We present a study of $τ^{+}τ^{-}$ lepton pair production in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.5 TeV. The larger $τ^{\pm}$ mass ($\sim$ 1.77 GeV) compared to $e^{\pm}$ and $μ^{\pm}$ leads to considerably small hadronic contribution to the $τ^{+}τ^{-}$ pair invariant mass ($M$) distribution relative to the production from thermal partonic sources. The quark-anti-quark annihilation processes via intermediary virtual photon, Z and Higgs bosons have been considered for the production of $ τ^{+}τ^{-}$. We observe that the contribution from Drell-Yan process dominates over thermal yield for $τ^{+}τ^{-}$ pair mass from 4 to 20 GeV at the LHC energy. We also present the ratio of $τ$ lepton pair yields for nucleus-nucleus collisions relative to yields from p+p collisions scaled by number of binary collisions at LHC energies as a function $τ$ pair mass. The ratio is found to be significantly above unity for the mass range 4 to 6 GeV. This indicates the possibility of detecting $τ^{+}τ^{-}$ pair from quark gluon plasma (QGP) in the mass window $4\leq M$(GeV)$\leq 6$.
We show that we can reproduce all the features of bottomonium suppression in both proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies in a comover-interaction picture. For each collisions system, we use the measured {\it relative} suppression of the excited $Υ$(2S) and $Υ$(3S) states to $Υ$(1S) by ATLAS and CMS to parametrise the scattering cross sections of all $S$- and $P$-wave bottomonia with the comoving particles created during the collisions. In addition to a single nonpertubative parameter, these cross sections depend on the momentum distribution of these comovers which we fou…
PACIAE, a parton and hadron cascade model, is utilized to systematically investigate strange particle production and strangeness enhancement in Au+Au collision and in Pb+Pb collision with the 200GeV at RHIC and 2.76TeV at LHC, respectively. The experimental results at different centrality, which come from the STAR collaboration and the ALICE collaboration, are well described by the PACIAE model. This may represent the importance of the parton and hadron rescatterings, as well as the reduction mechanism of strange quark suppression, added in the PACIAE model.
We show that we can reach a global and coherent description of bottomonium suppression in both proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The measured relative suppression of the excited bottomonium states as compared to their ground state allows us to constrain the scattering cross sections between the bottomonia and the comovers created during the collisions. Our result hints at a similar energy distribution of these comovers in the environment created by proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. Along the way of our study, we also update our knowledge for the bo…
We discuss production of $J/ψ$ and $e^+ e^-$ pairs in semicentral and peripheral collisions of heavy ions at high energies. We focus on photoproduction mechanism. We present explanation of results of the ALICE collaboration for low transverse momentum production of $J/ψ$ as well as results obtained by the STAR collaboration for $e^+ e^-$ production, also at low transverse momenta. We conclude that such effects are important also in this new corner (semi-central processes) of the phase space.
Heavy nuclei at collider energies are a source of high energy Weizsaecker-Williams photons. This photon flux may be utilized to study high energy photon-nucleus interactions. Here we concentrate on the coherent diffractive production of heavy vector mesons on nuclear targets and show how it probes the unintegrated glue of the nucleus in the saturation domain. We present predictions for rapidity distributions of exclusive coherent J/Psi and Upsilon mesons which can be measured by the ALICE experiment at the LHC.
Next generation neutrino oscillation experiments will need a quantitative understanding of neutrino-nucleus interaction far better than ever. Kinematics covered by the relevant neutrino-nucleus interaction spans wide region, from the quasi-elastic, through the resonance region, to the deeply inelastic scattering region. The neutrino-nucleus interaction in each region has quite different characteristics. Obviously, it is essential to combine different expertise to construct a unified model that covers all the kinematical region of the neutrino-nucleus interaction. Recently, several experimental…
We discuss a number of cold nuclear matter effects that can modify open heavy flavor and quarkonium production in proton-nucleus collisions and could thus also affect their production in nucleus-nucleus collisions, in addition to hot quark-gluon plasma production. We show some results for $p+$Pb collisions at sqrt s = 5 TeV at the LHC.
We re-evaluate the nuclear suppression of forward $J/ψ$ production at high energy in the Color Glass Condensate framework. We use the collinear approximation for the projectile proton probed at large $x$ and an up to date dipole cross section fitted to HERA data to describe the target in proton-proton collisions. We show that using the Glauber approach to generalize the proton dipole cross section to the case of a nucleus target leads to a nuclear modification factor much closer to LHC data than previous estimates using the same framework.
Simple generic expressions to compute double-parton scattering (DPS) cross sections in high-energy proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, as a function of the corresponding single-parton cross sections, are presented. Estimates of DPS contributions are studied for two specific processes at LHC energies: (i) same-sign W-boson pair production in p-Pb, and (ii) double-J/psi production in Pb-Pb, using NLO predictions with nuclear parton densities for the corresponding single-parton cross sections. The expected DPS cross sections and event rates after typical acceptance and efficiency losse…
We analyze the sensitivity of next-generation tonne-scale neutrinoless double $β$-decay ($0νββ$) experiments and searches for same-sign di-electrons plus jets at the Large Hadron Collider to TeV scale lepton number violating interactions. Taking into account previously unaccounted for physics and detector backgrounds at the LHC, renormalization group evolution, and long-range contributions to $0νββ$ nuclear matrix elements, we find that the reach of tonne-scale $0νββ$ generally exceeds that of the LHC. However, for a range of heavy particle masses near the TeV scale, the high luminosity LHC an…
A Monte Carlo model, initially developed for soft pp and AA collisions at high energy, is applied for proton-lead interaction at the LHC energy. Elementary collisions are implemented at the partonic level and do not involve the usual Glauber supposition of independent nucleon-nucleon collisions. The average number of participating nucleons and charged multiplicity in p-Pb collisions were calculated and compared with the predictions of Glauber model and experimental data. It was demonstrated that taking into account the energy conservation results in the number of participating nucleons conside…
The stochastic dynamics of c and b quarks in the fireball created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC is studied employing a relativistic Langevin equation, based on a picture of multiple uncorrelated random collisions with the medium. Heavy-quark transport coefficients are evaluated within a pQCD approach, with a proper HTL resummation of medium effects for soft scatterings. The Langevin equation is embedded in a multi-step setup developed to study heavy-flavor observables in pp and AA collisions, starting from a NLO pQCD calculation of initial heavy-quark yields, complemented in th…
A snapshot of the results for heavy-flavour observables in heavy-ion (AA) collisions at RHIC and LHC obtained with our transport calculations is displayed. The initial charm and beauty production is simulated through pQCD tools (POWHEG+PYTHIA) and is validated through the comparison with data from pp collisions. The propagation of c and b quarks in the medium formed in heavy-ion collisions is studied through a transport setup based on the relativistic Langevin equation. With respect to past works we perform a more systematic study, providing results with different choices of transport coeffici…
We present a study of the heavy-flavor dynamics in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The initial (hard) production of c and b quarks is taken from NLO pQCD predictions. The presence of a hot medium (a Quark Gluon Plasma described by hydrodynamics) affects the final spectra of open-charm (beauty) hadrons and their decay electrons with respect to what found in pp collisions. The propagation of c and b quarks in the plasma is based on a picture of multiple uncorrelated random collisions, described by a relativistic Langevin equation. A microscopic evaluation of the transport coefficients is provided wi…
We provide quantitative predictions for the rapidity, centrality and energy dependencies of inclusive charged-hadron productions for the forthcoming LHC measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions based on the idea of gluon saturation in the color-glass condensate framework. Our formulation gives very good descriptions of the first data from the LHC for the inclusive charged-hadron production in proton-proton collisions, the deep inelastic scattering at HERA at small Bjorken-x, and the hadron multiplicities in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC.
We present a novel lepton-nucleus event generator: ACHILLES, A CHIcagoLand Lepton Event Simulator. The generator factorizes the primary interaction from the propagation of hadrons in the nucleus, which allows for a great deal of modularity, facilitating further improvements and interfaces with existing codes. We validate our generator against high quality electron-carbon scattering data in the quasielastic regime, including the recent CLAS/e4v reanalysis of existing data. We find good agreement in both inclusive and exclusive distributions. By varying the assumptions on the propagation of knoc…
We present a study of $τ^+ τ^-$ lepton pair production in Pb + Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.5 TeV. The larger mass of tau lepton compared to electron and muon leads to considerably small hadronic contribution to the $τ^+ τ^-$ pair invariant mass (M) distribution relative to the production from thermal partonic sources. The quark-antiquark annihilation processes via intermediary virtual photon, Z and Higgs bosons have been considered for the tau lepton production. The contribution from Drell-Yan process is found to dominate over thermal yield for $τ^+ τ^-$ pair mass from 4 to 20 GeV at …
Proton-nucleus collisions (p+A) at LHC energies provide a rigorous test of the Color Glass Condensate (CGC), a model proposed to describe the high energy limit of Quantum Chromodynamics. In the CGC the average multiplicity of charged particles at midrapidity in p+A collisions depends logarithmically on the number of participants, $N_{part}$. In contrast, the Wounded Nucleon Model (WNM) of independent nucleon-nucleon scatterings, verified at RHIC energies, predicts that multiplicity in p+A depends linearly on $N_{part}$. We argue that for the first time, the dependence of mean multiplicity on $…
Proton-nucleus (p+A) collisions have long been recognized as a crucial component of the physics programme with nuclear beams at high energies, in particular for their reference role to interpret and understand nucleus-nucleus data as well as for their potential to elucidate the partonic structure of matter at low parton fractional momenta (small-x). Here, we summarize the main motivations that make a proton-nucleus run a decisive ingredient for a successful heavy-ion programme at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and we present unique scientific opportunities arising from these collisions. We al…
The forthcoming LHC measurement of hadron multiplicity in proton-nucleus collisions is a crucial test of the k_t factorization and gluon saturation based models. Here, we provide quantitative predictions for the pseudorapidity distribution of charged particles produced in minimum bias proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC based on the idea of gluon saturation in the color-glass condensate framework. Our formulation gives good descriptions of the LHC and RHIC data for the charged-hadron multiplicities in both proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions, and also the deep inelastic scattering at…
Single and pair top-quark production in proton-lead (p-Pb) and lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and future circular collider (FCC) energies, are studied with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations including nuclear parton distribution functions. At the LHC, the pair-production cross sections amount to sigma(t-tbar) = 3.4 mub in Pb-Pb at sqrt(s) = 5.5 TeV, and sigma(t-tbar) = 60 nb in p-Pb at sqrt(s) = 8.8 TeV. At the FCC energies of sqrt(s) = 39 and 63 TeV, the same cross sections are factors of 90 and 55 times larger respectively. In the lepton…
In the pre-thermal equilibrium stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, a strong quasi-classical transverse gluon field emerges at about $τ_0 \simeq 0.1 \, \rm fm/c$ and evolves together with their longitudinal counterparts according to the classical Yang-Mills (CYM) equations. Recently it has been shown that these fields induce a diffusion of charm quarks in momentum space resulting in a tilt of their spectrum without a significant drag. We find that in nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC such a novel dynamics of charm quarks leads to an initial enhancement of the nuclear modification factor…
We develop an asymmetric relativistic Fermi gas model for the study of the electroweak nuclear response in the quasielastic region. The model takes into account the differences between neutron and proton densities in asymmetric (N > Z) nuclei, as well as differences in the neutron and proton separation energies. We present numerical results for both neutral and charged current processes, focusing on nuclei of interest for ongoing and future neutrino oscillation experiments. We point out some important differences with respect to the commonly employed symmetric Fermi gas model.
The parton yield, (pseudo)rapidity distribution, and transverse momentum distribution in partonic matter assumed forming in the early stage of $pp$ and nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC energy ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV) and LHC energy ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=5.5 TeV for nucleus-nucleus, 5.5 and/or 14 TeV for $pp$) are comparatively investigated with parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE. It turned out that the different parton and anti-parton spectra approach to be similar with reaction energy increasing from RHIC to LHC. We have argued that if the partonic matter forming in Au+Au collisions at RHIC…
We investigate the potentialities offered by the study of lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral collisions at a fixed-target experiment using the proton and ion LHC beams. In these collisions, exclusive or semi-exclusive lepton-pair production can be used as luminosity monitor as well as a check of the equivalent-photon approximation, via the measurement of the Bethe-Heitler cross section. It can also serve as a probe of the inner hadron structure via the measurement of the lepton-pair azimuthal asymmetry which is sensitive to the timelike virtual Compton scattering. We also briefly discus…
Interpretation of current and future neutrino oscillation and electron scattering experiments requires knowledge of lepton-nucleon and lepton-nucleus interactions at the percent level. We study the exchange of photons between charged particles and the nuclear medium for (anti)neutrino-, electron-, and muon-induced reactions inside a large nucleus. While quantum electrodynamics (QED)-medium contributions are formally suppressed by two powers of the electromagnetic coupling constant $α$ when compared to the leading-order cross sections, low-energy modes and the nuclear size enhance the effect by…
We introduce a global analysis of collinearly factorized nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs) including, for the first time, data constraints from LHC proton-lead collisions. In comparison to our previous analysis, EPS09, where data only from charged-lepton-nucleus deep inelastic scattering (DIS), Drell-Yan (DY) dilepton production in proton-nucleus collisions and inclusive pion production in deuteron-nucleus collisions were the input, we now increase the variety of data constraints to cover also neutrino-nucleus DIS and low-mass DY production in pion-nucleus collisions. The new LHC da…
Experimental data for hadron radial and elliptic flow are used to investigate their influence on the shape of the thermal photon spectrum at RHIC. Leaving alone the actual mechanism of photon production and its time evolution, we concentrate on the spectrum shape. Radial and longitudinal flow of the bulk can change significantly the observed photon energy spectrum via the Doppler Effect. Experimental thermal photon data are described by local frame temperature parameter which depends on the assumption of longitudinal and radial flow. From the observed hadron elliptic flow we estimate the modul…
We point out that the LDMX (Light Dark Matter eXperiment) detector design, conceived to search for sub-GeV dark matter, will also have very advantageous characteristics to pursue electron-nucleus scattering measurements of direct relevance to the neutrino program at DUNE and elsewhere. These characteristics include a 4-GeV electron beam, a precision tracker, electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters with near 2$π$ azimuthal acceptance from the forward beam axis out to $\sim$40$^\circ$ angle, and low reconstruction energy threshold. LDMX thus could provide (semi)exclusive cross section measurem…
Impact of Two-Body Currents on Semi-Exclusive Lepton-Nucleus Reactions
Fermilab（费米国家加速器实验室）；Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), CSIC‐Universitat de València（粒子物理研究所（IFIC），西班牙瓦伦西亚大学与西班牙高等科学研究理事会联合）；Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室）
