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S. Nicotri

Publications and source records attributed to S. Nicotri.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

Investigating thermalization of a strongly interacting non-Abelian plasma

Using gauge/gravity duality methods, we study the relaxation towards equilibrium of strongly interacting non-Abelian matter. We adopt boundary sourcing to drive the system out-of-equilibrium, and analyze the equilibration process through local probes (energy density and pressures) and nonlocal probes (lengths of the geodesics between two boundary points and extremal surfaces having a Wilson loop as contour on the boundary). We also investigate the real-time dissociation of the heavy quarkonium in the out-of-equilibrium plasma. Systematic comparison with the results of a geometry dual to viscous hydrodynamics sheds light on the thermalization process.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Quarkonium dissociation in a far-from-equilibrium holographic setup

The real-time dissociation of the heavy quarkonium in a strongly coupled boost-invariant non-Abelian plasma relaxing towards equilibrium is analyzed in a holographic framework. The effects driving the plasma out of equilibrium are described by boundary quenching, impulsive variations of the boundary metric. Quarkonium is represented by a classical string with endpoints kept close to the boundary. The evolution of the string profile is computed in the time-dependent geometry, and the dissociation time is evaluated for different configurations with respect to the direction of the plasma expansion. Dissociation occurs fastly for the quarkonium placed in the transverse plane.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

New meson spectroscopy with open charm and beauty

All the available experimental information on open charm and beauty mesons is used to classify the observed states in heavy quark doublets. The masses of some of the still unobserved states are predicted, in particular in the beauty sector. Adopting an effective Lagrangian approach based on the heavy quark and chiral symmetry, individual decay rates and ratios of branching fractions are computed, with results useful to assign the quantum numbers to recently observed charmed states which still need to be properly classified. Implications and predictions for the corresponding beauty mesons are provided. The experimental results are already copious, and are expected to grow up thanks to the experiments at the LHC and to the future high-luminosity flavour and $p-\bar p$ facilities.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Anomalous $AV^*V$ vertex function in the soft-wall holographic model of QCD

We consider the vertex function of two vector and one axial-vector currents using the soft-wall holographic model of QCD with the Chern-Simons term. Two structure functions $w_L$ and $w_T$ describe such a vertex in the special case in which one of the two vector currents corresponds to an on-shell soft photon. We briefly review the QCD results for these functions, obtained from triangular loop diagrams with quarks having mass $m_q=0$ or $m_q \neq 0$, we compute $w_L$ and $w_T$ in the soft-wall model and compare the outcome to the QCD findings. We also calculate and discuss the two-point $Π_{VV}-Π_{AA}$ correlation function, together with a few low-energy constants, which turn out to be close to the QCD results.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Holographic Approach to Finite Temperature QCD: The Case of Scalar Glueballs and Scalar Mesons

We study scalar glueballs and scalar mesons at $T \neq 0$ in the soft wall holographic QCD model. We find that, using the Anti-de Sitter-Black Hole metric for all values of the temperature, the masses of the hadronic states decrease and the widths become broader when T increases, and there are temperatures for which the states disappear from the scalar glueball and scalar meson spectral functions. However, the values of the temperatures in correspondence of which such phenomena occur are low, of the order of 40-60 MeV. A consistent holographic description of in-medium effects on hadron properties should include the Hawking-Page transition, which separates the phase with the Anti-de Sitter metric at small temperatures from the phase with Anti-de Sitter-Black Hole metric at high temperatures.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Investigating AdS/QCD duality through scalar glueball correlators

We investigate AdS/QCD duality for the two-point correlation function of the lowest dimension scalar glueball operator, in the case of the IR soft wall model. We point out the role of the boundary conditions for the bulk-to-boundary propagator in determining the gluon condensates. We show that a low energy QCD theorem can be obtained within the AdS approach, together with a gluon condensate close to the commonly accepted value and robust against perturbation of the background dilaton field.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

Light scalar mesons in the soft-wall model of AdS/QCD

We study light scalar mesons in the AdS/QCD soft-wall model with a background dilaton field. The masses and decay constants are compatible with experiment and QCD determinations if $a_0(980)$ and $f_0(980)$ are identified as the lightest scalar mesons; moreover, the states are organized in linear Regge trajectories with the same slope of vector mesons. Comparing the two-point correlation function of scalar operators in AdS and QCD, information about the condensates can be derived. Strong couplings of scalar states to pairs of light pseudoscalar mesons turn out to be small, at odds with experiment and QCD estimates: this discrepancy is related to the description of chiral symmetry breaking in this model.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Identifying $D_{sJ}(2700)$ through its decay modes

We study how to assign the recently observed $D_{sJ}(2700)$ meson to an appropriate level of the $c \bar s$ spectrum by the analysis of its decay modes in final states comprising a light pseudoscalar meson. We use an effective lagrangian approach with heavy quark and chiral symmetries, obtaining that the measurement of the $D^* K$ decay width would allow to distinguish between two possible assignments.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Puzzles in charm spectroscopy

We briefly analyze aspects of open and hidden charm resonances, discussing in particular the mesons $D_{sJ}(2860)$ and X(3872).

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

$X(3872) \to D \bar D γ$ decays and the structure of X(3872)

It has been suggested that the radiative $X \to D \bar D γ$ decay modes are useful to shed light on the structure of the meson X(3872), since the ratio $ R={Γ(X \to D^+ D^- γ) \over Γ(X \to D^0 \bar D^0 γ)}$ is expected to be small ($R \ll 1$) if $X$ is a molecular $D^{*0} \bar D^0$ state. We compute $R$ in a $\bar c c$ $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ description of $X$ finding that it is tiny in a wide range of hadronic parameters governing the decay. A discrimination between the molecular and $\bar c c$ description can be obtained through the analysis of the photon spectrum.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

On the light glueball spectrum in a holographic description of QCD

We investigate the spectra of light scalar and vector glueballs in a holografic description of QCD with a dilaton background bulk field. In particular, we study how the glueball masses depend on the conditions on the dilaton background and on the geometry of the bulk.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

New open and hidden charm spectroscopy

Many new results on open and hidden charm spectroscopy have been obtained recently. We present a short review of the experimental findings in the meson sector, of the theoretical interpretations and of the open problems, with a discussion on the possibility that some mesons are not quark-antiquark states.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Observable (?) cosmological signatures of superstrings in pre-big bang models of inflation

The different couplings of the dilaton to the U(1) gauge field of heterotic and Type I superstrings may leave an imprint on the relics of the very early cosmological evolution. Working in the context of the pre-big bang scenario, we discuss the possibility of discriminating between the two models through cross-correlated observations of cosmic magnetic fields and primordial gravitational-wave backgrounds.

hep-th↗