118334527
Polyakov loop and gluon quasiparticles: A self-consistent approach to Yang–Mills thermodynamics
Abstract We present a quasiparticle model for the pure gauge sector of QCD, in which transverse quasigluons propagate in a Polyakov loop background field. By incorporating thermodynamic self-consistency in the approach, we show that our Polyakov loop extended quasiparticle model allows an accurate description of recent lattice results for all the thermodynamic quantities, including the Polyakov loop expectation value, in the deconfined phase. The related quasigluon mass exhibits a distinct temperature dependence, which is connected with the non-perturbative behavior seen in the scaled interaction measure of the pure gauge theory.
119263837
Heavy Flavor Suppression: Boltzmann vs Langevin
The propagation of heavy flavor through the quark gluon plasma has been treated commonly within the framework of Langevin dynamics, i.e. assuming the heavy flavor momentum transfer is much smaller than the light one. On the other hand a similar suppression factor RAA has been observed experimentally for light and heavy flavors. We present a thorough study of the approximations involved by Langevin equation by mean of a direct comparison with the full collisional integral within the framework of Boltzmann transport equation. We have compared the results obtained in both approaches which can differ substantially for charm quark leading to quite different values extracted for the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. In the case of bottom quark the approximation appears to be quite reasonable.
119459213
Pentaquark baryon production at the relativistic heavy ion collider
Abstract Production of pentaquark Θ + baryons in central relativistic heavy ion collisions is studied in a kinetic model. Assuming that a quark–gluon plasma is produced in the collisions, we first determine the number of Θ + produced from the quark–gluon plasma using a parton coalescence model, and then take into consideration its production and absorption in subsequent hadronic matter via the reactions K N ↔ Θ , K N ↔ π Θ and π N ↔ K ¯ Θ . We find that although the final Θ + number is affected by hadronic interactions, it remains sensitive to the initial number of Θ + produced from the quark–gluon plasma, particularly in the case of a small Θ + width as imposed by the K + N and K + d scattering data. Because of small baryon chemical potential in the hot dense matter produced in these collisions, the number of produced anti- Θ is only slightly smaller than that of Θ + .
118564693
Renormalized vs. nonrenormalized chiral transition in a magnetic background
A bstractWe study analytically the chiral phase transition for hot quark matter in presence of a strong magnetic background, focusing on the existence of a critical point at zero baryon chemical potential and nonzero magnetic field. We build up a Ginzburg-Landau effective potential for the chiral condensate at finite temperature, computing the coefficients of the expansion within a chiral quark-meson model. Our conclusion is that the existence of the critical point at finite B is very sensitive to the way the ultraviolet divergences of the model are treated. In particular, we find that after renormalization, no chiral critical point is present in the phase diagram. On the other hand, such a critical point there exists when the ultraviolet divergences are not removed by a proper renormalization of the thermodynamic potential.
23741379
Effects of symmetry energy on two-nucleon correlation functions in heavy-ion collisions induced by neutron-rich nuclei.
Using an isospin-dependent transport model, we study the effects of nuclear symmetry energy on two-nucleon correlation functions in heavy-ion collisions induced by neutron-rich nuclei. We find that the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy affects significantly the nucleon emission times in these collisions, leading to larger values of two-nucleon correlation functions for a symmetry energy that has a stronger density dependence. Two-nucleon correlation functions are thus useful tools for extracting information about the nuclear symmetry energy from heavy-ion collisions.
119235890
Shear viscosity and chemical equilibration of the QGP
We have investigated, in the frame work of the transport approach, different aspects of the QGP created in Heavy Ion Collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The shear viscosityhas been calculated by using the Green-Kubo relation at the cascade level. We have compared the numerical results forobtained from the Green-Kubo correlator with the analytical formula in both the Relaxation Time Approximation (RTA) and the Chapman-Enskog approximation (CE). From this comparison we show that in the range of temperature explored in a Heavy Ion collision the RTA underestimates the viscosity by about a factor of 2, while a good agreement is found between the CE approximation and Gree-Kubo relation already at first order of approximation. The agreement with the CE approximation supplies an analytical formula that allows to develop kinetic transport theory at fixed shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, ´/s. We show some results for the build up of anisotropic flows v2 in a transport approach at fixed shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, ´/s. We study the impact of a T-dependent ´/s(T ) on the generation of the elliptic flows at both RHIC and LHC. We show that the transport approach provides, in a unified way, a tool able to naturally describe the v2(pT ) in a wide range of pT , including also the description of the rise and fall and saturation of the v2(pT ) observed at LHC. Finally, we have studied the evolution of the quark-gluon composition employing a Boltzmann-Vlasov transport approach that include: the mean fields dynamics, associated to the quasi-particle model, and the elastic and inelastic collisions for massive quarks and gluons. Following the chemical evolution from an initial gluon dominated plasma we predict a quark dominance close to TC paving the way to an hadronization via quark coalescence.
469908
Performance of the Totem Detectors at the LHC
The TOTEM Experiment is designed to measure the total proton–proton cross-section with the luminosity-independent method and to study elastic and diffractive pp scattering at the LHC. To achieve optimum forward coverage for charged particles emitted by the pp collisions in the interaction point IP5, two tracking telescopes, T1 and T2, are installed on each side of the IP in the pseudorapidity region 3.1≤|η|≤6.5, and special movable beam-pipe insertions — called Roman Pots (RP) — are placed at distances of ±147 m and ±220 m from IP5. This article describes in detail the working of the TOTEM detector to produce physics results in the first three years of operation and data taking at the LHC.
44804523
The TOTEM T2 detector at LHC: Track reconstruction algorithm and preliminary measurements
TOTEM is an experiment designed to perform total cross section, elastic scattering, and diffractive dissociation measurements at the LHC. It is made up of elastic detectors set in the tunnel (Roman Pots) and two inelastic telescopes: T1 and T2, located in the same cavern as the CMS experiment.
67834315
Luminosity-independent measurements of total, elastic and inelastic cross-sections at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV
The TOTEM experiment at the LHC has performed the first luminosity-independent determination of the total proton-proton cross-section at . This technique is based on the optical theorem and requires simultaneous measurements of the inelastic rate – accomplished with the forward charged-particle telescopes T1 and T2 in the range 3.1 < |η| < 6.5 – and of the elastic rate by detecting the outcoming protons with Roman Pot detectors. The data presented here were collected in a dedicated run in 2011 with special beam optics (β* = 90 m) and Roman Pots approaching the beam close enough to register elastic events with squared four-momentum transfers |t| as low as 5·10−3 GeV2. The luminosity-independent results for the elastic, inelastic and total cross-sections are σel = (25.1 ± 1.1) mb, σinel = (72.9 ± 1.5) mb and σtot = (98.0 ± 2.5) mb, respectively. At the same time this method yields the integrated luminosity, in agreement with measurements by CMS. TOTEM has also determined the total cross-section in two complementary ways, both using the CMS luminosity measurement as an input. The first method sums the elastic and inelastic cross-sections and thus does not depend on the ρ parameter. The second applies the optical theorem to the elastic-scattering measurements only and therefore is free of the T1 and T2 measurement uncertainties. The methods, having very different systematic dependences, give results in excellent agreement. Moreover, the ρ-independent measurement makes a first estimate for the ρ parameter at possible: |ρ| = 0.145 ± 0.091.
120345606
The TOTEM GEM Telescope (T2) at the LHC
The TOTEM T2 telescope will measure inelastically produced charged particles in the forward region of the LHC Interaction Point 5. Each arm of the telescope consists in a set of 20 triple-GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) detectors with tracking and trigger capabilities. The GEM technology has been considered for the design of TOTEM very forward T2 telescopes thanks to its characteristics: large active areas, good position and timing resolution, excellent rate capability and radiation hardness. Each of the four T2 half arms has been fully assembled and equipped with electronics at CERN and systematically tested in the SPS beam line H8 in 2008/09. After some optimization, the operation of the GEM chambers was fully satisfactory and the T2 telescopes were installed and commissioned in their final positions at the LHC interaction point. During the first LHC run (December 2009) the T2 telescopes have collected data, at 900 GeV and 2.36 TeV. We will present here the performances of the detector and the preliminary results obtained using the data collected.
40642633
Level-3 calorimeter resolution available for the Level-1 and Level-2 CDF triggers
As the Tevatron luminosity increases more sophisticated selections are required to be efficient in selecting rare events from a very huge background. To cope with this problem, CDF has pushed the Level-3 calorimeter algorithm resolutions up to Level-2 and, when possible, at Level-1, increasing efficiency and, at the same time, keeping under control the rates. This strategy increases the purity of the Level-2 and Level-1 samples, produces free-bandwidth that allows to reduce the thresholds. The global effect is an increase of the signal efficiency of important Tevatron Standard Model Higgs search channels (H → WW, ZH, WH). The L2 upgrade improves the cluster finding algorithm, the resolution of the Missing Transverse Energy (MET) and the SUM Transverse Energy (SUMET) calculations. The same Level-2 MET and SUMET improved resolution has been made available to the Level-1 system, exploiting the same hardware used for the Level-2 upgrade. The upgrade is based on the Pulsar board, a general purpose VME board developed at CDF and already used for upgrading both the Level-2 tracking and the Level-2 global decision crate. The Level-2 upgrade has been designed, built, tested and commissioned in six months. It was accepted as the default system for CDF in August 2007. The same Level-2 hardware can be used in such a way to provide the Level-1 calorimeter system of the same MET, SUMET resolution provided to Level-2. While in the upgraded Level-2 system the algorithms are executed in a commercial CPU within the typical Level-2 processing timing of 20 μs, in the upgraded Level-1 system, MET and SUMET are calculated by powerful FPGAs within 5 μs. The Level-1 upgrade is currently ongoing and in commissioning phase.We describe the CDF Level-2 and the new Level-1 calorimeter upgrades, the architecture and the trigger performances, with particular emphasis on a new calorimeter MET_JET-based trigger performances used for CDF Higgs search.