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C. Gale

Publications and source records attributed to C. Gale.

102 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv1998

Intermediate-mass dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions at 200A GeV

Through the analysis of HELIOS-3 data obtained at the CERN SPS, we demonstrate the importance of secondary processes for dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions in the intermediate invariant mass region. We find that while the dilepton spectra between 1 to 2.5 GeV from proton-induced reactions can be attributed to the decay of primary vector mesons, charmed hadrons, and initial Drell-Yan processes; the strong enhancement seen in the heavy-ion data as compared to the background comes mainly from the secondary processes which are germane to heavy-ion collisions. Furthermore, we find $πa_1\to l{\bar l}$ to be the most important process in this mass region, as was found by thermal rate calculations. We emphasize the constraints on the elementary cross sections by the experimental data from $e^+e^-$ annihilation.

nucl-th↗
arXiv1997

Intermediate mass dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies

Through the analysis of HELIOS-3 data on dilepton spectra, we demonstrate the importance of secondary processes for the dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions in the intermediate mass region. We find that, while the dilepton spectra in proton-induced reactions can be nicely explained by the decay of primary vector mesons, charmed hadrons, and initial Drell-Yan processes, the strong enhancement seen in the heavy-ion data comes mainly from the secondary meson-meson interactions which are unique to heavy-ion collisions.

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arXiv1997

Electromagnetic Probes of Dense Matter in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Dilepton and photon production in heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies is studied in the relativistic transport model that incorporates self-consistently the change of hadron masses in dense matter. It is found that the dilepton spectra in proton-nucleus reactions can be well described by the conventional mechanisms of Dalitz decay, primary vector meson decay, decay of charmed mesons, and the initial Drell-Yan processes. However, to provide a quantitative explanation of the observed dilepton spectra in central heavy-ion collisions requires contributions other than these direct decays and also various medium effects. Introducing a decrease of vector meson masses in hot dense medium, we find that the low-mass dilepton enhancement can be satisfactorily explained. Furthermore, to explain the intermediate-mass dilepton enhancement in heavy-ion collisions, secondary processes such as $πa_1\to l{\bar l}$ are found to be very important. Finally, the single photon spectra in our calculations with either free or in-medium meson masses do not exceed the upper limit measured by the WA80 Collaboration.

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arXiv1996

Links Between Different Models for Multifragmentation

We establish links between three different models for multifragmentation: the percolation model, the lattice gas model and the statistical multifragmentation model. There are remarkable similarities between the lattice gas model and the statistical multifragmentation model. For completeness, we also compare with a model based upon classical molecular dynamics which gives rather different results.

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arXiv1996

Dileptons from bremsstrahlung: going beyond the soft photon approximation

The traditional calculation of dilepton yields from bremsstrahlung relies on the assumption that electromagnetic and strong processes factorize. We argue that this assumption, embodied by the soft photon approximation, cannot hold true for invariant mass spectra on very general grounds. Deriving a formula for the dilepton cross section for pion-pion scattering that does not rely on such factorization, we formulate the problem exactly in terms of three-particle phase space invariants. Using a simple one boson exchange model for comparison, we find that dilepton cross sections and yields are generally overestimated by the soft photon approximation by factors 2--8. In extreme cases, overestimation up to a factor 40 is possible.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1995

Dilepton bremsstrahlung from pion-pion scattering in a relativistic OBE model

We have made a detailed and quantitative study of dilepton production via bremsstrahlung of a virtual photon during pion-pion collisions. Most calculations of electromagnetic radiation from strong interaction processes rely on the soft photon approximation (SPA). The conditions underlying this approximation are generally violated when dilepton spectra are calculated in terms of their invariant mass, so that an approach going beyond the SPA becomes necessary. Superseding previous derivations, we derive an exact formula for the bremsstrahlung cross section. The resulting formulation is compared to various forms based on the SPA, the two-particle phase space approximation and Rückl's formula using a relativistic One Boson Exchange (OBE) model. Within the OBE approach, we show that approximations to the bremsstrahlung dilepton cross sections often differ greatly from the exact result; discrepancies become greater both with rising temperature and with invariant mass. Integrated dilepton production rates are overestimated by Rückl-based approximations by factors 1.5--8.0. The largest discrepancies occur for the reaction $π^+π^+ \to π^+π^+\ell^+\ell^-$, where such approximations overestimate the exact rate by factors ranging from 2 to 30 for invariant masses between 10 and 500 MeV. Our findings, combined with recent estimates of the Landau-Pomeranchuk effect, indicate that bremsstrahlung dileptons rates in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions should be even more suppressed than had been thought before.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1995

Neutrons from multiplicity-selected Au-Au collisions at 150, 250, 400, and 650 AMeV

We measured neutron triple-differential cross sections from multiplicity-selected Au-Au collisions at 150, 250, 400, and 650 \AMeV. The reaction plane for each collision was estimated from the summed transverse velocity vector of the charged fragments emitted in the collision. We examined the azimuthal distribution of the triple-differential cross sections as a function of the polar angle and the neutron rapidity. We extracted the average in--plane transverse momentum $\langle P_x\rangle$ and the normalized observable $\langle P_x/P_\perp\rangle$, where $P_\perp$ is the neutron transverse momentum, as a function of the neutron center-of-mass rapidity, and we examined the dependence of these observables on beam energy. These collective flow observables for neutrons, which are consistent with those of protons plus bound nucleons from the Plastic Ball Group, agree with the Boltzmann--Uehling--Uhlenbeck (BUU) calculations with a momentum--dependent interaction. Also, we calculated the polar-angle-integrated maximum azimuthal anisotropy ratio R from the value of $\langle P_x/P_\perp\rangle$.

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arXiv1994

On the $M_T$ scaling of dilepton spectra in high energy heavy ion collisions

The so-called $M_T$ scaling for dilepton spectra at RHIC energies is examined. It is seen that a proper accounting of the complete set of dilepton producing processes forces us to abandon the proposed scaling around $M_T$ = 2.6 GeV, which has been put forward as a possible signature of the presence of quark-matter. Any substantial transverse expansion in the QGP phase itself will also offset this scaling behaviour. The rates of lepton pair production are time--integrated in Bjorken hydrodynamics and the different sources are compared against each other.

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arXiv1993

Maximum Azimuthal Anisotropy of Neutrons from Nb-Nb Collisions at 400 AMeV and the Nuclear Equation of State

We measured the first azimuthal distributions of triple--differential cross sections of neutrons emitted in heavy-ion collisions, and compared their maximum azimuthal anisotropy ratios with Boltzmann--Uehling--Uhlenbeck (BUU) calculations with a momentum-dependent interaction. The BUU calculations agree with the triple- and double-differential cross sections for positive rapidity neutrons emitted at polar angles from 7 to 27 degrees; however, the maximum azimuthal anisotropy ratio for these free neutrons is insensitive to the size of the nuclear incompressibility modulus K characterizing the nuclear matter equation of state.

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arXiv1992

Soft dilepton production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Production of electron-positron pairs with invariant masses less than 300 MeV from thermalized hadronic matter in relativistic heavy ion collisions is calculated using a soft virtual photon approximation. The general theoretical framework is reviewed and extended to include arbitrarily massed and charged reaction partners, which we apply to pions and quarks. This result, exact within the soft photon approximation, is compared with a widely used approximate result which uses an electromagnetic amplitude limited in validity to momentum transfers less than $4m_{π(q)}^{2}$. A comparison is made between the rate of production of zero total momentum soft dileptons obtained using resummation techniques in QCD perturbation theory to that which we calculate using this soft photon approximation.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1992

Virtual bremsstrahlung from pions and quarks in thermalized hadronic matter

A soft photon approximation is used to calculate the rates of lepton pair production through virtual bremsstrahlung from both pions and quarks. Standard assumptions about the evolution of a nuclear system under collision allow pion and quark driven total production to be calculated. Comparisons are made with Dalitz decay of light mesons. These mechanisms are expected to be significant contributors to the soft dilepton mass spectra one might observe in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies.

hep-ph↗