Hard Probes at LHC
This talk gives a theoretical perspective of the physics issues awaiting us when heavy ions will collide in the LHC.
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arXiv subjects
Berndt Müller
Publications and source records attributed to Berndt Müller.
Mass and Width of the Rho Meson in a Nuclear Medium from Brown-Rho Scaling and QCD Sum Rules
We explore the range of values of the in-medium width of a $ρ$-meson at rest which is compatibale with the QCD sum rule approach in a nuclear medium assuming vector meson dominance and a Brown-Rho scaling law of the $ρ$-meson mass with the chiral condensate. The lower and upper bounds for the in-medium width are found to be strongly increasing with the decreasing mass of the $ρ$-meson (increasing nuclear density). We also study the bounds for the in-medium width in models not satisfying the Brown-Rho scaling law. It is shown that the in-medium width depends on how rapidly the mass decreases in comparison to the change of the quark condensate. The bounds for the in-medium width increase with density only if the relative change of the quark condensate is stronger than the relative decrease in mass. This is important for experimental tests of the Brown-Rho scaling paradigm and other dropping $ρ$-mass scenarios.
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Quark Matter 2005 -- Theoretical Summary
This is a review of the latest developments in the theory of superdense nuclear matter, formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions or in the core of collapsed stars, as they were reported and discussed at the Quark Matter 2005 conference in Budapest (Hungary).
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A Colorful Wake for Gerhard Soff
We calculate the wake induced in a hot QCD plasma by a fast parton in the framework of linear response theory. We discuss two scenarios: ($i$) a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma described by hard-thermal loop perturbation theory and ($ii$) a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma which resembles a quantum liquid. We show that a Mach cone can appear in the second scenario, but not in the first one
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Adventures of the Coupled Yang-Mills Oscillators: I. Semiclassical Expansion
We study the quantum mechanical motion in the $x^2y^2$ potentials with $n=2,3$, which arise in the spatially homogeneous limit of the Yang-Mills (YM) equations. These systems show strong stochasticity in the classical limit ($\hbar = 0$) and exhibit a quantum mechanical confinement feature. We calculate the partition function $Z(t)$ going beyond the Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation by means of the semiclassical expansion using the Wigner-Kirkwood (WK) method. We derive a novel compact form of the differential equation for the WK function. After separating the motion in the channels of the equipotential surface from the motion in the central region, we show that the leading higher-order corrections to the TF term vanish up to eighth order in $\hbar$, if we treat the quantum motion in the hyperbolic channels correctly by adiabatic separation of the degrees of freedom. Finally, we obtain an asymptotic expansion of the partition function in terms of the parameter $g^2\hbar^4t^3$.
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Adventures of the Coupled Yang-Mills Oscillators: II. YM-Higgs Quantum Mechanics
We continue our study of the quantum mechanical motion in the $x^2y^2$ potentials for $n=2,3$, which arise in the spatially homogeneous limit of the Yang-Mills (YM) equations. In the present paper, we develop a new approach to the calculation of the partition function $Z(t)$ beyond the Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation by adding a harmonic (Higgs) potential and taking the limit $v\to 0$, where $v$ is the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field. Using the Wigner-Kirkwood method to calculate higher-order corrections in $\hbar$, we show that the limit $v\to 0$ leads to power-like singularities of the type $v^{-n}$, which reflect the possibility of escape of the particle along the channels in the classical limit. We show how these singularities can be eliminated by taking into account the quantum fluctuations dictated by the form of the potential.
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Heavy Ions -- Prospects at the LHC
This is a review of the physics prospects for relativistic heavy ion collisions in the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The motivation for the study of superdense matter created in relativistic heavy ion collision is the prospect of observing a novel state of strongly interacting matter, the quark-gluon plasma. Experiments at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven have yielded important clues of the characteristic signatures of this new state. The LHC will extend the range of energy densities that can be explored and facilitate the observation of plentiful hard probes (jets, heavy quarks) of the properties of the dense matter.
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Intensity interferometry of direct photons emitted in Au+Au collisions
We calculate the two-body correlation function of direct photons produced in Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Our calculation includes contributions from the early pre-equilibrium phase in which photons are produced via hard parton scatterings as well as radiation of photons from a thermalized Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) and the subsequent expanding hadron gas. We find that high energy photon intensity interferometry provides a faithful probe of the details of the space-time evolution and of the early reaction stages of the system.
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Studies of parton thermalization at RHIC
We consider the evolution of a parton system which is formed in the central region just after a relativistic heavy ion collision. The parton consist of mostly gluons, minijets, which are produced by elastic scattering between constituent partons of the colliding nuclei. We assume the system can be described by a semi-classical Boltzmann transport equation, which we solve by means of the test particle Monte-Carlo method including retardation. The partons proliferate via secondary radiative $gg \to ggg$ processes until the thermalization is reached for some assumptions. The extended system is thermalized at about $t=1.6$ fm/$c$ with $T = 570$ MeV and stays in equilibrium for about 2 fm/$c$ with breaking temperature $T = 360$ MeV in the rapidity central region.
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Entropy Production in High Energy Processes
We calculate the entropy produced in the decoherence of a classical field configuration and compare it with the entropy of a fully thermalized state with the same energy. We find that decoherence alone accounts for a large fraction of the equilibrium entropy when each field mode is only moderately occupied. We apply this to theories of relativistic heavy ion collisions, which describe the initial state as a collection of coherent color fields. Our results suggest that decoherence may partly explain the rapid formation of a high entropy state in these collisions.
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Transverse momentum distribution of net baryon number at RHIC
We calculate the transverse momentum distribution of net quarks (quarks minus antiquarks) in Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in the framework of the parton cascade model at two different rapidities. Parton re-scattering and fragmentation is seen to lead to a substantial difference in the slopes of these distributions between mid- and forward-rapidities, in qualitative agreement with the corresponding data for the net baryon distribution.
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Net baryon density in Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
We calculate the net baryon rapidity distribution in Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the framework of the Parton Cascade Model (PCM). Parton rescattering and fragmentation leads to a substantial increase in the net baryon density at mid-rapidity over the density produced by initial primary parton-parton scatterings. The PCM is able to describe the measured net baryon density at RHIC.
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Phenomenology of Jet Quenching in Heavy Ion Collisions
We derive an analytical expression for the quenching factor in the strong quenching limit where the $p_T$ spectrum of hard partons is dominated by surface emission. We explore the phenomenological consequences of different scaling laws for the energy loss and calculate the additional suppression of the away-side jet.
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Light from Cascading Partons in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
We calculate the production of high energy photons from Compton and annihilation processes as well as fragmentation off quarks in the parton cascade model. The multiple scattering of partons is seen to lead to a substantial production of high energy photons, which rises further when parton multiplication due to final state radiation is included. The photon yield is found to be proportional to the number of collisions among the cascading partons.
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Semi-hard scattering of partons at SPS and RHIC: A study in contrast
We analyze the contribution of pQCD based semi-hard parton (re)scattering to the reaction dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at SPS and RHIC. While such processes are able to account for the measured yield of high momentum direct photons at SPS energies, the conditions necessary for jet-quenching are not fulfilled. The situation changes dramatically at RHIC energies.
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A relativistic parton cascade with radiation
We consider the evolution of a parton system which is formed at the central rapidity region just after an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. The evolution of the system, which is composed of gluons, quarks and antiquarks, is described by a relativistic Boltzmann equations with collision terms including radiation and retardation effects. The equations are solved by the test particle method using Monte-Carlo sampling. Our simulations do not show any evidence of kinetic equilibration, unless the cross sections are artificially increased to unrealistically large values.
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Statistical Fluctuations as Probes of Dense Matter
The use of statistical fluctuations as probes of the microscopic dynamics of hot and dense hadronic matter is reviewed. Critical fluctuations near the critical point of QCD matter are predicted to enhance fluctuations in pionic observables. Chemical fluctuations, especially those of locally conserved quantum numbers, such as electric charge and baryon number, can probe the nature of the carriers of these quantum numbers in the dense medium.
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The Anthropic Principle Revisited
The usage of the anthropic principle in modern cosmology is reviewed. It is argued that its recent use to explain the observedvalues of cosmological parameters as most probable values for an ensemble of universes, is not justified. However, the anthropic principle can be invoked to argue that a vast number of universes must exist, in which the cosmological parameters and constants of nature take on different values. This argument lends support to the hypothesis of eternal inflation and suggests that at least some of the parameters of the Standard Model cannot be quantitatively derived from an underlying theory.
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