Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Urs Achim Wiedemann

Publications and source records attributed to Urs Achim Wiedemann.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2009

Stepping outside the neighborhood of T_c at LHC

"As you are well aware, many in the RHIC community are interested in the LHC heavy-ion program, but have several questions: What can we learn at the LHC that is qualitatively new? Are collisions at LHC similar to RHIC ones, just with a somewhat hotter/denser initial state? If not, why not? These questions are asked in good faith, and this talk is an opportunity to answer them directly to much of the RHIC community." With these words, the organizers of Quark Matter 2009 in Knoxville invited me to discuss the physics opportunities for heavy ion collisions at the LHC without recalling the standard arguments, which are mainly based on the extended kinematic reach of the machine. In response, I emphasize here that lattice QCD indicates characteristic qualitative differences between thermal physics in the neighborhood of the critical temperature (T_c < T < 400 - 500 MeV) and thermal physics at higher temperatures (T > 400-500 MeV), for which the relevant energy densities will be solely attainable at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

LPM-Effect in Monte Carlo Models of Radiative Energy Loss

Extending the use of Monte Carlo (MC) event generators to jets in nuclear collisions requires a probabilistic implementation of the non-abelian LPM effect. We demonstrate that a local, probabilistic MC implementation based on the concept of formation times can account fully for the LPM-effect. The main features of the analytically known eikonal and collinear approximation can be reproduced, but we show how going beyond this approximation can lead to qualitatively different results.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

A local Monte Carlo implementation of the non-abelian Landau-Pomerantschuk-Migdal effect

The non-abelian Landau-Pomeranschuk-Migdal (LPM) effect arises from the quantum interference between spatially separated, inelastic radiation processes in matter. A consistent probabilistic implementation of this LPM effect is a prerequisite for extending the use of Monte Carlo (MC) event generators to the simulation of jet-like multi-particle final states in nuclear collisions. Here, we propose a local MC algorithm, which is based solely on relating the LPM effect to the probabilistic concept of formation time for virtual quanta. We demonstrate that this implementation of formation time physics alone accounts probabilistically for all analytically known features of the non-abelian LPM-effect, including the characteristic L^2-dependence of average parton energy loss and the characteristic $\sqrtω$-modification of the gluon energy distribution. Additional kinematic constraints are found to modify these L^2- and $ω$-dependencies characteristically in accordance with analytical estimates.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Testing the Scale Dependence of the Scale Factor in Double Dijet Production at the LHC

The scale factor is the effective cross section used to characterize the measured rate of inclusive double dijet production in high energy hadron collisions. It is sensitive to the two-parton distributions in the hadronic projectile. In principle, the scale factor depends on the center of mass energy and on the minimal transverse energy of the jets contributing to the double dijet cross section. Here, we point out that proton-proton collisions at the LHC will provide for the first time experimental access to these scale dependences in a logarithmically wide, nominally perturbative kinematic range of minimal transverse energy between 10 GeV and 100 GeV. This constrains the dependence of two-parton distribution functions on parton momentum fractions and parton localization in impact parameter space. Novel information is to be expected about the transverse growth of hadronic distribution functions in the range of semi-hard Bjorken x (0.001 < x < 0.1) and high resolution Q^2. We discuss to what extent one can disentangle different pictures of the $x$-evolution of two-parton distributions in the transverse plane by measuring double-hard scattering events at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

JEWEL - a Monte Carlo Model for Jet Quenching

The Monte Carlo model JEWEL 1.0 (Jet Evolution With Energy Loss) simulates parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium. In its current form medium interactions are modelled as elastic scattering based on perturbative matrix elements and a simple prescription for medium induced gluon radiation. The parton shower is interfaced with a hadronisation model. In the absence of medium effects JEWEL is shown to reproduce jet measurements at LEP. The collisional energy loss is consistent with analytic calculations, but with JEWEL we can go a step further and characterise also jet-induced modifications of the medium. Elastic and inelastic medium interactions are shown to lead to distinctive modifications of the jet fragmentation pattern, which should allow to experimentally distinguish between collisional and radiative energy loss mechanisms. In these proceedings the main JEWEL results are summarised and a Monte Carlo algorithm is outlined that allows to include the Landau-Pomerantschuk-Migdal effect in probabilistic frameworks.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

A Monte Carlo Model for 'Jet Quenching'

We have developed the Monte Carlo simulation program JEWEL 1.0 (Jet Evolution With Energy Loss), which interfaces a perturbative final state parton shower with medium effects occurring in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. This is done by comparing for each jet fragment the probability of further perturbative splitting with the density-dependent probability of scattering with the medium. A simple hadronisation mechanism is included. In the absence of medium effects, we validate JEWEL against a set of benchmark jet measurements. For elastic interactions with the medium, we characterise not only the medium-induced modification of the jet, but also the jet-induced modification of the medium. Our main physics result is the observation that collisional and radiative medium modifications lead to characteristic differences in the jet fragmentation pattern, which persist above a soft background cut. We argue that this should allow to disentangle collisional and radiative parton energy loss mechanisms by measuring the n-jet fraction or a class of jet shape observables.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

Varying and inverting the mass hierarchy in collisional energy loss

Heavy ion collisions at RHIC and at the LHC give access to the medium-induced suppression patterns of heavy-flavored single inclusive hadron spectra at high transverse momentum. This opens novel opportunities for a detailed characterization of the medium produced in the collision. In this note, we point out that the capacity of a QCD medium to absorb the recoil of a partonic projectile is an independent signature, which may differ for different media at the same density. In particular, while the mass hierarchy (i.e., the projectile mass dependence) of radiative energy loss depends solely on a property of the projectile, the mass hierarchy of collisional energy loss depends significantly on properties of the medium. By varying these properties in a class of models, we find that the mass hierarchy of collisional parton energy loss can be modified considerably and can even be inverted, compared to that of radiative parton energy loss. This may help to disentangle the relative strengths of radiative and collisional contributions to jet quenching, and it may be employed to constrain properties of the produced QCD medium beyond its density.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

Small-x single-particle distributions in jets from the coherent branching formalism

We calculate single parton distributions inside quark and gluon jets within the coherent branching formalism, which resums leading and next-to-leading logarithmic contributions. This formalism is at the basis of the modified leading logarithmic approximation (MLLA), and it conserves energy exactly. For a wide preasymptotic range of the evolution variable Y=ln[Eθ/Q_0], we find marked differences in the shape and norm of single parton distributions calculated in the MLLA or in the coherent branching formalism, respectively. For asymptotically large values Y>5-10, the difference in norm persists, while differences in shape disappear. In this way, our numerical study delineates the jet energy scale needed for a reliable application of both approaches. We also study the dependence of the single parton distributions on the hadronization scale Q_0 and on Λ_QCD, and we calculate within the coherent branching formalism the identified quark and gluon distributions inside quark and gluon jets.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

Stirring Strongly Coupled Plasma

We determine the energy it takes to move a test quark along a circle of radius L with angular frequency w through the strongly coupled plasma of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory. We find that for most values of L and w the energy deposited by stirring the plasma in this way is governed either by the drag force acting on a test quark moving through the plasma in a straight line with speed v=Lw or by the energy radiated by a quark in circular motion in the absence of any plasma, whichever is larger. There is a continuous crossover from the drag-dominated regime to the radiation-dominated regime. In the crossover regime we find evidence for significant destructive interference between energy loss due to drag and that due to radiation as if in vacuum. The rotating quark thus serves as a model system in which the relative strength of, and interplay between, two different mechanisms of parton energy loss is accessible via a controlled classical gravity calculation. We close by speculating on the implications of our results for a quark that is moving through the plasma in a straight line while decelerating, although in this case the classical calculation breaks down at the same value of the deceleration at which the radiation-dominated regime sets in.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

Parton Energy Loss Without Transverse Momentum Broadening

The JEWEL 1.0 Monte Carlo simulates jet evolution in a medium with a microscopic description of splitting and scattering processes. In the framework of this model we investigate the transverse momentum broadening due to medium effects in different scenarios. Depending on assumptions about hadronisation, we observe either a small increase or even a slight decrease of the mean transverse momentum, but no sizeable broadening. This appears to be a natural consequence of a model formulation which conserves energy and momentum microscopically at each splitting and at each scattering.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

A limiting velocity for quarkonium propagation in a strongly coupled plasma via AdS/CFT

We study the dispersion relations of mesons in a particular hot strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theory plasma. We find that at large momentum k the dispersion relations become omega = v_0 k + a + b/k + ..., where the limiting velocity v_0 is the same for mesons with any quantum numbers and depends only on the ratio of the temperature to the quark mass T/m_q. We compute a and b in terms of the meson quantum numbers and T/m_q. The limiting meson velocity v_0 becomes much smaller than the speed of light at temperatures below but close to T_diss, the temperature above which no meson bound states at rest in the plasma are found. From our result for v_0, we find that the temperature above which no meson bound states with velocity v exist is T_diss(v) \simeq (1-v^2)^(1/4) T_diss, up to few percent corrections.We thus confirm by direct calculation of meson dispersion relations a result inferred indirectly in previous work via analysis of the screening length between a static quark and antiquark in a moving plasma. Although we do not do our calculations in QCD, we argue that the qualitative features of the dispersion relation we compute, including in particular the relation between dissociation temperature and meson velocity, may apply to bottomonium and charmonium mesons propagating in the strongly coupled plasma of QCD. We discuss how our results can contribute to understanding quarkonium physics in heavy ion collisions.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Jet hadrochemistry as a characteristics of jet quenching

Jets produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC are expected to be strongly modified due to the interaction of the parton shower with the dense QCD matter. Here, we point out that jet quenching can leave signatures not only in the longitudinal and transverse jet energy and multiplicity distributions, but also in the hadrochemical composition of the jet fragments. In particular, we show that even in the absence of medium effects at or after hadronization, the medium-modification of the parton shower can result in significant changes in jet hadrochemistry. We discuss how jet hadrochemistry can be studied within the high-multiplicity environment of nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Predictions for the LHC heavy ion programme

Apparently universal trends have been observed in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions up to RHIC energies. Here, we review these trends and we discuss their agnostic extrapolation to heavy ion collisions at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Opportunities for Heavy Ion Physics at the Large Hadron Collider LHC

This talk discusses extrapolations to the LHC of several, apparently universal trends, seen in the data on relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions up to RHIC energies. In the soft physics sector, such extrapolations to the LHC are typically at odds with LHC predictions of the dynamical models, advocated to underlie multi-particle production up to RHIC energies. I argue that due to this, LHC is likely to be a discovery machine not only in the hard, but also in the soft physics sector.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Wilson loops in heavy ion collisions and their calculation in AdS/CFT

Expectation values of Wilson loops define the nonperturbative properties of the hot medium produced in heavy ion collisions that arise in the analysis of both radiative parton energy loss and quarkonium suppression. We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to calculate the expectation values of such Wilson loops in the strongly coupled plasma of N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory, allowing for the possibility that the plasma may be moving with some collective flow velocity as is the case in heavy ion collisions. We obtain the N=4 SYM values of the jet quenching parameter $\hat q$, which describes the energy loss of a hard parton in QCD, and of the velocity-dependence of the quark-antiquark screening length for a moving dipole as a function of the angle between its velocity and its orientation. We show that if the quark-gluon plasma is flowing with velocity v_f at an angle theta with respect to the trajectory of a hard parton, the jet quenching parameter $\hat q$ is modified by a factor gamma_f(1-v_f cos theta), and show that this result applies in QCD as in N=4 SYM. We discuss the relevance of the lessons we are learning from all these calculations to heavy ion collisions at RHIC and at the LHC. Furthermore, we discuss the relation between our results and those obtained in other theories with gravity duals, showing in particular that the ratio between $\hat q$ in any two conformal theories with gravity duals is the square root of the ratio of their central charges. This leads us to conjecture that in nonconformal theories $\hat q$ defines a quantity that always decreases along renormalization group trajectories and allows us to use our calculation of $\hat q$ in N=4 SYM to make a conjecture for its value in QCD.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

An AdS/CFT Calculation of Screening in a Hot Wind

One of the challenges in relating experimental measurements of the suppression in the number of J/ψmesons produced in heavy ion collisions to lattice QCD calculations is that whereas the lattice calculations treat J/ψmesons at rest, in a heavy ion collision a c\bar c pair can have a significant velocity with respect to the hot fluid produced in the collision. The putative J/ψfinds itself in a hot wind. We present the first rigorous non-perturbative calculation of the consequences of a wind velocity v on the screening length L_s for a heavy quark-antiquark pair in hot N=4 supersymmetric QCD. We find L_s(v,T) = f(v)[1-v^2]^{1/4}/πT with f(v) only mildly dependent on v and the wind direction. This L_s(v,T)\sim L_s(0,T)/\sqrtγ velocity scaling, if realized in QCD, provides a significant additional source of J/Ψsuppression at transverse momenta which are high but within experimental reach.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Calculating the Jet Quenching Parameter from AdS/CFT

Models of medium-induced radiative parton energy loss account for the strong suppression of high-pT hadron spectra in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Au-Au collisions at RHIC in terms of a single "jet quenching parameter'' $\hat q$. The available suite of jet quenching measurements make $\hat q$ one of the experimentally best constrained properties of the hot fluid produced in RHIC collisions. We observe that $\hat q$ can be given a model-independent, nonperturbative, quantum field theoretic definition in terms of the short-distance behavior of a particular light-like Wilson loop. We then use the AdS/CFT correspondence to obtain a strong-coupling calculation of $\hat q$ in hot N=4 supersymmetric QCD, finding $\hat{q}_{SYM} = 26.69 \sqrt{α_{SYM} N_c} T^3$ in the limit in which both $N_c$ and $4πα_{SYM} N_c$ are large. We thus learn that at strong coupling $\hat q$ is not proportional to the entropy density $s$, or to some "number density of scatterers'' since, unlike the number of degrees of freedom, $\hat q$ does not grow like $N_c^2$.

hep-ph↗