Using the recently published model for the collisional energy loss of heavy quarks (Q) in a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), based on perturbative QCD (pQCD) with a running coupling constant, we study the interaction between heavy quarks and plasma particles in detail. We discuss correlations between the simultaneously produced $c$ and $\bar{c}$ quarks, study how central collisions can be experimentally selected, predict observable correlations and extend our model to the energy domain of the large hadron collider (LHC). We finally compare the predictions of our model with that of other approaches like AdS/CFT.
We present our recent results on jet tomography of AA-collisions at RHIC and LHC. We focus on flavor dependence of the nuclear modification factor. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant.
We show estimates for shadowing of gluons at small values of $x$, appropriate to RHIC and LHC experiments using a new evolution equation which takes into account the effects of gluon recombination to all orders in gluon density. We show that there is a significant depletion in the gluon density of large nuclei.
Our recent study shows that the double spin asymmetry of J/ψpair production is measurable in polarised p-p collision at RHIC in near future. And hence it enables us to extract the polarised gluon distribution function ΔG (x).
We compare fully perturbative and fully nonperturbative pictures of high-pT energy loss calculations to the first results from LHC. While over-suppressed compared to published ALICE data, parameter-free pQCD predictions based on the WHDG energy loss model constrained to RHIC data simultaneously describe well the preliminary CMS hadron suppression, ATLAS charged hadron v2, and ALICE D meson suppression; we also provide for future reference WHDG predictions for B meson RAA. However, energy loss calculations based on AdS/CFT also qualitatively describe well the RHIC pion and non-photonic electron…
We derive the analog of the Wandzura-Wilczek relation for the light-cone distributions of polarized gluons in a transversely polarized nucleon. The short distance cross-section is entirely due to the intrinsic transverse momenta of gluon in the nucleon, in complete analogy to the quark case. Numerical estimate for the double spin transverse asymmetries at RHIC are presented.
Recent RHIC results on pion production in AuAu collision at sqrt(s)=130 and 200 AGeV display a strong suppression effect at high p_T. This suppression can be connected to final state effects, namely jet energy loss induced by the produced dense colored matter. Applying our pQCD-based parton model we perform a quantitative analysis of the measured suppression pattern and determine the opacity of the produced deconfined matter.
I review the color dipole formulation of heavy quark production in the light of recent RHIC data. Since charm and bottom production directly probe the gluon density, these processes allow one to study shadowing and parton saturation at RHIC and LHC. The dipole approach provides a convenient framework to calculate these nuclear effects. I present numerical results for open charm and bottom production in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions and discuss transverse momentum broadening of heavy quarkonia.
A new geometrical scaling method with gluon saturation rapidity limit is proposed to study the gluon saturation feature of the central rapidity region of relativistic nuclear collisions. The net-baryon number is essentially transported by valence quarks that probe the saturation regime in the target by multiple scattering. We take advantage of the gluon saturation model with geometric scaling of the rapidity limit to investigate the net baryon distributions, nuclear stopping power and gluon saturation features in the SPS and RHIC energy regions. Predictions for net-baryon rapidity distribution…
A strong suppression of Pi production in Au+Au collision was discovered at RHIC energies in the high-p_T region. The lack of this suppression in d+Au collision proved, this effect can be connected to final state effects, namely medium induced jet energy loss caused by dense color matter. Here we display our quantitative results on jet quenching in Au+Au collision using our pQCD-based parton model calculations. In parallel we present results on d+Au collision.
The pseudorapidity distribution of centers of dense isolated groups of particles in HIJING model is determined. It can be considered as the background for Cherenkov gluons. If peaks over this background were found in experiment, they would indicate the onset of new collective effects.
Employing a newly developed pQCD inspired parton cascade we simulate the space time evolution of gluons which are produced initially in a heavy ion collision at RHIC energy. The inelastic $gg \leftrightarrow ggg$ interactions are for the first time implemented obeying full detailed balance. The numerical results show that thermalization of gluons is mainly driven by the inelastic gluonic interactions and reaches equilibrium at $1\sim 2$ fm/c. In simulations for noncentral collisions considerable partonic elliptic flow $v_2$ is generated being comparable with the experimental data.
A systematic determination of the gluon distribution is of fundamental interest in understanding the parton structure of nuclei and the QCD dynamics. Currently, the behavior of this distribution at small $x$ (high energy) is completely undefined. In this paper we analyze the possibility of constraining the nuclear effects present in $xg^A$ using the inclusive observables which would be measured in the future electron-nucleus collider at RHIC. We demonstrate that the study of nuclear longitudinal and charm structure functions allows to estimate the magnitude of shadowing and antishadowing effec…
We calculate the transverse momentum distribution of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs in QCD perturbation theory with all-order resummation. We demonstrate that the transverse momentum distribution of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs is an advantageous source of constraints on the gluon distribution and its nuclear dependence. With the reduction in background, we argue that low-mass Drell-Yan pairs in the forward region provide a good and clean probe of small-x gluons at RHIC and LHC.
The single transverse spin asymmetry in D meson production at RHIC can provide a clean measure of the gluon Sivers distribution function. At intermediate rapidity, D production is largely dominated by the elementary gg -> c c-bar channel, where there cannot be any transverse spin transfer. Therefore, any transverse single spin asymmetry observed for D's produced in polarized proton-proton interactions can only originate from the Sivers effect in the gluon distribution functions. A sizeable transverse single spin asymmetry measured by PHENIX or STAR experiments would then give direct informatio…
Differential elliptic flow and particle spectra are calculated from covariant Boltzmann transport theory taking into account the finite transport opacity of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au at $E_{cm}\sim 130$ $A$ GeV at RHIC. The solutions are shown to depend mainly on the transport opacity, $χ=\int dz σ_tρ_g$. The elliptic flow saturation pattern reported by STAR indicates that $χ_{b=0} \sim 25$, i.e., the gluon plasma is $\sim 80$ times more opaque than the pQCD estimate based on HIJING. Such large opacities are also consistent with the measured charged hadron spectra.
Hadron production at high-$p_T$ displays a strong suppression pattern in a wide rapidity region in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. This finding indicates the presence of strong final state effects for both transversally and longitudinally traveling partons, namely induced energy loss. We have developed a perturbative QCD based model to describe hadron production in $pp$ collision, which can be combined with the Glauber -- Gribov model to describe hadron production in heavy ion collisions. Investigating $AuAu$ and $CuCu$ collisions at energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ $A$GeV at mid-rapidity, we find…
In order to extract information about behavior of polarized gluons in the nucleon, charmed hadron productions, i.e. D* meson and Lambda_c baryon productions, are studied in polarized pp reactions at BNL-RHIC energy. For these processes, the spin correlation asymmetry D_{LL} between the target proton and the produced charmed hadron, and its statistical sensitivity delta D_{LL} are calculated. From analyses on these processes, we found that the pseudo-rapidity distribution of D_{LL} in the limited transverse momentum region is quite effective for distinguishing the model of polarized gluons as w…
We argue that if the growing part of hadron-hadron cross section (described phenomenologically by the supercritical soft Pomeron) is due to instanton/sphaleron mechanism, one should find certain qualitative features of the produced cluster which differ from the usual string fragmentation. Furthermore, we suggest that this mechanism should be even more important for heavy ion collisions in the RHIC energy domain. Large number of parton-parton collisions should result in hundreds of produced sphaleron-like gluomagnetic clusters per unit rapidity. Unlike perturbative gluons (or mini-jets), these …
We present a phenomenological analysis of available data on single spin asymmetries for pion and $D$ meson production in proton-proton collisions at RHIC within the color gauge invariant generalized parton model (CGI-GPM), which includes initial (ISIs) and final (FSIs) state interactions in a transverse momentum dependent formalism. This study allows us, for the first time, to put preliminary constraints on the two independent gluon Sivers functions entering the model. We also present a comparison with the simpler generalized parton model (without ISIs and FSIs).
We consider the recent RHIC data on the transverse single spin asymmetry (SSA) A_N, measured in p(transv. polarized) p --> pion X processes at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX Collaboration. We analyze this experimental information within a hard scattering approach based on a generalized QCD factorization scheme, with unintegrated, transverse momentum dependent (TMD), parton distribution and fragmentation functions. In this kinematical region, only the gluon Sivers effect could give a large contribution to A_N; its vanishing value is thus used to give approximate upper limits on the gluon Sivers fun…
Transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distributions in a proton are important in high energy physics from both theoretical and phenomenological points of view. Using the latest RHIC and LHC data on the inclusive soft hadron production in $pp$ and $AA$ collisions at small transverse momenta, we determine the parameters of the initial TMD gluon density, derived in the framework of quark-gluon string model at the low scale $μ_0 \sim 1 - 2$ GeV and refine its large-$x$ behaviour using the LHC data on the $t \bar t$ production at $\sqrt s = 13$ TeV. Then, we apply the Catani-Ciafaloni-Fiorani-…
The inclusive distributions of gluons and pions are calculated with absolute normalization for high-energy nucleon-nucleon collisions. The results for several unintegrated gluon distributions from the literature are compared. The gluon distribution proposed recently by Kharzeev and Levin based on the idea of gluon saturation is tested against DIS data from HERA. We find huge differences in both rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of gluons and pions in nucleon-nucleon collisions for different models of unintegrated gluon distributions. The approximations used recently in the literat…
The observed suppression of high-$p_\perp$ hadrons allows different explanations. We discuss two possible scenarios: In scenario 1, parton energy loss from scattering in the hot medium is complemented by final state interactions in the resonance matter. Scenario 2 has an enhanced transport parameter $\hat q$ which is fitted to RHIC data. For LHC, the two scenarios lead to very different predictions for the nuclear modification factor of hadrons. In addition, jet reconstruction allows more specific tests of the mechanisms responsible for jet quenching. We calculate the distribution of partons i…
The purpose of these lectures is to provide an introduction to the physics issues which are being studied in the RHIC heavy ion program. These center around the production of new states of matter. The Quark Gluon Plasma is thermal matter which once existed in the big bang which may be made at RHIC. The Color Glass Condensate is a universal form of matter which controls the high energy limit of strong interactions. Both such forms of matter might be produced and probed at RHIC.
We study the radiative correction to $p_\perp$-broadening of a fast quark in a quark-gluon plasma beyond the soft gluon approximation. We find that the radiative contribution to quark $\langle p_\perp^2\rangle$ for RHIC and LHC conditions is negative.
This brief review summarizes the main experimental discoveries made at RHIC and then discusses their implications. The robust collective flow phenomena are well described by ideal hydrodynamics, with the Equation of State (EoS) predicted by lattice simulations. However the transport properties turned out to be unexpected, with rescattering cross section one-to-two orders of magnitude larger than expected from perturbative QCD. These and other theoretical developments indicate that Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) produced at RHIC, and probably in a wider temperature region $T_c<T<4T_c$, is not at all …
The possibility to observe the nuclear modification of the gluon distribution at small-x (gluon shadowing) using high-p_T prompt photon production at RHIC and at LHC is discussed. The per-nucleon ratio, sigma(p+A -> gamma+X) / A sigma(p+p -> gamma+X), is computed for both inclusive and isolated prompt photons in perturbative QCD at NLO using different parametrizations of nuclear parton densities, in order to assess the visibility of the shadowing signal. The production of isolated photons turns out to be a promising channel which allows for a reliable extraction of the gluon density, G^A/G^p, …
A new Monte Carlo model of jet quenching in nuclear collisions, CUJET1.0, is applied to predict the jet flavor dependence of the nuclear modification factor for fragments {\it $f=π,D,B,e^-$} from quenched jet flavors {\it $g,u,c,b$} in central collisions at RHIC and LHC. The nuclear modification factors for different flavors are predicted to exhibit a novel level crossing pattern over a transverse momentum range $5< p_T< 100$ GeV which can test jet-medium dynamics in quark gluon plasmas.
The production of D mesons in the scattering of transversely polarized protons off unpolarized protons at RHIC offers a clear opportunity to gain information on the Sivers gluon distribution function. D production at intermediate rapidity values is dominated by the elementary g g --> c cbar channel; contributions from q qbar --> c cbar s-channel become important only at very large values of x_F. In both processes there is no single spin transfer, so that the final c or cbar quarks are not polarized. Therefore, any transverse single spin asymmetry observed for D's produced in p(transv. polarize…
Within a generalized parton model approach, with inclusion of spin and intrinsic transverse momentum effects, we show how the latest, highly precise, midrapidity data on the transverse single spin asymmetry measured in $pp\toπ^0\, X$ by the PHENIX Collaboration at RHIC [1], can be used to get a first estimate on the still poorly known gluon Sivers distribution. To this end we also adopt the present information on the quark Sivers functions, as extracted from semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering data. This analysis updates a previous study by some of us where a first bound on this distrib…
We study the production of prompt-photons at RHIC in the context of a generalised parton model framework, with a view to obtain information on the gluon Sivers function (GSF). At RHIC energy ($\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV), the Compton process, $gq\toγq$ contributes significantly to the production of direct-photons at midrapidity and dominates it in the negative (backward) rapdity region. We find that for direct photons, asymmetries of upto 10\% are allowed by a maximal gluon Sivers function. However, the asymmetry obtained using existing fits of the GSF available is literature is negligible. We also est…
We calculate transverse momentum distribution of direct photons from various sources by taking into account the initial state momentum anisotropy of {\em Quark-Gluon-Plasma} (QGP) and late stage transverse flow effects. The total photon yield, calculated for various combinations of initial conditions, transition temperatures, is then compared with the recent measurement of photon transverse momentum distribution by the PHENIX collaboration. It is shown that the presence of such an anisotropy can describe the PHENIX photon data better than the isotropic case. We show that the isotropization tim…
The longitudinally polarized gluon density is probed sensitively in hard collisions of polarized protons under the condition that the dominant dynamics are perturbative and of leading twist origin. First data have recently been presented by Phenix on the double-spin asymmetry A_{LL}^{pi} for pi^0 production at moderate transverse momentum p_\perp \simeq 1 - 4 GeV and central rapidity. By means of a systematic investigation of the relevant degrees of freedom we show that the perturbative QCD framework at leading power in p_\perp produces an asymmetry that is basically positive definite in this …
We consider the phenomenological implications of the assumption that baryons are systems of three quarks connected through gluon string junction. The transfer of baryon number in rapidity space due to the string junction propagation is considered in detail. At high energies this process leads to a significant effect on the net baryon production in hN collisions at mid-rapidities. The numerical results for midrapidity inclusive densities of different secondaries in the framework of the Quark-Gluon String Model are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. One universal value lambda ~ …
After 15 years of heavy-ion collision experiments at the AGS and SPS, the recent turn-on of RHIC has initiated a new stage of quark-gluon plasma studies. I review the evidence for deconfined quark-gluon matter at SPS energies and the recent confirmation of some of the key ideas by the new RHIC data. Measurements of the elliptic flow at RHIC provide strong evidence for efficient thermalization during the very early partonic collision stage, resulting in a well-developed quark-gluon plasma with almost ideal fluid-dynamical collective behaviour and a lifetime of several fm/c.
We consider the recent RHIC data on the transverse single spin asymmetry (SSA) A_N, measured in p(transv. polarized) p -> pi^0 X processes at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX collaboration. The measurement is consistent with a vanishing SSA. We analyze this experimental information within a hard scattering approach based on a generalized QCD factorization scheme, with unintegrated, transverse momentum dependent (TMD), parton distribution and fragmentation functions. It turns out that, in the kinematical region of the data, only the gluon Sivers effect could give a large contribution to A_N; its vani…
We present a full evaluation of the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) cross section in the dipole framework in the small-x region. The result features the $\cos ϕ$ and $\cos 2ϕ$ azimuthal angular correlations which have been missing in previous studies based on the dipole model. In particular, the $\cos 2ϕ$ term is generated by the elliptic gluon Wigner distribution whose measurement at the planned electron-ion collider (EIC) provides an important information about the gluon tomography at small-x. We also show the consistency with the standard collinear factorization approach based on t…
A number of promising results of a new 3+1 dimensional Monte Carlo parton cascade including inelastic multiplication processes (gg <--> ggg) are elaborated: (1) thermalization and chemical saturation; (2) the onset of longitudinal hydrodynamical expansion; (3) the build up of elliptic flow. We first briefly outline the basic idea of the algorithm. Full simulations are done with initial conditions for the kinetic partons via minijets or with ones stemming from a color glass condensate. The inclusion of the inelastic channels leads to a very fast kinetic equilibration and also to an early creati…
We use quasiparticle description of deconfined matter in nuclear collisions at finite temperature and chemical potential. We assume that evolution of expanding system is isentropic. Using theoretical formulas and experimental meaning for the average multiplicity of charged and neutral particles and also of net nucleons ($N-\bar{N}$) per unit central rapidity, we calculate the initial temperature $T_0$, and the volume $V_0$ for the collisions of heavy nuclei ($Pb+Pb$ and $Au+Au$) at SPS and RHIC energies. At calculations we use the conservation of entropy and of number net nucleons in initial p…
The coherent hadron production analogous to Cherenkov radiation of photons gives rise to the ring-like events. Being projected on the ring diameter they produce the two-bump structure recently observed for the away-side jets at RHIC. The position of the peaks and their height determine such properties of the hadronic medium as its nuclear index of refraction, the parton density, the free path length and the energy loss of Cherenkov gluons. Beside comparatively low energy gluons observed at RHIC, there could be high energy gluons at LHC, related to the high energy region of positive real part o…
We calculate the double transverse-spin asymmetries, $\aqt$, in transversely polarized Drell-Yan process at the transverse-momentum $Q_T$ of the produced lepton pair. We perform all-order resummation of the logarithmically enhanced contributions in the relevant Drell-Yan cross sections at small $Q_T$, which are due to multiple soft gluon emission in QCD, up to the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The asymmetries $\aqt$ to be observed in polarized experiments at RHIC and J-PARC are studied numerically as a function of $Q_T$. We show that the effects of the soft gluon resummation to the pol…
To extract information about polarized gluon distribution in the proton, charmed hadron, actually Λ_c^+, productions at RHIC experiment are studied. We found that the spin correlation asymmetry between the initial proton and the produced Λ_c^+ is enable us to distinguish parameterization models of polarized gluons.
We study chemical equilibration of quarks and gluons in central nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The initial quark and gluon densities are taken from earlier studies as well as from recent perturbative QCD estimates and are then evolved via rate equations coupled to longitudinally boost-invariant fluid dynamics. We find that, for RHIC initial conditions, the lifetime of quark-gluon matter is too short in order for the quark and gluon number densities to chemically equilibrate prior to hadronization. In contrast, at LHC energies chemical equilibration is complete before the system h…
Recent data on the azimuthal and transverse momentum dependence of high-pT>10 GeV pion nuclear modification factors in nuclear collisions at RHIC/BNL and LHC/CERN are analyzed in terms of a wide class of jet-energy loss models and a variety of transverse expanding collective flow backgrounds. RHIC data at 200 AGeV are found to be surprisingly consistent with rather different dE/dx models when coupled to recent 2+1D minimally viscous QGP flow field predictions. However, extrapolations to LHC, with parameters fixed at RHIC, favor running coupling QCD based energy-loss models over fixed coupling …
Jet Flavor Tomography is a powerful tool used to probe the properties of Quark Gluon Plasma formed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. A new Monte Carlo model of jet quenching developed at Columbia University, CUJET, was applied to predict the jet flavor and centrality dependence of the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$. The predictions for fragments $f=π,D,B,e$, derived from quenched jet flavors $a=g,u,c,b$ in central and peripheral collisions at RHIC and LHC, exhibit novel features such as a level crossing pattern in $R_{AA\rightarrow a\rightarrow f}$ over a broad transverse momentum…
In this contribution to the Quark Matter 2012 conference, we study whether energy loss models established for RHIC energies to describe the quenching of heavy quarks can be applied at LHC with the same success. We also benefit from the larger $p_T$-range accessible at this accelerator to test the impact of gluon damping on observables such as the nuclear modification factor.
Direct photon production in longitudinally polarised proton-proton collisions offers the most direct and unproblematic possibility to determine the polarised gluon distribution of a proton. This information could play a major role for improving our understanding of the nucleon structure and QCD in general. It is hoped that such experiments will be done at RHIC. We present results of detailed Monte Carlo simulations using a code called {\sc SPHINX}. We find that for RHIC energies and large gluon polarisation the Compton graph dominates allowing for a direct test of $Δg$. Triggering on away-side…
We modified the gluon saturation model by rescaling the momentum fraction according to saturation momentum and introduced the Cooper-Frye hydrodynamic evolution to systematically study the pseudo-rapidity distributions of final charged hadrons at different energies and different centralities for Au-Au collisions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The features of both gluon saturation and hydrodynamic evolution at different energies and different centralities for Au-Au collisions are investigated in this paper.
A sizable $\cos 4ϕ$ azimuthal asymmetry in exclusive di-pion production near $ρ^0$ resonance peak in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions recently has been reported by STAR collaboration. We show that both elliptic gluon Wigner distribution and final state soft photon radiation can give rise to this azimuthal asymmetry. The fact that the QED effect alone severely underestimates the observed asymmetry might signal the existence of the nontrivial correlation in quantum phase distribution of gluons.
The midrapidity inclusive densities of different secondaries are calculated in the framework of the Quark-Gluon String Model. The transfer of baryon number in rapidity space due to the gluon string junction propagation leads to a significant effect on the net baryon production. The numerical results are in reasonable agreement with RHIC experimental data.
A generic jet-energy loss model that is coupled to state-of-the-art hydrodynamic fields and interpolates between a wide class of running coupling pQCD-based and AdS/CFT-inspired models is compared to recent data on the azimuthal and transverse momentum dependence of high-pT pion nuclear modification factors and high-pT elliptic flow measured at RHIC and LHC. We find that RHIC data are surprisingly consistent with various scenarios considered. However, extrapolations to LHC energies favor running coupling pQCD-based models of jet-energy loss. While conformal holographic models are shown to be i…
The collective effect of emission by the forward moving partons of high energy Cherenkov gluons in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies is considered. It can reveal itself as peaks in the pseudorapidity distribution of jets at midrapidities or as a ring-like structure of individual events in event-by-event analysis. The pseudorapidity distribution of centers of dense isolated groups of particles in HIJING model is determined. It can be considered as the background for Cherenkov gluons. If peaks above this background were found in experiment, they would indicate new collective ef…
Theoretical understanding of the observed jet quenching measurements at RHIC and LHC is challenging in QCD because it requires understanding of parton to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD. In this paper, by using closed-time path integral formalism, we derive the gauge invariant definition of the gluon to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD which is consistent with factorization theorem in non-equilibrium QCD from first principles.
We compute the jet path-length dependence of energy-loss for higher azimuthal harmonics of jet-fragments in a generalized model of energy-loss that can interpolate between pQCD and AdS/CFT limits and compare results with Glauber and CGC/KLN initial conditions. We find, however, that even the high-pT second moment is most sensitive to the poorly known early-time evolution during the first fm/c. Moreover, we demonstrate that quite generally the energy and density-dependence leads to an overquenching jet fragments relative to the first LHC $R_{AA}$-data, once the parameters of the energy-loss mod…
We study the transverse single-spin asymmetries for $p^\uparrow p\to π\, X$ and $p^\uparrow p\to γ\, X$ within the so-called color gauge invariant generalized parton model (CGI-GPM) which, in addition to spin and transverse momentum effects, includes initial and final state interactions with the polarized proton remnants. We compute all relevant contributions, focusing in particular on the process dependence of the gluon Sivers function, which, for these processes, can always be expressed as a linear combination of two independent, universal terms. This study extends and completes a previous o…
Statistical hadronization is presented as mechanism for (strange) particle production from a deconfined quark--gluon plasma (QGP) fireball. We first consider hadronic resonance production at RHIC as a test of the model. We present in detail how the hadrochemistry determines particle multiplicities and in case of sudden hadronization allows investigation of QGP properties. A comparative study of strange hadron production at SPS and RHIC is presented. The energy dependence of physical observables shows regularities and a potential discontinuity in the low RHIC range, when comparing these differe…
We study the twist-3 three-gluon contribution to the single spin asymmetry in the light-hadron production in pp collision in the framework of the collinear factorization. We derive the corresponding cross section formula in the leading order with respect to the QCD coupling constant. We also present a numerical calculation of the asymmetry at the RHIC energy, using a model for the three-gluon correlation functions suggested by the asymmetry observed in the $D$-meson production at RHIC.
We investigate how thermalization of gluons depends on the initial conditions assumed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC. The study is based on simulations employing the pQCD inspired parton cascade solving the Boltzmann equation for gluons. We consider independently produced minijets with $p_T > p_0=1.3 \sim 2.0$ GeV and a color glass condensate as possible initial conditions for the freed gluons. It turns out that full kinetic equilibrium is achieved slightly sooner in denser system and its timescale tends to saturate. Compared with the kinetic equilibration we find a stronger…
Initial conditions for quark-gluon plasma formation at $τ=0.1\fm$ are considered in lowest order perturbative QCD. Chemical composition, thermalization of the formed semihard quark-gluon system and especially implications of the new HERA parton distributions with the enhancement at small $x$ are studied. The plasma at $τ=0.1\fm$ is shown to be strongly gluon dominated both at RHIC and LHC, and a possibility for rapid thermalization of gluons at LHC is pointed out. Uncertainties in the calculations, particularly shadowing corrections to the parton distributions, are discussed. Free streaming an…
