17654018
Observation of modified hadronization in relativistic Au+Au collisions: a promising signature for deconfined quark–gluon matter
Measurements of identified particles from Au+Au collisions at s NN = 200 GeV are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on nuclear modification, baryon-to-meson ratios, and elliptic flow at intermediate transverse momentum (1.5 < p T < 5GeV/c). Possible connections between (1) these measurements, (2) the running coupling for static quark-anti-quark pairs at finite temperature, and (3) the creation of a deconfined quark-gluon phase are presented. Modifications to hadronization in Au+Au collisions are proposed as a likely signature for the creation of deconfined coloured matter.
119402907
Suppression of nonphotonic electrons from enhancement of charm baryons in heavy ion collisions
In Au+Au collisions at 2<p{sub T}<6 GeV/c baryon production is enhanced compared to p+p collisions. Since charm baryon decays produce electrons less frequently than charm meson decays, the nonphotonic electron spectrum is sensitive to the {lambda}{sub c}/D ratio. In this report we study the dependence of the nonphotonic electron spectrum on the baryon-to-meson ratio for charm hadrons. As an example, we take the {lambda}{sub c}/D ratio to have the same form as the {lambda}/K{sub S}{sup 0} ratio. In this case, even if the total charm quark yield in Au+Au collisions scales with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions (N{sub bin}), the electron spectrum at 2<p{sub T}<5 GeV/c is suppressed by as much as 20% relative to N{sub bin} scaled p+p collisions.
8293894
Particle dependence of elliptic flow in Au + Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) = 200-GeV
The elliptic flow parameter (v 2 ) for K 0 S and Λ+Λ has been measured at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at √s NN = 200 GeV by the STAR Collaboration. The υ 2 values for both K 0 S and Λ+Λ saturate at moderate p T , deviating from the hydrodynamic behaviour observed in the lower p T region. The saturated v 2 values and the p T scales where the deviation begins are particle dependent. The particle-type dependence of v 2 shows features expected from the hadronization of a partonic ellipsoid by coalescence of co-moving quarks. These results will be discussed in relation to the nuclear modification factor (R CP ) which has also been measured for K 0 S and Λ+Λ by the STAR Collaboration.
125578392
Azimuthal anisotropy of K0(S) and Lambda + anti-Lambda production at mid-rapidity from Au + Au collisions at S(NN)**(1/2) = 130-GeV
118502088
The Sound of the Little Bangs
Measurements of particles emitted from collisions of heavy ions at relativistic energies show evidence for temperature-fluctuations on the freeze-out surface of the expanding fireball. These can be understood as remnants of the density inhomogeneities in the initial collision overlap region. In this paper we present an analysis of heavy-ion collisions analogous to the analysis of the cosmic microwave background radiation. We use data on transverse momentum correlations to extract a power-spectrum from heavy-ion collisions and use a Glauber model for eccentricity to extract the transfer function needed to produce the observed correlations. We also discuss the acoustic signal, the sound that an observer inside the matter would hear.
17939619
RHIC CRITICAL POINT SEARCH: ASSESSING STARs CAPABILITIES.
In this report we discuss the capabilities and limitations of the STAR detector to search for signatures of the QCD critical point in a low energy scan at RHIC. We find that a RHIC low energy scan will cover a broad region of interest in the nuclear matter phase diagram and that the STAR detector--a detector designed to measure the quantities that will be of interest in this search--will provide new observables and improve on previous measurements in this energy range.
56164482
Nuclear recoil energy scale in liquid xenon with application to the direct detection of dark matter
We show for the first time that the quenching of electronic excitation from nuclear recoils in liquid xenon is well-described by Lindhard theory, if the nuclear recoil energy is reconstructed using the combined (scintillation and ionization) energy scale proposed by Shutt et al.. We argue for the adoption of this perspective in favor of the existing preference for reconstructing nuclear recoil energy solely from primary scintillation. We show that signal partitioning into scintillation and ionization is well-described by the Thomas-Imel box model. We discuss the implications for liquid xenon detectors aimed at the direct detection of dark matter.
123170953
An Investigation of the Infrared Behaviour of the Gluon Propagator in the Axial Gauge
In the axial gauge an integral equation for the gluon propagator of a pure Yang-Mills theory is derived based on the Dyson-Schwinger equation and the Slavnov-Taylor identities. Dimensional regularization is used. The solution of this equation is investigated in the case where the variable γ = (nk)2/n2k2 is different from zero and it is seen that the nice properties of the confining solution D(k) ~ 1/k4 are lost in this case.
46522188
The spin-orbit angles of the transiting exoplanets WASP-1b, WASP-24b, WASP-38b and HAT-P-8b from Rossiter–McLaughlin observations
We present observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for the transiting exoplanet systems WASP-1, WASP-24, WASP-38 and HAT-P-8, and deduce the orientations of the planetary orbits with respect to the host stars’ rotatio n axes. The planets WASP-24b, WASP-38b and HAT-P-8b appear to move in prograde orbits and be well aligned, having sky-projected spin orbit angles consistent with zero: � = 4:7 ± 4:0 � , � =15 +33 � −43� and� = 9:7 +9.0 � −7.7� , respectively. The host stars have Teff < 6250 K and conform with the trend of cooler stars having low obliquities. WASP-38b is a massive planet on a moderately long period, eccentric orbit so may be expected to have a misaligned orbit given the high obliquities measured in similar systems. However, we find no evidence for a large spinorbit angle. By contrast, WASP-1b joins the growing number of misaligned systems and has an almost polar orbit, � = 79:0 +4.5 � −4.3� . It is neither very massive, eccentric nor orbiting a hot host star, and therefore does not share the properties of many other misaligned systems.
119186611
Anisotropic diffusion of electrons in liquid xenon with application to improving the sensitivity of direct dark matter searches
Electron diffusion in a liquid xenon time projection chamber has recently been used to infer the z coordinate of a particle interaction, from the width of the electron signal. The goal of this technique is to reduce the background event rate by discriminating edge events from bulk events. Analyses of dark matter search data which employ it would benefit from increased longitudinal electron diffusion. We show that a significant increase is expected if the applied electric field is decreased. This observation is trivial to implement but runs contrary to conventional wisdom and practice. We also extract a first measurement of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient, and confirm the expectation that electron diffusion in liquid xenon is highly anisotropic under typical operating conditions.
120972199
Do quarks propagate
Abstract Processes with coloured particles in the initial state are generally infrared divergent. We investigate the effect of this on processes with colourless particles in the initial state, when the amplitude is near an intermediate quark pole. The result is a characteristics logarithmic dependence on the “binding energy” (even though spectator interactions are taken into account), and the result is gauge-invariant. Summed to all orders, the logarithms could perhaps suppress the quark pole.