatures above 315–440 MeV, depending on the bombarding energy of the colliding nuclei and the value assumed for the charm quark mass. Implications for plasma signals, most notably dilepton emission and J/ψ suppression, are discussed.     

Heavy ions with the Large Hadron Collider and the ALICE detector

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) under construction at CERN is also planned as a heavy ion collider with lead ions colliding at an energy of 2.7+2.7 ATeV. This corresponds to collisions of matter with cosmic rays of the utmost energies observed so far promising the study of new and exciting aspects of physics. Minor improvements of the newly commissioned lead ion source at the CERN SPS are necessary in order to provide a luminosity of L=2×10²⁷ cm^?2s^?1. The detector ALICE has been chosen as the third detector for the LHC and will be dedicated to the physics of these nuclear collisions and also to the large cross section physics in p+p collisions.     

高能重离子碰撞中有QGP形成时的多π关联信号

对高能重离子碰撞中有夸克–胶子等离子体(QGP)形成时的多粒子玻色–爱因斯坦关联进行了分析.通过考查多π关联平均强度随事件π多重数的变化表明,当有QGP产生时,多π关联平均强度在某一高多重数区域会有明显的上升;这种信号能够敏感地检测在高能重离子碰撞中少数有QGP形成的高π多重数事件.     

Probing the space- time evolution of hot parton matter by hard jets

The propagation of hard parton jets through an expanding quark-gluon plasma is investigated in the framework of hydrodynamical approach. The influence of viscosity and transverse expansion of plasma on the intensity of jet rescattering is estimated for initial conditions, predicted to be achieved at LHC. The sensitivity of jet quenching and dijet acoplanarity to the space-time evolution of hot parton matter created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is analyzed.