Working group report: Heavy-ion physics and quark-gluon plasma

This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09 which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of quark-gluon plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in early Universe are reported.     

Cosmic-ray electron flux measured by the PAMELA experiment between 1 and 625 GeV

Precision measurements of the electron component in the cosmic radiation provide important information about the origin and propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. Here we present new results regarding negatively charged electrons between 1 and 625 GeV performed by the satellite-borne experiment PAMELA. This is the first time that cosmic-ray e? have been identified above 50 GeV. The electron spectrum can be described with a single power-law energy dependence with spectral index -3.18 ± 0.05 above the energy region influenced by the solar wind (> 30 GeV). No significant spectral features are observed and the data can be interpreted in terms of conventional diffusive propagation models. However, the data are also consistent with models including new cosmic-ray sources that could explain the rise in the positron fraction.     

Investigation about the modes in the cylindrical cavity of an ECR ion source

Both theoretical and numerical electromagnetic analyses about the modes inside the cylindrical cavity of superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source (SERSE) have been performed. Modes close to 14, 18 and 28 GHz frequencies, usually employed in SERSE operating conditions, have been calculated in vacuum and when the chamber is filled with a uniform non-collisional plasma at different electron densities. To consider the holes present in the chamber flanges, a numerical approach has been used, by means of the HFSS^TM electromagnetic simulator, for the first mode in the cavity. Modes in a plasma-filled cylindrical cavity with holed bases have full width half maximum bandwidths larger with regard to the closed cavity in vacuum, and it leads to an increased mode frequency overlap. A monochromatic electromagnetic wave feeding this cavity can, in principle, excite different modes. Further investigations about the coupling between the SERSE cavity and its feeding waveguides have to be performed.     

微波技术对ECR离子源性能的影响

The coupling between microwave generators and ECR ion sources(ECRIS)is a key point for the design of the new generation ECRIS as well as for the optimization of the existing ones.The electromagnetic characterization of the plasma chamber where the ionization phenomena take place is a fundamental starting point to understand and model such process.In such effort the complex structures of the injection and extraction flanges together with the large dimensions of the chamber and the high frequencies that are typically used make impossible an analytical solution and also create great difficulties in the modelling even with state-of- art electromagnetic simulators(CST,HFSS),In the following paper the results of some numerical calculations for the optimum plasma chamber excitation will be presented along with the experimental measurements carried out with the SERSE ion source at INFN-LNS.A campaign of measurements is also planned to further investigate the microwave coupling and the mode excitation,which determines the efficiency of the ECR plasma heating.     

Concentration dependence of the solid-phase epitaxial growth rate in Te implanted Si

The growth rate during solid-phase epitaxy of Te implanted (100) silicon has been measured at 520°C as a function of the Te concentration in the range of 4×10¹⁹–10²¹ atoms/cm³. With increasing concentration the velocity decreases from about 50 Å/min to about 1 Å/min and it equals the value corresponding to undoped amorphous Si at 7×10¹⁹ atoms/cm³. This result and previous date on B, P, As, O, and C implantation, imply that the growth rate reaches a maximum value in a broad range of concentration close to the solid solubility limit of the considered dopant.     

Positrons and electrons in primary cosmic rays as measured in the PAMELA experiment

The PAMELA experiment is being carried out on board the Russian satellite Resurs DK1 placed in the near-earth near-polar orbit on June 15, 2006. The apparatus comprising a silicon-strip magnetic spectrometer and an electromagnetic calorimeter allows measurement of electron and positron fluxes in cosmic rays in a wide energy interval from ～100 MeV to hundreds of GeV. The high-energy electron and positron separation technique is discussed and the data on positron-to-electron ratio in primary cosmic rays up to E ≈ 10 GeV from the 2006–2007 measurements are reported in this work.     

Secondary electron and positron fluxes in the near-Earth space observed in the ARINA and PAMELA experiments

Secondary electron and positron fluxes in the energy range from 3 MeV to 7 GeV were measured with the ARINA and PAMELA spectrometers onboard the Resurs-DK satellite launched on June 15, 2006 into an elliptical orbit with an inclination of 70.4° and an altitude of 350–600 km. It is shown that positrons dominate over electrons by a factor of up to 4–5 in the geomagnetic equator region (L < 1.2 and B > 0.25).     

Evidence of a rise in the antiproton-proton total cross section at the CERN intersecting storage rings

We measured the total cross section for $\text{p}$p scattering at $\text{s}\text{= 52.8}\text{GeV}$ at the CERN ISR, using the direct, total-rate method. The result obtained, $\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>tot</mtext>}}\text{(}\text{p}\text{p}\text{) = 44.70 ± 0.53}\text{mb}$, shows that, in common with σ_tot(pp), this cross section also starts to rise in the ISR energy range. We remeasured the total cross section for pp scattering at the same energy, obtaining σ_tot(pp) = 43.26 ± 0.33 mb, and found for the difference, $\text{Δσ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>tot</mtext>}}\text{= σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>tot</mtext>}}\text{(}\text{p}\text{p}\text{) ? σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>tot</mtext>}}\text{(}\text{pp}\text{)}$, a value of 1.44±0.45 mb.