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Horst Stoecker

Publications and source records attributed to Horst Stoecker.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Mini Black Holes in the first year of the LHC

The experimental signatures of TeV-mass black hole (BH) formation in heavy ion collisions at the LHC is examined. We find that the black hole production results in a complete disappearance of all very high $p_T$ ({$> 500$} GeV) back-to-back correlated di-jets of total mass {$M > M_f \sim 1$}TeV. We show that the subsequent Hawking-decay produces multiple hard mono-jets and discuss their detection. We study the possibility of cold black hole remnant (BHR) formation of mass $\sim M_f$ and the experimental distinguishability of scenarios with BHRs and those with complete black hole decay. Due to the rather moderate luminosity in the first year of LHC running the least chance for the observation of BHs or BHRs at this early stage will be by ionizing tracks in the ALICE TPC. Finally we point out that stable BHRs would be interesting candidates for energy production by conversion of mass to Hawking radiation.

hep-ph↗

Signatures for Black Hole production from hadronic observables at the Large Hadron Collider

The concept of Large Extra Dimensions (LED) provides a way of solving the Hierarchy Problem which concerns the weakness of gravity compared with the strong and electro-weak forces. A consequence of LED is that miniature Black Holes (mini-BHs) may be produced at the Large Hadron Collider in p+p collisions. The present work uses the CHARYBDIS mini-BH generator code to simulate the hadronic signal which might be expected in a mid-rapidity particle tracking detector from the decay of these exotic objects if indeed they are produced. An estimate is also given for Pb+Pb collisions.

hep-ph↗

Stable TeV - Black Hole Remnants at the LHC: Discovery through Di-Jet Suppression, Mono-Jet Emission and a Supersonic Boom in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

The production of Large Extra Dimension (LXD) Black Holes (BHs), with a new, fundamental mass scale of $M_f = 1$ TeV, has been predicted to occur at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC, with the formidable rate of $10^8$ per year in p-p collisions at full energy, 14 TeV, and at full luminosity. We show that such LXD-BH formation will be experimentally observable at the LHC by the complete disappearance of all very high $p_t$ ($> 500$ GeV) back-to-back correlated Di-Jets of total mass $M > M_f = 1$ TeV. We suggest to complement this clear cut-off signal at $M > 2*500$ GeV in the di-jet-correlation function by detecting the subsequent, Hawking-decay products of the LXD-BHs, namely either multiple high energy ($> 100$ GeV) SM Mono-Jets (i.e. away-side jet missing), sprayed off the evaporating BHs isentropically into all directions or the thermalization of the multiple overlapping Hawking-radiation in a Heckler-Kapusta-Plasma. Microcanonical quantum statistical calculations of the Hawking evaporation process for these LXD-BHs show that cold black hole remnants (BHRs) of Mass $\sim M_f$ remain leftover as the ashes of these spectacular Di-Jet-suppressed events. Strong Di-Jet suppression is also expected with Heavy Ion beams at the LHC, due to Quark-Gluon-Plasma induced jet attenuation at medium to low jet energies, $p_t < 200$ GeV. The (Mono-)Jets in these events can be used to trigger for Tsunami-emission of secondary compressed QCD-matter at well defined Mach-angles, both at the trigger side and at the awayside (missing) jet. The Machshock-angles allow for a direct measurement of both the equation of state EoS and the speed of sound $c_s$ via supersonic bang in the "big bang" matter.

hep-ph↗

Transport model analysis of particle correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions at femtometer scales

The pion source as seen through HBT correlations at RHIC energies is investigated within the UrQMD approach. We find that the calculated transverse momentum, centrality, and system size dependence of the Pratt-HBT radii $R_L$ and $R_S$ are reasonably well in line with experimental data. The predicted $R_O$ values in central heavy ion collisions are larger as compared to experimental data. The corresponding quantity $\sqrt{R_O^{2}-R_S^{2}}$ of the pion emission source is somewhat larger than experimental estimates.

nucl-th↗

Open-charm enhancement at FAIR?

We have calculated the D-meson spectral density at finite temperature within a self-consistent coupled-channel approach that generates dynamically the $Λ_c$ (2593) resonance. We find a small mass shift for the D-meson in this hot and dense medium while the spectral density develops a sizeable width. The reduced attraction felt by the D-meson in hot and dense matter together with the large width observed have important consequences for the D-meson production in the future CBM experiment at FAIR.

nucl-th↗

Probing the symmetry energy and the degree of isospin equilibrium

The rapidity dependence of the single- and double- neutron to proton ratios of nucleon emission from isospin-asymmetric but mass-symmetric reactions Zr+Ru and Ru+Zr at energy range $100 \sim 800$ A MeV and impact parameter range $0\sim 8$ fm is investigated. The reaction system with isospin-asymmetry and mass-symmetry has the advantage of simultaneously showing up the dependence on the symmetry energy and the degree of the isospin equilibrium. We find that the beam energy- and the impact parameter dependence of the slope parameter of the double neutron to proton ratio ($F_D$) as function of rapidity are quite sensitive to the density dependence of symmetry energy, especially at energies $E_b\sim 400$ A MeV and reduced impact parameters around 0.5. Here the symmetry energy effect on the $F_D$ is enhanced, as compared to the single neutron to proton ratio. The degree of the equilibrium with respect to isospin (isospin mixing) in terms of the $F_D$ is addressed and its dependence on the symmetry energy is also discussed.

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Elliptic Flow Analysis at RHIC with the Lee-Yang Zeroes Method in a Relativistic Transport Approach

The Lee-Yang zeroes method is applied to study elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200A$~GeV, with the UrQMD model. In this transport approach, the true event plane is known and both the nonflow effects and event-by-event $v_2$ fluctuations exist. Although the low resolutions prohibit the application of the method for most central and peripheral collisions, the integral and differential elliptic flow from the Lee-Yang zeroes method agrees with the exact $v_2$ values very well for semi-central collisions.

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Medium modifications of the nucleon-nucleon elastic cross section in neutron-rich intermediate energy HICs

Several observables of unbound nucleons which are to some extent sensitive to the medium modifications of nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections in neutron-rich intermediate energy heavy ion collisions are investigated. The splitting effect of neutron and proton effective masses on cross sections is discussed. It is found that the transverse flow as a function of rapidity, the $Q_{zz}$ as a function of momentum, and the ratio of halfwidths of the transverse to that of longitudinal rapidity distribution $R_{t/l}$ are very sensitive to the medium modifications of the cross sections. The transverse momentum distribution of correlation functions of two-nucleons does not yield information on the in-medium cross section.

nucl-th↗

Elliptic Flow Analysis at RHIC: Fluctuations vs. Non-Flow Effects

The cumulant method is applied to study elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$AGeV, with the UrQMD model. In this approach, the true event plane is known and both the non-flow effects and event-by-event spatial ($ε$) and $v_2$ fluctuations exist. Qualitatively, the hierarchy of $v_2$'s from two, four and six-particle cumulants is consistent with the STAR data, however, the magnitude of $v_2$ in the UrQMD model is only 60% of the data. We find that the four and six-particle cumulants are good measures of the real elliptic flow over a wide range of centralities except for the most central and very peripheral events. There the cumulant method is affected by the $v_2$ fluctuations. In mid-central collisions, the four and six-particle cumulants are shown to give a good estimation of the true differential $v_2$, especially at large transverse momentum, where the two-particle cumulant method is heavily affected by the non-flow effects.

nucl-th↗

Probing the equation of state with pions

The influence of the isospin-independent, isospin- and momentum-dependent equation of state (EoS), as well as the Coulomb interaction on the pion production in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions (HICs) is studied for both isospin-symmetric and neutron-rich systems. The Coulomb interaction plays an important role in the reaction dynamics, and strongly influences the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of charged pions. It even leads to the $π^-/π^+$ ratio deviating slightly from unity for isospin-{\it symmetric} systems. The Coulomb interaction between mesons and baryons is also crucial for reproducing the proper pion flow since it changes the behavior of the directed and the elliptic flow components of pions visibly. The EoS can be better investigated in neutron-rich system if {\it multiple} probes are measured simultaneously. For example, the rapidity and the transverse momentum distributions of the charged pions, the $π^-/π^+$ ratio, the various pion flow components, as well as the {\it difference} of $π^+$-$π^-$ flows. A new sensitive observable is proposed to probe the symmetry potential energy at high densities, namely the transverse momentum distribution of the elliptic flow difference [$Δv_2^{π^+ - π^-}(p_t^{\rm c.m.})$].

nucl-th↗

Event-by-Event Analysis of Baryon-Strangeness Correlations: Pinning Down the Critical Temperature and Volume of QGP Formation

The recently proposed baryon-strangeness correlation (C_BS) is studied with a string-hadronic transport model (UrQMD) for various energies from E_lab=4 AGeV to \sqrt s=200 AGeV. It is shown that rescattering among secondaries can not mimic the predicted correlation pattern expected for a Quark-Gluon-Plasma. However, we find a strong increase of the C_BS correlation function with decreasing collision energy both for pp and Au+Au/Pb+Pb reactions. For Au+Au reactions at the top RHIC energy (\sqrt s=200 AGeV), the C_BS correlation is constant for all centralities and compatible with the pp result. With increasing width of the rapidity window, C_BS follows roughly the shape of the baryon rapidity distribution. We suggest to study the energy and centrality dependence of C_BS which allow to gain information on the onset of the deconfinement transition in temperature and volume.

hep-ph↗

Summary of theoretical contributions

Results from various theoretical approaches and ideas presented at this exciting meeting are reviewed. I also point towards future directions, in particular hydrodynamic behaviour induced by jets traveling through the quark-gluon plasma, which might be worth looking at in more detail.

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Collective Flow signals the Quark Gluon Plasma

A critical discussion of the present status of the CERN experiments on charm dynamics and hadron collective flow is given. We emphasize the importance of the flow excitation function from 1 to 50 A$\cdot$GeV: here the hydrodynamic model has predicted the collapse of the $v_1$-flow and of the $v_2$-flow at $\sim 10$ A$\cdot$GeV; at 40 A$\cdot$GeV it has been recently observed by the NA49 collaboration. Since hadronic rescattering models predict much larger flow than observed at this energy we interpret this observation as potential evidence for a first order phase transition at high baryon density $ρ_B$. A detailed discussion of the collective flow as a barometer for the equation of state (EoS) of hot dense matter at RHIC follows. Additionally, detailed transport studies show that the away-side jet suppression can only partially ($<$ 50%) be due to hadronic rescattering. We, finally, propose upgrades and second generation experiments at RHIC which inspect the first order phase transition in the fragmentation region, i.e. at $μ_B \approx 400$ MeV ($y \approx 4-5$), where the collapse of the proton flow should be seen in analogy to the 40 A$\cdot$GeV data. The study of Jet-Wake-riding potentials and Bow shocks -- caused by jets in the QGP formed at RHIC -- can give further information on the equation of state (EoS) and transport coefficients of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).

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Model Dependence of Lateral Distribution Functions of High Energy Cosmic Ray Air Showers

The influence of high and low energy hadronic models on lateral distribution functions of cosmic ray air showers for AUGER energies is explored. A large variety of presently used high and low energy hadron interaction models are analysed and the resulting lateral distribution functions are compared. We show that the slope as well as the signal at 1000 m distance from the shower axis depend on both the high and low energy hadronic model used. The models are confronted with available hadron-nucleus data from accelerator experiments.

astro-ph↗

A Fast Hybrid Approach to Air Shower Simulations and Applications

The SENECA model, a new hybrid approach to air shower simulations, is presented. It combines the use of efficient cascade equations in the energy range where a shower can be treated as one-dimensional, with a traditional Monte Carlo method which traces individual particles. This allows one to reproduce natural fluctuations of individual showers as well as the lateral spread of low energy particles. The model is quite efficient in computation time. As an application of the new approach, the influence of the low energy hadronic models on shower properties for AUGER energies is studied. We conclude that these models have a significant impact on the tails of lateral distribution functions, and deserve therefore more attention.

astro-ph↗

In-medium vector meson properties and low-mass dilepton production from hot hadronic matter

The in-medium properties of the vector mesons are known to be modified significantly in hot and dense hadronic matter due to vacuum polarisation effects from the baryon sector in the Walecka model. The vector meson mass drops significantly in the medium due to the effects of the Dirac sea. In the variational approach adopted in the present paper, these effects are taken into account through a realignment of the ground state with baryon condensates. Such a realignment of the ground state becomes equivalent to summing of the baryonic tadpole diagrams in the relativistic Hartree approximation (RHA). The approximation scheme adopted here goes beyond RHA to include quantum effects from the scalar meson and is nonperturbative and self--consistent. It includes multiloop effects, thus corresponding to a different approximation as compared to the one loop approximation of including scalar field quantum corrections. In the present work, we study the properties of the vector mesons in the hot and dense matter as modified due to such quantum correction effects from the baryon as well as scalar meson sectors. These medium modifications of the properties of the vector mesons are reflected, through the shifting and broadening of the respective peaks, in the low mass dilepton spectra. There is broadening of the peaks due to corrections from scalar meson quantum effects as compared to the relativistic Hartree approximation. It is seen to be rather prominent for the $ω$ meson in the invariant mass plot.

nucl-th↗

Quasi Stable Black Holes at the Large Hadron Collider

We adress the production of black holes at LHC and their time evolution in space times with compactified space like extra dimensions. It is shown that black holes with life times of hundred fm/c can be produced at LHC. The possibility of quasi-stable remnants is discussed.

hep-ph↗