This review will be concerned with our knowledge of extended matter under the governance of strong interaction, in short: QCD matter. Strictly speaking, the hadrons are representing the first layer of extended QCD architecture. In fact we encounter the characteristic phenomena of confinement as distances grow to the scale of 1 fm (i.e. hadron size): loss of the chiral symmetry property of the elementary QCD Lagrangian via non-perturbative generation of "massive" quark and gluon condensates, that replace the bare QCD vacuum. However, given such first experiences of transition from short range perturbative QCD phenomena (jet physics etc.), toward extended, non perturbative QCD hadron structure, we shall proceed here to systems with dimensions far exceeding the force range: matter in the interior of heavy nuclei, or in neutron stars, and primordial matter in the cosmological era from electro-weak decoupling (10^-12 s) to hadron formation (0.5 10^-5 s). This primordial matter, prior to hadronization, should be deconfined in its QCD sector, forming a plasma (i.e. color conducting) state of quarks and gluons: the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).
We discuss that the QCD critical point could appear in central collisions in percolation cluster. We suggest using the nuclear transparency effect and the one of the light nuclear production to identify the critical point.
Multiparticle production processes in He-Li, He-C, C-C, C-Ne, C-Cu, C-Pb,, F-Mg, Mg-Mg and O-Pb collsions at energy of 3.7 GeV/nucleon obtained by use of SKM-200 and GIBS spectrometers of JINR. Collective flow phenomena (directed and elliptic flows) at this energy have been observed.
Electromagnetic probes are not affected by hadronization and provide direct information about the space-time evolution of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. In particular, the measurement of thermal radiation from the quark-gluon plasma and the extraction of an effective medium temperature belong to the key objectives in heavy-ion physics. We provide a brief tour of current results and an outlook to future measurements.
Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy, yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a …
We update briefly our understanding of hadron production in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions in terms of statistical models with emphasis on the relation of the data to the QCD phase boundary and on a puzzle in the beam energy dependence.
The use of emulsions for studying nuclear clustering in light nucleus fragmentation processes at energies higher than 1A GeV is discussed. New results on the topologies of relativistic Li-7 and B-10 nucleus fragmentation in peripheral interactions are given. A program of research of the cluster structure in stable and radioactive nuclei is suggested.
Charge topology of fragmentation of 1.2 A GeV $^7$Be nuclei in nuclear track emulsion is presented.The dissociation channels $^4$He + $^3$He, 2$^3$He+ n, $^4$He + 2$^1$H are considered in detail. It is established that the events $^6$Be + n amount about to 27 % in the channel $^4$He + 2$^1$H.
We present a review of the studies related to establishing the QCD phase diagram through high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. We particularly focus on the experimental results related to the formation of a quark-gluon phase, crossover transition and search for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram.
In this paper, the correlation between the formation of the unstable $^{8}$Be nucleus and accompanying $α$ particles in the fragmentation of relativistic $^{16}$O, $^{22}$Ne, $^{28}$Si, and $^{197}$Au nuclei in a nuclear track emulsion is investigated. The $^{8}$Be decays are identified in a wide energy range by invariant masses calculated from 2$α$-pair opening angles. The adopted approximations are verified by data on fragmentation of $^{16}$O nuclei in a hydrogen bubble chamber in a magnetic field. An increase in the $^{8}$Be contribution to the dissociation with the growth of $α$-particle …
At large collision energy sqrt(s) and relatively low momentum transfer Q, one expects a new regime of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD) known as "saturation". This kinematical range is characterized by a very large occupation number for gluons inside hadrons and nuclei; this is the region where higher twist contributions are as large as the leading twist contributions incorporated in collinear factorization. In this talk, I discuss the onset of and dynamics in the saturation regime, some of its experimental signatures, and its implications for the early stages of Heavy Ion Collisions.
A short overview is given on the study of hot matter produced in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, with emphasis on recent measurements at the LHC.
The differential cross section in the transverse momentum $Q$ and a total cross section of $(31\pm4)$ mb for the coherent dissociation of a 3-A-GeV/$c$ $^7$Li nucleus through the $^3$H$+^4$He channel have been measured on emulsion nuclei. The observed $Q$ dependence of the cross section is explained by the predominant supposition of the nuclear diffraction patterns on light (C, N, O) and heavy (Br, Ag) emulsion nuclei. The contributions to the cross section from nuclear diffraction ($Q\le400$ MeV/$c$) and Coulomb $(Q\le50$ MeV/$c$) dissociations are calculated to be 40.7 and 4 mb, respectively…
I briefly describe the initial goals of relativistic nuclear collisions research, focusing on the LBL Bevatron/Bevalac facility in the 1970's. An early concept of high hadronic density fireball formation, and subsequent isentropic decay (preserving information as to the high density stage) led to an outline of physics observables that could determine the nuclear matter equation of state at several times nuclear ground state matter density. With the advent of QCD the goal of locating, and characterizing the hadron-parton deconfinement phase transformation suggested the need for higher $\sqrt{s}…
In nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies matter is formed with initial energy density significantly exceeding the critical energy density for the transition from hadronic to partonic matter. We will review the experimental evidence for this new form of matter - the Quark-Gluon Plasma - from recent experiments at the SPS and RHIC with emphasis on collective behavior, thermalization, and its opacity for fast partons. We will further show that one can determine from the data a fundamental QCD parameter, the critical temperature for the QCD phase transition.
We make quantitative predictions for the rapidity and centrality dependencies of hadron multiplicities in dA collisions at RHIC basing on the ideas of parton saturation in the Color Glass Condensate.
We compare the results of the relativistic Green's function model with the experimental data of the charged-current inclusive differential neutrino-nucleus cross sections published by the T2K Collaboration. The model, which is able to describe both MINER$ν$A and MiniBooNE charged-current quasielastic scattering data, underpredicts the inclusive T2K cross sections.
The analysis of the recent charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering cross sections measured by the ArgoNeuT Collaboration requires relativistic theoretical descriptions also accounting for the role of final-state interactions. In this work, we evaluate differential neutrino-nucleus cross sections with the relativistic Green's function model, where final-state interactions are described in the inclusive scattering consistently with the exclusive scattering using a complex optical potential. The sensitivity to the parameterization adopted for the phenomenological optical potential is discusse…
The analysis of the recent charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering cross sections measured by the MiniBooNE Collaboration requires relativistic theoretical descriptions also accounting for the role of final-state interactions. In this work, we evaluate differential antineutrino-nucleus cross sections with the relativistic Green's function model, where the final-state interactions are described in the inclusive scattering consistently with the exclusive scattering using a complex optical potential. The sensitivity to the parameterization adopted for the phenomenological optical potential is…
Background: Inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering through the weak neutral-current plays important role in stellar environment where transport of neutrinos determine the rate of cooling. Since there are no direct experimental data on neutral-current neutrino-nucleus cross sections available, only the modeling of these reactions provides the relevant input for supernova simulations. Purpose: To establish fully self-consistent framework for neutral-current neutrino-nucleus reactions based on relativistic nuclear energy density functional. Methods: Neutrino-nucleus cross sections are calculated u…
Thermal photon production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au reactions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV is studied in the framework of a 2D+1 hydrodynamical model that describes efficiently the bulk identified hadron spectra at RHIC. The combined thermal plus NLO pQCD photon spectrum is in good agreement with the yields measured by the PHENIX experiment for all Au+Au centralities. Within our model, we demonstrate that the correlation of the thermal photon slopes with the charged hadron multiplicity in each centrality bin provides direct empirical information on the underlying degrees of freedom and on the e…
The $Δ$-scaling method has been applied to ultra-relativistic p+p, C+C and Pb+Pb collision data simulated using a high energy Monte Carlo package, LUCIAE 3.0. The $Δ$-scaling is found to be valid for some physical variables, such as charged particle multiplicity, strange particle multiplicity and number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions from these simulated nucleus-nucleus collisions over an extended energy ranging from $E_{lab}$ = 20 to 200 A GeV. In addition we derived information entropy from the multiplicity distribution as a function of beam energy for these collisions.
This document is one of a series of whitepapers from the USQCD collaboration. Here, we discuss opportunities for lattice QCD in neutrino-oscillation physics, which inevitably entails nucleon and nuclear structure. In addition to discussing pertinent lattice-QCD calculations of nucleon and nuclear matrix elements, the interplay with models of nuclei is discussed. This program of lattice- QCD calculations is relevant to current and upcoming neutrino experiments, becoming increasingly important on the timescale of LBNF/DUNE and HyperK.
We have calculated the binding energy, root-mean-square radius and quadrupole deformation parameter for the recently synthesized superheavy element Z=117, using the axially deformed relativistic mean field (RMF) model. The calculation is extended to various isotopes of Z=117 element, strarting from A=286 till A=310. We predict almost spherical structures in the ground state for almost all the isotopes. A shape transition appears at about A=292 from prolate to a oblate shape structures of Z=117 nucleus in our mean field approach. The most stable isotope (largest binding energy per nucleon) is f…
This work is aimed at studying the performance of the ALICE detector for measuring charm production in heavy ion collisions at the LHC and for investigating the properties of the deconfined quark-gluon medium formed in central nucleus-nucleus reactions by a comparison of its `opacities' to massive (charm) quarks and massless partons. The topics discussed in the thesis can be summarized as follows. Definition of a baseline for heavy quarks production cross sections and kinematical distributions at LHC energies, using (and comparing) pQCD tools (HVQMNR program) and the PYTHIA event generator. St…
The most significant experimental results on hadron spectra at large transverse momentum available at the time of Quark Matter 2004 conference are reviewed. Emphasis is put on those measurements that provide insights on the properties of the QCD media, ``Quark Gluon Plasma'' and ``Color Glass Condensate'', expected to be present in nucleus-nucleus collisions at collider energies.
Relativistic models developed within the framework of the impulse approximation for quasielastic (QE) electron scattering and successfully tested in comparison with electron-scattering data have been extended to neutrino-nucleus scattering. Different descriptions of final-state interactions (FSI) in the inclusive scattering are compared. In the relativistic Green's function (RGF) model FSI are described consistently with the exclusive scattering using a complex optical potential. In the relativistic mean field (RMF) model FSI are described by the same RMF potential which gives the bound states…
The space-time structure of the multipion system created in central relativistic heavy-ion collisions is investigated. Using the microscopic transport model UrQMD we determine the freeze-out hypersurface from equation on pion density n(t,r)=n_c. It turns out that for proper value of the critical energy density ε_c equation ε(t,r)=ε_c gives the same freeze-out hypersurface. It is shown that for big enough collision energies E_kin > 40A GeV/c (sqrt(s) > 8A GeV/c) the multipion system at a time moment τ ceases to be one connected unit but splits up into two separate spatial parts (drops), which m…
High-p_T pion and kaon production is studied in relativistic proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions in a wide energy range. Cross sections are calculated based on perturbative QCD, augmented by a phenomenological transverse momentum distribution of partons (``intrinsic k_T''). An energy dependent width of the transverse momentum distribution is extracted from pion and charged hadron production data in proton-proton/proton-antiproton collisions. Effects of multiscattering and shadowing in the strongly interacting medium are taken into account. Enhancement of the transvers…
We investigate ultrarelativistic collisions of the 12C nucleus with heavy targets and show that the harmonic flow measures based on ratios of cumulant moments are particularly suited to study the intrinsic deformation of the 12C wave function. That way one can probe the expected alpha clusterization in the ground state, which leads to large initial triangularity in the shape of the fireball in the transverse plane. We show that the clusterization effect results in very characteristic behavior of the ratios of the cumulant moments as functions of the number of participant nucleons, both for the…
An overview is given on the experimental study of quark-gluon matter produced in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, with emphasis on recent measurements at the Large Hadron Collider.
The current experimental and theoretical status of hadron and jet production at large transverse momentum in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions is summarised. The most important RHIC results are compared to theoretical parton energy loss predictions providing direct information on the (thermo)dynamical properties of hot and dense QCD matter. Prospects for the LHC are also outlined.
The propagation of the heavy quarks produced in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC is studied within the framework of Langevin dynamics in the background of an expanding deconfined medium described by ideal and viscous hydrodynamics. The transport coefficients entering into the relativistic Langevin equation are evaluated by matching the hard-thermal-loop result for soft collisions with a perturbative QCD calculation for hard scatterings. The heavy-quark spectra thus obtained are employed to compute the differential cross sections, the nuclear modification factors R_AA and…
We calculate cross sections for inclusive dijet photoproduction in electron-nucleus scattering in the kinematics of the future EIC and the possible LHeC, HE-LHeC, and the FCC using next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD and nCTEQ15 and EPPS16 nuclear parton density functions (nPDFs). We make predictions for distributions in the dijet average transverse momentum ${\bar p}_T$, the average rapidity $\barη$, the observed nuclear momentum fraction $x_A^{\rm obs}$, and the observed photon momentum fraction $x_γ^{\rm obs}$. Comparing the kinematic reaches of the four colliders, we find that an …
The interferometric radii in the system formed in ultra-relativistic proton-lead collisions are investigated in a framework based on event-by-event 3+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamics. We argue that the most central p-Pb collisions undergoing collective expansion behave similarly to the peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions. The interferometric observables can serve as signatures of the formation of an extended fireball.
We review recent progress in the study of parton propagation, interaction and fragmentation in both cold and hot strongly interacting matter. Experimental highlights on high-energy hadron production in deep inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering, proton-nucleus and heavy-ion collisions, as well as Drell-Yan processes in hadron-nucleus collisions are presented. The existing theoretical frameworks for describing the in-medium interaction of energetic partons and the space-time evolution of their fragmentation into hadrons are discussed and confronted to experimental data. We conclude with a list of…
