Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Raju Venugopalan

Publications and source records attributed to Raju Venugopalan.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

Universal off-equilibrium scaling of critical cumulants in the QCD phase diagram

Exploiting the universality between the QCD critical point and the three dimensional Ising model, closed form expressions derived (arXiv:1506.00645 ) for non-equilibrium critical cumulants on the crossover side of the critical point reveal that they can differ both in magnitude and sign from equilibrium expectations. We demonstrate here that key elements of the Kibble-Zurek framework of non-equilibrium phase transitions can be employed to describe the dynamics of these critical cumulants. Our results suggest that observables sensitive to critical dynamics in heavy-ion collisions should be expressible as universal scaling functions, thereby providing powerful model independent guidance in searches for the QCD critical point.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Mass ordering of spectra from fragmentation of saturated gluon states in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions

The mass ordering of mean transverse momentum $\left $ and of the Fourier harmonic coefficient $v_2 (p_T)$ of azimuthally anisotropic particle distributions in high energy hadron collisions is often interpreted as evidence for the hydrodynamic flow of the matter produced. We investigate an alternative initial state interpretation of this pattern in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The QCD Yang-Mills equations describing the dynamics of saturated gluons are solved numerically with initial conditions obtained from the Color Glass Condensate based IP-Glasma model. The gluons are subsequently fragmented into various hadron species employing the well established Lund string fragmentation algorithm of the PYTHIA event generator. We find that this ab initio initial state approach reproduces characteristic features of bulk spectra, in particular the particle mass dependence of $\left $ and $v_2 (p_T)$.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Energy dependence of the ridge in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions

We demonstrate that the recent measurement of azimuthally collimated, long range rapidity ("ridge") correlations in $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton (p+p) collisions by the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC are in agreement with expectations from the color glass condensate effective theory of high energy QCD. The observation that the integrated near side yield as a function of multiplicity is independent of collision energy is a natural consequence of the fact that multiparticle production is driven by a single semi-hard saturation scale in the color glass condensate framework. We argue further that the azimuthal structure of these recent ATLAS ridge measurements strongly constrain hydrodynamic interpretations of such correlations in high multiplicity p+p collisions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Probing short-range nucleon-nucleon interactions with an Electron-Ion Collider

We derive the cross-section for exclusive vector meson production in high energy deeply inelastic scattering off a deuteron target that disintegrates into a proton and a neutron carrying large relative momentum in the final state. This cross-section can be expressed in terms of a novel gluon Transition Generalized Parton Distribution (T-GPD); the hard scale in the final state makes the T-GPD sensitive to the short distance nucleon-nucleon interaction. We perform a toy model computation of this process in a perturbative framework and discuss the time scales that allow the separation of initial and final state dynamics in the T-GPD. We outline the more general computation based on the factorization suggested by the toy computation: in particular, we discuss the relative role of "point-like" and "geometric" Fock configurations that control the parton dynamics of short range nucleon-nucleon scattering. With the aid of exclusive $J/Ψ$ production data at HERA, as well as elastic nucleon-nucleon cross-sections, we estimate rates for exclusive deuteron photo-disintegration at a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Our results, obtained using conservative estimates of EIC integrated luminosities, suggest that center-of-mass energies $s_{NN}\sim 12$ GeV$^2$ of the neutron-proton subsystem can be accessed. We argue that the high energies of the EIC can address outstanding dynamical questions regarding the short-range quark-gluon structure of nuclear forces by providing clean gluon probes of such "knockout" exclusive reactions in light and heavy nuclei.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2015

Real time evolution of non-Gaussian cumulants in the QCD critical regime

We derive a coupled set of equations that describe the non-equilibrium evolution of cumulants of critical fluctuations for space-time trajectories on the cross-over side of the QCD phase diagram. In particular, novel expressions are obtained for the non-equilibrium evolution of non-Gaussian Skewness and Kurtosis cumulants. Utilizing a simple model of the space-time evolution of a heavy- ion collision, we demonstrate that, depending on the relaxation rate of critical fluctuations, Skewness and Kurtosis can differ significantly in magnitude as well as in sign from equilibrium expectations. Memory effects are important and shown to persist even for trajectories that skirt the edge of the critical regime. We use phenomenologically motivated parameterizations of freeze-out curves, and of the beam energy dependence of the net baryon chemical potential, to explore the implications of our model study for the critical point search in heavy-ion collisions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Azimuthal anisotropies in p+Pb collisions from classical Yang-Mills dynamics

We compute single and double inclusive gluon distributions in classical Yang-Mills simulations of proton-lead collisions and extract the associated transverse momentum dependent Fourier harmonics $v_2(p_T)$ and $v_3(p_T)$. Gluons have a large $v_2$ in the initial state, while odd harmonics such as $v_3$ vanish identically at the initial time $τ=0^{+}$. By the time $τ\lesssim 0.4\,{\rm fm/c}$ final state effects in the classical Yang-Mills evolution generate a non-zero $v_{3}$ and only mildly modify the gluon $v_{2}$. Unlike hydrodynamic flow, these momentum space anisotropies are uncorrelated with the global spatial anisotropy of the collision. A principal ingredient for the generation of $v_2$ and $v_3$ in this framework is the event-by-event breaking of rotational invariance in domains the size of the inverse of the saturation scale $Q_s$. In contrast to our findings in p+Pb collisions Yang-Mills simulations of lead-lead collisions generate much smaller values of $v_{2,3} (p_T)$ and additional collective flow effects are needed to explain experimental data. This is because the locally generated anisotropy due to the breaking of rotational invariance is depleted with the increase in the number of uncorrelated domains.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

$J/ψ$ production and suppression in high energy proton-nucleus collisions

We apply a Color Glass Condensate+Non-Relativistic QCD (CGC+NRQCD) framework to compute $J/ψ$ production in deuteron-nucleus collisions at RHIC and proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC. Our results match smoothly at high $p_\perp$ to a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD + NRQCD computation. Excellent agreement is obtained for $p_\perp$ spectra at RHIC and LHC for central and forward rapidities, as well as for the normalized ratio $R_{pA}$ of these results to spectra in proton-proton collisions. In particular, we observe that the $R_{pA}$ data is strongly bounded by our computations of the same for each of the individual NRQCD channels; this result provides strong evidence that our description is robust against uncertainties in initial conditions and hadronization mechanisms.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Comprehensive description of $J/ψ$ production in proton-proton collisions at collider energies

We employ a small $x$ Color Glass Condensate (CGC)+ Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) formalism to compute $J/ψ$ production at low $p_\perp$ in proton-proton collisions at collider energies. Very good agreement is obtained for total cross-sections, rapidity distributions and low momentum $p_\perp$ distributions. Similar agreement is obtained for $ψ^\prime$ production. We observe an overlap region in $p_\perp$ where our results match smoothly to those obtained in a next-to-leading order (NLO) collinearly factorized NRQCD formalism. The relative contribution of color singlet and color octet contributions can be quantified in the CGC+NRQCD framework, with the former contributing approximately $10\%$ of the total cross-section.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Turbulent thermalization process in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

We discuss the onset of the thermalization process in high-energy heavy-ion collisions from a weak coupling perspective, using classical-statistical real-time lattice simulations as a first principles tool to study the pre-equilibrium dynamics. Most remarkably, we find that the thermalization process is governed by a universal attractor, where the space-time evolution of the plasma becomes independent of the initial conditions and exhibits the self-similar dynamics characteristic of wave turbulence. We discuss the consequences of our weak coupling results for the thermalization process in heavy-ion experiments and briefly comment on the use of weak coupling techniques at larger values of the coupling.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Collective effects in light-heavy ion collisions

We present results for the azimuthal anisotropy of charged hadron distributions in A+A, p+A, d+A, and He3+A collisions within the IP-Glasma+MUSIC model. Obtained anisotropies are due to the fluid dynamic response of the system to the fluctuating initial geometry of the interaction region. While the elliptic and triangular anisotropies in peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at root-s=2.76 TeV are well described by the model, the same quantities in root-s=5.02 TeV p+Pb collisions underestimate the experimental data. This disagreement can be due to neglected initial state correlations or the lack of a detailed description of the fluctuating spatial structure of the proton, or both. We further present predictions for azimuthal anisotropies in p+Au, d+Au, and He3+Au collisions at root-s=200 GeV. For d+Au and 3He+Au collisions we expect the detailed substructure of the nucleon to become less important.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2014

Eccentric protons? Sensitivity of flow to system size and shape in p+p, p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions

We determine the transverse system size of the initial non-equilibrium Glasma state and of the hydrodynamically evolving fireball as a function of produced charged particles in p+p, p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Our results are consistent with recent measurements of Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii by the ALICE collaboration. Azimuthal anisotropy coefficients v_n generated by combining the early time Glasma dynamics with viscous fluid dynamics in Pb+Pb collisions are in excellent agreement with experimental data for a wide range of centralities. In particular, event-by-event distributions of the v_n agree with the experimental data out to fairly peripheral centrality bins. In striking contrast, our results for p+Pb collisions significantly underestimate the magnitude and do not reproduce the centrality dependence of data for v_2 and v_3 coefficients. We argue that the measured v_n data and HBT radii strongly constrain the shapes of initial parton distributions across system sizes that would be compatible with a flow interpretation in p+Pb collisions. Alternately, additional sources of correlations may be required to describe the systematics of long range rapidity correlations in p+p and p+Pb collisions.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2014

Thermalization of the world's smallest fluids: recent developments

The late Gerry Brown was not shy to tackle complex scientific problems that took time to play out but yielded in the end a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena. In this note, prepared for a memorial volume in his honor, we provide a perspective on a couple of outstanding scientific puzzles that have their origin in our understanding of the thermalization of matter in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, and possibly, in high multiplicity proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2014

Initial state geometry and fluctuations in Au+Au, Cu+Au and U+U collisions at RHIC

We study within the IP-Glasma and two-component MC-Glauber models the effects of initial state geometry and fluctuations on multiplicities and eccentricities for several collision species at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). These include copper-gold (Cu+Au), gold-gold (Au+Au), and uranium-uranium (U+U) collisions. The multiplicity densities per participant pair are very similar in all systems studied. Ellipticities vary strongly between collision systems, most significantly for central collisions, while fluctuation driven odd moments vary little between systems. Event-by-event distributions of eccentricities in mid-central collisions are wider in Cu+Au relative to Au+Au and U+U systems. An anti-correlation between multiplicity and eccentricity is observed in ultra central U+U collisions which is weaker in the IP-Glasma model than the two-component MC-Glauber model. In ultra central Au+Au collisions the two models predict opposite signs for the slope of this correlation. Measurements of elliptic flow as a function of multiplicity in such central events can therefore be used to discriminate between models with qualitatively different particle production mechanisms.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2014

Quarkonium production in high energy proton-nucleus collisions: CGC meets NRQCD

We study the production of heavy quarkonium states in high energy proton-nucleus collisions. Following earlier work of Blaizot, Fujii, Gelis, and Venugopalan, we systematically include both small $x$ evolution and multiple scattering effects on heavy quark pair production within the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) framework. We obtain for the first time expressions in the Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization formalism for heavy quarkonium differential cross sections as a function of transverse momentum and rapidity. We observe that the production of color singlet heavy quark pairs is sensitive to both "quadrupole" and "dipole" Wilson line correlators, whose energy evolution is described by the Balitsky-JIMWLK equations. In contrast, the color octet channel is sensitive to dipole correlators alone. In a quasi-classical approximation, our results for the color singlet channel reduce to those of Dominguez et. al. [1]. We compare our results to those obtained combining the CGC with the color evaporation model and point to qualitative differences in the two approaches.

hep-ph↗