arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A. A. Natale.
We discuss the possible production of the $σ$ meson and detection of its two photon decay mode in peripheral heavy ion collisions at RHIC. Assuming the mass and total decay width values reported recently by the E791 Collaboration, we verify that the $σ$ meson can be observed in the subprocess $γγ\to γγ$ if its partial decay width into photons is of the order of a few keV.
We discuss the production of hadronic resonances in very peripheral heavy ion collisions, where the ions collide with impact parameter larger than twice the nuclear radius and remain intact after the collision. We compare the resonance production through two-photon and double Pomeron exchange, showing that when we impose the condition for a peripheral interaction the $γγ$ process dominates over the Pomeron interaction, due to the short range propagation of this last one. We also discuss the observation of light resonances through the subprocess $γγ\to R \to γγ$, which is a clean signal for glueball candidates as well as one way to check the existence of a possible scalar $σ$ meson.
We compare phenomenological values of the frozen QCD running coupling constant ($α_s$) with two classes of solutions obtained through nonperturbative Schwinger-Dyson equations. We use these same solutions with frozen coupling constants as well as their respective nonperturbative gluon propagators to compute the QCD prediction for the asymptotic pion form factor. Agreement between theory and experiment on $α_s(0)$ and $F_π(Q^2)$ is found only for one of the solutions Schwinger-Dyson equations.
We discuss processes leading to two photon final states in peripheral heavy ion collisions at RHIC. Due to the large photon luminosity we show that the continuum subprocess $γγ\to γγ$ can be observed with a large number of events. We study this reaction when it is intermediated by a resonance made of quarks or gluons and discuss its interplay with the continuum process, verifying that in several cases the resonant process ovewhelms the continuum one. It is also investigated the possibility of observing a scalar resonance (the $σ$ meson) in this process. Assuming for the $σ$ the mass and total decay width values recently reported by the E791 Collaboration we show that RHIC may detect this particle in its two photon decay mode if its partial photonic decay width is of the order of the ones discussed in the literature.
We investigate the sensitivity of the heavy ion mode of the LHC to anomalous Higgs boson couplings to photons, H-photon-photon, through the analysis of the processes photon photon to b anti-b and photon photon to photon photon in peripheral heavy ion collisions. We suggest cuts to improve the signal over background ratio and determine the capability of LHC to impose bounds on anomalous couplings by searching for a Higgs boson signal in these modes.
We determine the critical coupling constant above which dynamical chiral symmetry breaking occurs in a class of QCD motivated models where the gluon propagator has an enhanced infrared behavior. Using methods of bifurcation theory we find that the critical value of the coupling constant is always smaller than the one obtained for QCD.
Using the expression of the dynamical gluon mass obtained through the operator product expansion we discuss the relevance of gluon mass effects in the decays V -> hadrons (V = J/Psi, Upsilon). Relativistic and radiative corrections are also introduced to calculate alpha_s(m_c) and alpha_s(m_b) comparing them with other values available in the literature. The effects of dynamical gluon masses are negligible for Upsilon decay but important for J/Psi decay.
We estimate the cross sections for the production of resonances, pion pairs and a central cluster of hadrons in peripheral heavy-ion collisions through two-photon and double-pomeron exchange, at energies that will be available at RHIC and LHC. The effect of the impact parameter in the diffractive reactions is introduced, and imposing the condition for realistic peripheral collisions we verify that in the case of very heavy ions the pomeron-pomeron contribution is indeed smaller than the electromagnetic one. However, they give a non-negligible background in the collision of light ions. This diffractive background will be more important at RHIC than at LHC.
Using the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis effective potential for composite operators we compute the QCD vacuum energy as a function of the dynamical quark and gluon propagators, which are related to their respective condensates as predicted by the operator product expansion. The identification of this result to the vacuum energy obtained from the trace of the energy-momentum tensor allow us to study the gluon self-energy, verifying that it is fairly represented in the ultraviolet by the asymptotic behavior predicted by the operator product expansion, and in the infrared it is frozen at its asymptotic value at one scale of the order of the dynamical gluon mass. We also discuss the implications of this identity for heavy and light quarks. For heavy quarks we recover, through the vacuum energy calculation, the relation $m_{f} <{\bar{ψ_f}}ψ_f> \sim - {1/12} \gc$ obtained many years ago with QCD sum rules.
We discuss how the vacuum model of Celenza and Shakin with a squeezed gluon condensate can explain the existence of an infrared singular gluon propagator frequently used in calculations within the global colour model. In particular, it reproduces a recently proposed QCD-motivated model where low energy chiral parameters were computed as a function of a dynamically generated gluon mass. We show how the strength of the confining interaction of this gluon propagator and the value of the physical gluon condensate may be connected.
We show that if a gauge theory with dynamical symmetry breaking has non-trivial fixed points, they will correspond to extrema of the vacuum energy. This relationship provides a different method to determine fixed points.
Nonperturbative infrared finite solutions for the gluon polarization tensor have been found, and the possibility that gluons may have a dynamically generated mass is supported by recent Monte Carlo simulation on the lattice. These solutions differ among themselves, due to different approximations performed when solving the Schwinger-Dyson equations for the gluon polarization tensor. Only approximations that minimize energy are meaningful, and, according to this, we compute an effective potential for composite operators as a function of these solutions in order to distinguish which one is selected by the vacuum.
It is known that the short distance QCD contribution to the mass difference of pions is quadratic on the quark masses, and irrelevant with respect to the long distance part. It is also considered in the literature that its calculation contain infinities, which should be absorbed by the quark mass renormalization. Following a prescription by Craigie, Narison and Riazuddin, of a renormalization group improved perturbation theory to deal with the electromagnetic mass shift problem in QCD, we show that the short distance QCD contribution to the electroweak pion mass difference (with $m_u=m_d\neq0$) is finite and, of course, its value is negligible compared to other contributions.
We compute the critical coupling constant for the dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking in a model of quantum chromodynamics, solving numerically the quark self-energy using infrared finite gluon propagators found as solutions of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon, and one gluon propagator determined in numerical lattice simulations. The gluon mass scale screens the force responsible for the chiral breaking, and the transition occurs only for a larger critical coupling constant than the one obtained with the perturbative propagator. The critical coupling shows a great sensibility to the gluon mass scale variation, as well as to the functional form of the gluon propagator.
The phenomenology of a QCD-Pomeron model based on the exchange of a pair of non-perturbative gluons, i.e. gluon fields with a finite correlation length in the vacuum, is studied in comparison with the phenomenology of QCD chiral symmetry breaking, based on non-perturbative solutions of Schwinger-Dyson equations for the quark propagator including these non-perturbative gluon effects. We show that these models are incompatible, and point out some possibles origins of this problem.
We estimate the cross-section for glueball production in peripheral heavy-ion collisions through two-photon and double-Pomeron exchange, at energies that will be available at RHIC and LHC. Glueballs will be produced at large rates, opening the possibility to study decays with very small branching ratios. In particular, we discuss the possibility of observing the subprocess $γγ(PP) \rightarrow G \rightarrow γγ$.
We recently proposed a QCD-Pomeron described by the exchange of two non-perturbative gluons characterized by a dynamically generated gluon mass. It is here shown that data on elastic scattering, exclusive $ρ$ production in deep inelastic scattering and the $J/Ψ$-nucleon total cross-section can be successfully described in terms of a single gluon mass $m_g\simeq0.37$~GeV. We observe that the total cross sections of hadrons with small radii, such as $J/Ψ$, have a marked dependence on the effective gluon mass.