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Elena G. Ferreiro

Publications and source records attributed to Elena G. Ferreiro.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Lindblad-driven quarkonium production in heavy-ion collisions

We study the production of the conventional quarkonium states in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions using an open quantum system framework based on the Lindblad equation. Starting from the complex-valued in-medium potential, we derive the dissociation temperature and thermal decay width for each state, and compute their survival probabilities for a system undergoing Bjorken expansion. We then extend the framework to include recombination from thermalized charm and bottom quarks in the quark-gluon plasma, deriving a coalescence model for quarkonia from the Lindblad equation under the adiabatic approximation. The methodology provides a unified, first-principles-inspired description of suppression and recombination for both charmonium and bottomonium.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2026

Lindblad-driven recombination of the X(3872) tetraquark

The internal structure of the exotic meson X(3872) remains an open question. We investigate its production in heavy-ion collisions under the hypothesis that it is a compact tetraquark. To this end, we derive a coalescence model from the Lindblad equation, assuming that unbound heavy quarks are thermalized within the quark-gluon plasma and that the adiabatic approximation holds. Using this model, we predict the nuclear modification factor of the X(3872) at LHC energies, with proton-proton baseline cross sections estimated from available experimental data. We also consider the effect of simplifying assumptions on the model, and a complementary approach based on chemical equilibration. Our results indicate that recombination is the dominant production mechanism for a tetraquark X(3872). It leads to a significant yield enhancement in heavy-ion collisions, suggesting that the nuclear modification factor is a powerful observable for probing the exotic nature of this state

hep-ph↗
arXiv2025

A potential approach to the $X(3872)$ thermal behavior

We study the potential of $X(3872)$ at finite temperature in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation under the assumption that it is a tetraquark. We argue that, at large number of colors, it is a good approximation to assume that the potential consists in a real part plus a constant imaginary term. The real part is then computed adapting an approach by Rothkopf and Lafferty and using as input lattice QCD determinations of the potential for hybrids. This model allows us to qualitatively estimate at which temperature range the formation of a heavy tetraquark is possible, and to propose a qualitative picture for the dissociation of the state in a medium. Our approach can be applied to other suggested internal structures for the $X(3872)$ and to other exotic states.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

Predictions for the sPHENIX physics program

sPHENIX is a next-generation detector experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, designed for a broad set of jet and heavy-flavor probes of the Quark-Gluon Plasma created in heavy ion collisions. In anticipation of the commissioning and first data-taking of the detector in 2023, a RIKEN-BNL Research Center (RBRC) workshop was organized to collect theoretical input and identify compelling aspects of the physics program. This paper compiles theoretical predictions from the workshop participants for jet quenching, heavy flavor and quarkonia, cold QCD, and bulk physics measurements at sPHENIX.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2022

A simple model to include initial-state and hot-medium effects in the computation of quarkonium nuclear modification factor

Quarkonium suppression is one of the more useful observables to obtain information about the hot medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this manuscript, we discuss a simple way to implement both the initial-state effects and the hot-medium evolution, and to compute the quarkonium nuclear modification factor if the survival probability for a bound state at a given energy density is known. Based on the Glauber model, the temperature of the evolving medium and the centrality dependence of the nuclear modification factor will be analysed.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

Prospects for quarkonium studies at the high-luminosity LHC

Prospects for quarkonium-production studies accessible during the upcoming high-luminosity phases of the CERN Large Hadron Collider operation after 2021 are reviewed. Current experimental and theoretical open issues in the field are assessed together with the potential for future studies in quarkonium-related physics. This will be possible through the exploitation of the huge data samples to be collected in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, both in the collider and fixed-target modes. Such investigations include, among others, those of: (i) J/psi and Upsilon produced in association with other hard particles; (ii) chi(c,b) and eta(c,b) down to small transverse momenta; (iii) the constraints brought in by quarkonia on gluon PDFs, nuclear PDFs, TMDs, GPDs and GTMDs, as well as on the low-x parton dynamics; (iv) the gluon Sivers effect in polarised-nucleon collisions; (v) the properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions and of collective partonic effects in general; and (vi) double and triple parton scatterings.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

The nature of $X(3872)$ from high-multiplicity $pp$ collisions

The structure of exotic resonances that do not trivially fit the usual quark model expectations has been a matter of intense scientific debate during the last two decades. A possible way of estimating the size of these states is to study their behavior when immersed in QCD matter. Recently, LHCb has measured the relative abundance of the exotic $X(3872)$ over the ordinary $ψ(2S)$. We use the comover interaction model to study the yield of a compact $X(3872)$. To confirm the reliability of the model in high-multiplicity $pp$ collisions, we describe the suppression of excited over ground $Υ$ states. With this at hand, we show that the size of the compact $X(3872)$ would be slightly larger than that of the $ψ(2S)$. If the $X(3872)$ is instead assumed to be a meson molecule of large size, we argue that its evolution in QCD matter should be described via a coalescence model, as suggested by data on deuteron production. We show that the predictions of this model for the $X(3872)$ are in contrast with data.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2018

Global description of bottomonium suppression in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies

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 bottomonium feed-down pattern and our comprehension on the modification of the nuclear parton distribution functions in proton-nucleus collisions. We present our results for $p$Pb collisions at 5.02 and 8.16 TeV and for PbPb collisions at 2.76 and 5.02 TeV.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2018

Quarkonium: a theory overview

Quarkonium has long been proposed as one of the golden probes to identify the phase transition from confined hadronic matter to the deconfined quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions. Since then, we have achieved a better understanding, not only about the propagation of quarkonium in-medium, but also about its production. Recent theoretical developments in our comprehension of the quarkonium production mechanism in proton-proton collisions and on the propagation of quarkonia in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions are reviewed and discussed.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2018

Is bottomonium suppression in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies due to the same effects?

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 found to be the same for proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as for partonic and hadronic comovers. Moreover, we can also reproduce the {\it absolute} suppresion rates measured by ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb when the nuclear modifications of the parton densities are taken into account.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Cold Nuclear Matter effects in Upsilon production in dAu collisions at RHIC

We report on our recent study of Cold Nuclear Matter effects on the Upsilon production at RHIC in dAu collisions. The first experimental results available on the nuclear modification factor R_dAu have rather large uncertainties. They nevertheless allow to bring qualitative information on the nature of the nuclear effects at play on top of the usual nuclear absorption, since the latter is expected to lie in a quite small range around a value close to ten times smaller as for charmonia. At backward rapidities, the behavior of R_dAu hints at the presence of a gluon EMC effect, analogous to the quark EMC effect -- but possibly stronger. Mid rapidity measurements with a better precision are highly desirable to pin down the gluon anti-shadowing, still under debate. At forward rapidities, the data leave some room for an additional fractional energy loss mechanism, recently revived in the literature.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Large transverse momentum suppression at RHIC: Shadowing and absorption

We propose a model of suppression of $π^0$'s based on two different effects: at low $p_T$ we take into account the shadowing corrections, which are non-linear and essential for the description of the inclusive spectra, while at large $p_T$ the suppression is produced through the interaction of the large $p_T$ pion with the dense medium created in the collision. The main features of the data on $AuAu$ and $dAu$ collisions at RHIC energies are reproduced both at mid and at forward rapidities.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2004

Saturation: Colour Glass Condensate and colour sources

In the recent years we have seen a lot of activity around systems and experiments, like DIS at HERA or the heavy-ion experiments at RHIC, involving a large number of partons due to the high enery and/or the high number of participants of those experiments. The main problem in this regime is that of the high parton densities. In fact, in most of the models of multiparticle production, two contributions to the multiplicity are considered: one proportional to the number of participant nucleons, $N_{part}$, and a second one proportional to the number of collisions, $N_{part}^{4/3}$. In order to get the right multiplicities at RHIC it is necessary to lower the second contribution. A possible mechanism for this is the saturation. Here, I am going to review the saturation of parton densities in the initial state, in two different frameworks: the Colour Glass Condensate %(CGC) and the string clustering.

hep-ph↗