arXiv subjects

Xin-Nian Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Xin-Nian Wang.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: gauge invariance

Within the framework of a generalized collinear factorization for multiple parton scattering in nuclear medium, twist-4 contributions to DIS off a large nucleus can be factorized as a convolution of hard parts and two-parton correlation functions. The hard parts for the quark scattering in the light-cone gauge correspond to interaction with a transverse (physical) gluon in the target, while they are given by the second derivative of the cross section with a longitudinal gluon in the covariant gauge. We provide a general proof of the equivalence of the hard parts in the light-cone and covariant gauge. We further demonstrate the equivalence in calculations of twist-4 contributions to semi-inclusive cross section of DIS in both lowest order and next leading order. Calculations of the nuclear transverse momentum broadening of the struck quark in the light-cone and covariant gauge are also discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

The Transverse-momentum-dependent Parton Distribution Function and Jet Transport in Medium

We show that the gauge-invariant transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) quark distribution function can be expressed as a sum of all higher-twist collinear parton matrix elements in terms of a transport operator. From such a general expression, we derive the nuclear broadening of the transverse momentum distribution. Under the maximal two-gluon correlation approximation, in which all higher-twist nuclear multiple-parton correlations with the leading nuclear enhancement are given by products of twist-two nucleon parton distributions, we find the nuclear transverse momentum distribution as a convolution of a Gaussian distribution and the nucleon TMD quark distribution. The width of the Gaussian, or the mean total transverse momentum broadening squared, is given by the path integral of the quark transport parameter $\hat q_F$ which can also be expressed in a gauge invariant form and is given by the gluon distribution density in the nuclear medium. We further show that contributions from higher-twist nucleon gluon distributions can be resummed under the extended adjoint two-gluon correlation approximation and the nuclear transverse momentum distribution can be expressed in terms of a transverse scale dependent quark transport parameter or gluon distribution density. We extend the study to hot medium and compare to dipole model approximation and ${\cal N}=4$ Supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory in the strong coupling limit. We find that multiple gluon correlations become important in the strongly coupled system such as ${\cal N}=4$ SYM plasma.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Energy dependence of jet transport parameter and parton saturation in quark-gluon plasma

We study the evolution and saturation of the gluon distribution function in the quark-gluon plasma as probed by a propagating parton and its effect on the computation of jet quenching or transport parameter $\hat{q}$. For thermal partons, the saturation scale $Q^2_s$ is found to be proportional to the Debye screening mass $μ_D^2$. For hard probes, evolution at small $x=Q^2_s/6ET$ leads to jet energy dependence of $\hat{q}$. We study this dependence for both a conformal gauge theory in weak and strong coupling limit and for (pure gluon) QCD. The energy dependence can be used to extract the shear viscosity $η$ of the medium since $η$ can be related to the transport parameter for thermal partons in a transport description. We also derive upper bounds on the transport parameter for both energetic and thermal partons. The later leads to a lower bound on shear viscosity-to-entropy density ratio which is consistent with the conjectured lower bound $η/s\geq 1/4π$. We also discuss the implications on the study of jet quenching at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the CERN Large Hadron Collider and the bulk properties of the dense matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Multiple Parton Scattering in Nuclei: Quark-quark Scattering

Modifications to quark and antiquark fragmentation functions due to quark-quark (antiquark) double scattering in nuclear medium are studied systematically up to order \cal{O}(α_{s}^2)$ in deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off nuclear targets. At the order $\cal{O}(α_s^2)$, twist-four contributions from quark-quark (antiquark) rescattering also exhibit the Landau-Pomeranchuck-Midgal (LPM) interference feature similar to gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple parton scattering. Compared to quark-gluon scattering, the modification, which is dominated by $t$-channel quark-quark (antiquark) scattering, is only smaller by a factor of $C_F/C_A=4/9$ times the ratio of quark and gluon distributions in the medium. Such a modification is not negligible for realistic kinematics and finite medium size. The modifications to quark (antiquark) fragmentation functions from quark-antiquark annihilation processes are shown to be determined by the antiquark (quark) distribution density in the medium. The asymmetry in quark and antiquark distributions in nuclei will lead to different modifications of quark and antiquark fragmentation functions inside a nucleus, which qualitatively explains the experimentally observed flavor dependence of the leading hadron suppression in semi-inclusive DIS off nuclear targets. The quark-antiquark annihilation processes also mix quark and gluon fragmentation functions in the large fractional momentum region, leading to a flavor dependence of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Global quark polarization in non-central $A+A$ collisions

Partons produced in the early stage of non-central heavy-ion collisions can develop a longitudinal fluid shear because of unequal local number densities of participant target and projectile nucleons. Under such fluid shear, local parton pairs with non-vanishing impact parameter have finite local relative orbital angular momentum along the direction opposite to the reaction plane. Such finite relative orbital angular momentum among locally interacting quark pairs can lead to global quark polarization along the same direction due to spin-orbital coupling. Local longitudinal fluid shear is estimated within both Landau fireball and Bjorken scaling model of initial parton production. Quark polarization through quark-quark scatterings with the exchange of a thermal gluon is calculated beyond small-angle scattering approximation in a quark-gluon plasma. The polarization is shown to have a non-monotonic dependence on the local relative orbital angular momentum dictated by the interplay between electric and magnetic interaction. It peaks at a value of relative orbital angular momentum which scales with the magnetic mass of the exchanged gluons. With the estimated small longitudinal fluid shear in semi-peripheral $Au+Au$ collisions at the RHIC energy, the final quark polarization is found to be small $|P_q|<0.04$ in the weak coupling limit. Possible behavior of the quark polarization in the strong coupling limit and implications on the experimental detection of such global quark polarization at RHIC and LHC are also discussed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2007

Modified Dihadron Fragmentation Functions in Hot and Nuclear Matter

Medium modification of dihadron fragmentation functions due to gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple partonic scattering is studied in both deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) off large nuclei and high-energy heavy-ion collisions within the same framework of twist expansion. The modified fragmentation functions for dihadrons are found to follow closely that of single hadrons leading to a weak nuclear suppression of their ratios as measured by HERMES in DIS experiments. Meanwhile, a moderate medium enhancement of the near-side correlation of two high transverse momentum hadrons with increasing centrality is found in heavy-ion collisions because of the trigger bias and the increase in parton energy loss with centrality. Successful comparisons between theory and experiment for multi-hadron observables in both confining and deconfined environments offers comprehensive evidence for partonic energy loss as the mechanism of jet modification in dense matter.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2007

Dihadron Tomography of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions in NLO pQCD

Back-to-back dihadron spectra in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are studied within the next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD parton model with jet quenching incorporated via modified jet fragmentation functions due to radiative parton energy loss in dense medium. The experimentally observed appearance of back-to-back dihadrons at high $p_T$ is found to originate mainly from jet pairs produced close and tangential to the surface of the dense matter. However, a substantial fraction of observed high $p_T$ dihadrons also comes from jets produced at the center of the medium after losing finite amount of energy. Consequently, the suppression factor of such high-$p_T$ hadron pairs is found to be more sensitive to the initial gluon density than the single hadron spectra that are dominated by surface emission. A simultaneous $χ^2$-fit to both the single and dihadron spectra can be achieved within a narrow range of the energy loss parameters $ε_0=1.6-2.1$ GeV/fm. Because of the flattening of the initial jet production spectra, high $p_T$ dihadrons at the LHC energy are found to be more robust as probes of the dense medium.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2007

Azimuthal and single spin asymmetry in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering

We derive a general framework for describing semi-inclusive deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering in terms of the unintegrated parton distributions and other higher twist parton correlations. Such a framework provides a consistent approach to the calculation of inclusive and semi-inclusive cross sections including higher twist effects. As an example, we calculate the azimuthal asymmetries to the order of 1/Q in semi-inclusive process with transversely polarized target. A non-vanishing single-spin asymmetry in the ``triggered inclusive process'' is predicted to be 1/Q suppressed with a part of the coefficient related to a moment of the Sivers function.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quark-quark Double Scattering and Modified (Anti-)Quark Fragmentation Functions in Nuclei

Quark-quark double scattering in eA DIS and its contribution to quark and anti-quark fragmentation functions are investigated with the generalized factorization of the relevant twist-four processes in pQCD. It is shown that the resulting modifications to quark and anti-quark fragmentation functions are different. While the numerical size of these effects cannot be determined from pQCD, the structure of our result leads to a number of qualitative predictions for the relative size of the effect for different hadrons. These qualitative predictions agree with the multiplicity ratios for positive and negative hadrons as observed by HERMES.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2006

Interference effect in elastic parton energy loss in a finite medium

Similar to the radiative parton energy loss due to gluon bremsstrahlung, elastic energy loss of a parton undergoing multiple scattering in a finite medium is demonstrated to be sensitive to interference effect. The interference between amplitudes of elastic scattering via a gluon exchange and that of gluon radiation reduces the effective elastic energy loss in a finite medium and gives rise to a non-trivial length dependence. The reduction is most significant for a propagation length $L< 4/πT$ in a medium with a temperature $T$. Though the finite size effect is not significant for the average parton propagation in the most central heavy-ion collisions, it will affect the centrality dependence of its effect on jet quenching.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

Globally Polarized Quark-gluon Plasma in Non-central A+A Collisions

Produced partons have large local relative orbital angular momentum along the direction opposite to the reaction plane in the early stage of non-central heavy-ion collisions. Parton scattering is shown to polarize quarks along the same direction due to spin-orbital coupling. Such global quark polarization will lead to many observable consequences, such as left-right asymmetry of hadron spectra, global transverse polarization of thermal photons, dileptons and hadrons. Hadrons from the decay of polarized resonances will have azimuthal asymmetry similar to the elliptic flow. Global hyperon polarization is predicted within different hadronization scenarios and can be easily tested.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

Jet and Leading Hadron Production in High-energy Heavy-ion Collisions

Jet tomography has become a powerful tool for the study of properties of dense matter in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. I will discuss recent progresses in the phenomenological study of jet quenching, including momentum, colliding energy and nuclear size dependence of single hadron suppression, modification of dihadron correlations and the soft hadron distribution associated with a quenched jet.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

QGP and Modified Jet Fragmentation

Recent progresses in the study of jet modification in hot medium and their consequences in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are reviewed. In particular, I will discuss energy loss for propagating heavy quarks and the resulting modified fragmentation function. Medium modification of the parton fragmentation function due to quark recombination are formulated within finite temperature field theory and their implication on the search for deconfined quark-gluon plasma is also discussed

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

LPM Interference and Cherenkov-like Gluon Bremsstrahlung in Dense Matter

Gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple parton scattering in a finite dense medium has a unique angular distribution with respect to the initial parton direction. A dead-cone structure with an opening angle $θ^2_0 \approx 2(1-z)/(zLE)$ for gluons with fractional energy $z$ arises from the Landau-Pomeranchuck-Migdal (LPM) interference. In a medium where the gluon's dielectric constant is $ε>1$, the LPM interference pattern is shown to become Cherenkov-like with an increased opening angle determined by the dielectric constant $\cos^2θ_c=z+(1-z)/ε$. For a large dielectric constant $ε\gg 1+2/z^2LE$, the corresponding total radiative parton energy loss is about twice that from normal gluon bremsstrahlung. Implications of this Cherenkov-like gluon bremsstrahlung to the jet correlation pattern in high-energy heavy-ion collisions is discussed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

Spin Alignment of Vector Mesons in Non-central A+A Collisions

We discuss the consequence of global polarization of the produced quarks in non-central heavy-ion collisions on the spin alignment of vector mesons. We show that the alignment is quite different for different hadronization scenarios. These results can be tested directly by measuring the vector mesons' alignment through angular distributions of the decay products with respect to the reaction plane. Such angular distributions will give rise to azimuthal anisotropy $v_2$ of the decay products in the collision frame. Constraints provided by the data on the azimuthal anisotropy of hadron spectra at RHIC points to a quark recombination scenario of hadronization.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

Cherenkov Radiation from Jets in Heavy-ion Collisions

The possibility of Cherenkov-like gluon bremsstrahlung in dense matter is studied. We point out that the occurrence of Cherenkov radiation in dense matter is sensitive to the presence of partonic bound states. This is illustrated by a calculation of the dispersion relation of a massless particle in a simple model in which it couples to two different massive resonance states. We further argue that detailed spectroscopy of jet correlations can directly probe the index of refraction of this matter, which in turn will provide information about the mass scale of these partonic bound states.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2005

Multiple Parton Scattering in Nuclei: Heavy Quark Energy Loss and Modified Fragmentation Functions

Multiple scattering, induced radiative energy loss and modified fragmentation functions of a heavy quark in nuclear matter are studied within the framework of generalized factorization in perturbative QCD. Modified heavy quark fragmentation functions and energy loss are derived in detail with illustration of the mass dependencies of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal interference effects and heavy quark energy loss. Due to the quark mass dependence of the gluon formation time, the nuclear size dependencies of nuclear modification of the heavy quark fragmentation function and heavy quark energy loss are found to change from a linear to a quadratic form when the initial energy and momentum scale are increased relative to the quark mass. The radiative energy loss of the heavy quark is also significantly suppressed due to limited cone of gluon radiation imposed by the mass. Medium modification of the heavy quark fragmentation functions is found to be limited to the large $z$ region due to the form of heavy quark fragmentation functions in vacuum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2005

Modified Fragmentation Function from Quark Recombination

Within the framework of the constituent quark model, it is shown that the single hadron fragmentation function of a parton can be expressed as a convolution of shower diquark or triquark distribution function and quark recombination probability, if the interference between amplitudes of quark recombination with different momenta is neglected. The recombination probability is determined by the hadron's wavefunction in the constituent quark model. The shower diquark or triquark distribution functions of a fragmenting jet are defined in terms of overlapping matrices of constituent quarks and parton field operators. They are similar in form to dihadron or trihadron fragmentation functions in terms of parton operator and hadron states. Extending the formalism to the field theory at finite temperature, we automatically derive contributions to the effective single hadron fragmentation function from the recombination of shower and thermal constituent quarks. Such contributions involve single or diquark distribution functions which in turn can be related to diquark or triquark distribution functions via sum rules. We also derive QCD evolution equations for quark distribution functions that in turn determine the evolution of the effective jet fragmentation functions in a thermal medium.

nucl-th↗