Hard Parton Research Articles

Medium-induced collinear radiation via soft collinear effective theory

The propagation of hard partons through the strongly interacting matter created in high-energy heavy-ion collisions involves widely separated scales. The methods of effective field theories can provide a factorized description at lowest nontrivial order, and a formalism where the corrections to this factorization are calculable systematically order by order in the small ratios between the different scales. We present our preliminary results on the medium-induced collinear radiation by using the methods of soft collinear effective theory (SCET). The radiated gluon is collinear with the incoming hard parton and gets an arbitrary fraction of its energy.

Monte Carlo simulation for elastic energy loss of hard partons in a hydrodynamical background

We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation describing the 2 → 2 scatterings of perturbatively produced, non-eikonally propagating high-energy partons with the quarks and gluons of the expanding QCD medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The partonic scattering rates are computed in leading-order perturbative QCD (pQCD), while three different hydrodynamical scenarios are used to model the strongly interacting medium. We compare our results and tune the model with the neutral pion suppression observed in GeV Au+Au collisions at the BNL-RHIC. We find the incoherent nature of elastic energy loss incompatible with the measured angular dependence of the suppression. The effects of the initial state density fluctuations of the bulk medium are found to be small. Also the extrapolation from RHIC to the LHC is discussed.

Direct photons in Au+Au collisions measured with the PHENIX detector at RHIC

A major goal of experiments in heavy-ion physics is the characterization of the quark gluon plasma (QGP) produced in the collision of heavy ions at high energy. Direct photons are a particularly good probe of the produced medium because they do not interact strongly and so can escape the medium unmodified, carrying information about when the photon was produced. It is expected that direct photon contributions from different sources (QGP radiation, hard scattering, hadron gas radiation) dominate at different transverse momentum ranges. Low momentum direct photons are dominated by thermal radiation (both from the QGP and hadron gas), while high momentum direct photons dominantly come from hard parton scatterings in the initial collision. We present a summary of techniques to measure direct photons with the PHENIX detector, with a focus on low momentum direct photons through their external conversion to dilepton pairs.

Transversity in hard exclusive electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons

Estimates for electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons at small values of skewness are presented. Cross sections and asymmetries for these processes are calculated within the handbag approach which is based on factorization in hard parton subprocesses and soft generalized parton distributions (GPDs). The latter are constructed from double distributions. Transversity GPDs are taken into account; they are accompanied by twist-3 meson wave functions. For most pseudoscalar-meson channels a combination of H-tilde_T$ and E-bar_T$ plays a particularly prominent role. This combination of GPDs which we constrain by moments obtained from lattice QCD, leads with the exception of the pi+ and eta' channels, to large transverse cross sections.

Feeding of the elliptic flow by hard partons

We propose that in nuclear collisions at the LHC the elliptic flow may get a contribution from leading hard and semi-hard partons which deposit energy and momentum into the hydrodynamic bulk medium. The crucial effect is that these partons induce wakes which interact and merge if they come together. The contribution to the integrated elliptic flow is estimated with the help of a toy model to about 25% of the observed value and shows strong event-by-event fluctuations.

Soft function for exclusiveN-jet production at hadron colliders

The N-jettiness event shape divides phase space into N+2 regions, each containing one jet or beam. Using a geometric measure these regions correspond to jets with circular boundaries. We give a factorization theorem for the cross section fully differential in the (transverse) mass of each jet, and compute the corresponding soft function at next-to-leading order (NLO). The ultraviolet divergences are analytically extracted by exploiting hemispheres for interactions between each pair of hard partons, leaving only convergent integrals that are sensitive to the precise boundaries. This method can be applied in general to N-jet soft functions, including other observables. For N-jettiness, the final result for the soft function involves stable one-dimensional numerical integrals, and all ingredients are now available to extend NLO cross sections to resummed predictions at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order.

Radiative and collisional jet energy loss in a quark-gluon plasma

We calculate radiative and collisional energy loss of hard partons traversing the quark-gluon plasma created at RHIC and compare the respective size of these contributions. We employ the AMY formalism for radiative energy loss and include additionally energy loss by elastic collisions. Our treatment of both processes is complete at leading order in the coupling, and accounts for the probabilistic nature of jet energy loss. We find that a solution of the Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density distributions of partons is necessary for a complete calculation of the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ for pion production in heavy ion collisions. It is found that the magnitude of $R_{AA}$ is sensitive to the inclusion of both collisional and radiative energy loss, while the average energy is less affected by the addition of collisional contributions. We present a calculation of $R_{AA}$ for $\pi^0$ at RHIC, combining our energy loss formalism with a relativistic (3+1)-dimensional hydrodynamic description of the thermalized medium.

Distributions and correlations of constituent quarks in jets

In the frame of the quark recombination model, we study the momentum distributions and correlations of constituent quarks in jets by analyzing the final state hadrons generated by PYTHIA for the hard parton fragmentation processes in vacuum. Parameterizations for the distributions are tabulated.

π-J/ψ correlation and elliptic flow parameter v2 of charmed mesons at RHIC energy

We study the correlation between the trigger π and the associated J/ψ on near and away sides in Au+Au collisions at GeV. In the region of trigger momentum pt > 4 GeV/c, the π spectrum is composed of thermal-shower and shower-shower recombinations in the frame work of the recombination model. We consider the azimuthal anisotropy in the quenched hard parton distribution and then calculate the elliptic flow parameter v2 of charmed mesons (J/ψ, D0 and Ds) for different centralities.

Comparison of radiative energy loss models in a hot QCD medium

The suppression of high p T hadron production in heavy ion collisions is thought to be due to energy loss by gluon radiation off hard partons in a QCD medium. Existing models of QCD radiative energy loss in a color-charged medium give estimates of the coupling strength of the parton to the medium which differ by a factor of 5. We will present a side-by-side comparison of two different formalisms to calculate the energy loss of light quarks and gluons: the multiple soft scattering approximation (ASW-MS) and the opacity expansion formalism (ASW-SH and WHDG-rad). A common time-temperature profile is used to characterize the medium. The results are compared to the single hadron suppression R A A at RHIC energies. In addition, the influcence of homogeneous and non-homogeneous distribution of scattering centers is discussed. We find that using an equivalent brick overestimates the energy loss for long parton trajectories.

Heavy quarks at RHIC and LHC within a partonic transport model

Production and space-time evolution of heavy quarks in central and non-central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC are studied with the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). In addition to the initially created heavy quarks in hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, secondary heavy quark production in the quark-gluon plasma is investigated and the sensitivity on various parameters is estimated. In BAMPS heavy quarks scatter with particles of the medium via elastic collisions, whose cross section is calculated with the running coupling and a more precise implementation of Debye screening. In this framework, we compute the elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor of heavy quarks and compare it to the experimental data.

Monte-Carlo simulation of heavy-ion collisions

We present Monte-Carlo simulations for heavy-ion collisions combining PYTHIA and the McGill-AMY formalism to describe the evolution of hard partons in a soft background, modelled using hydrodynamic simulations. MARTINI generates full event configurations in the high p T region that take into account thermal QCD and QED effects as well as effects of the evolving medium. This way it is possible to perform detailed quantitative comparisons with experimental observables.

Systematic improvement of parton showers with effective theory

We carry out a systematic classification and computation of next-to-leading order kinematic power corrections to the fully differential cross section in the parton shower. To do this we devise a map between ingredients in a parton shower and operators in a traditional effective field theory framework using a chain of soft-collinear effective theories. Our approach overcomes several difficulties including avoiding double counting and distinguishing approximations that are coordinate choices from true power corrections. Branching corrections can be classified as hard-scattering, that occur near the top of the shower, and jet-structure, that can occur at any point inside it. Hard-scattering corrections include matrix elements with additional hard partons, as well as power suppressed contributions to the branching for the leading jet. Jet-structure corrections require simultaneous consideration of potential $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2$ and $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3$ branchings. The interference structure induced by collinear terms with subleading powers remains localized in the shower.

Antenna subtraction at NNLO with hadronic initial states: double real radiation for initial-initial configurations with two quark flavours

The antenna subtraction formalism allows to calculate QCD corrections to jet observables. Within this formalism, the subtraction terms are constructed using antenna functions describing all unresolved radiation between a pair of hard radiatior partons. In this paper, we focus on the subtraction terms for double real radiation contributions to jet observables in hadron-hadron collisions evaluated at NNLO. An essential ingredient to these subtraction terms are the four-parton antenna functions with both radiators in the initial state. We outline the construction of the double real subtraction terms, classify all relevant antenna functions and describe their integration over the relevant antenna phase space. For the initial-initial antenna functions with two quark flavours, we derive the phase space master integrals and obtain the integrated antennae.

Jets and Underlying Events at LHC Energies

Jet-matter interaction remains a central question and a theoretical challenge in heavy-ion physics and might become important in high-multiplicity events in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies. Full jet measurement at LHC offer the proper tool to investigate energy loss process and fragmentation of hard parton in the medium. Since jet reconstruction will be constrained to small cone sizes, then study of the connection between jets and surrounding environment provides a further possibility to extend our exploration. We study jets at = 14 TeV and pp collisions at = 7 TeV. We analyze the flavor components in jet-like environments. We introduce a definition for surrounding cones/belts and investigate flavor dependence and correlation of different hadron species produced in jets. Here, we focus on proton-triggered correlations. Our analysis can be extended for heavy ion collisions.

HATHOR – HAdronic Top and Heavy quarks crOss section calculatoR

We present a program to calculate the total cross section for top-quark pair production in hadronic collisions. The program takes into account recent theoretical developments such as approximate next-to-next-to-leading order perturbative QCD corrections and it allows for studies of the theoretical uncertainty by separate variations of the factorization and renormalization scales. In addition it offers the possibility to obtain the cross section as a function of the running top-quark mass. The program can also be applied to a hypothetical fourth quark family provided the QCD couplings are standard. Program summary Program title: Hathor Catalogue identifier: AEID_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEID_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU GPL 3 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 5405 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 327 718 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++, Fortran, Java Computer: Standard PCs (x86, x86_64 processors) Operating system: Linux RAM: 256 MB Classification: 11.1 External routines: Interface to LHAPDF for the user's choice of parton distribution functions, see http://projects.hepforge.org/lhapdf/ Nature of problem: Computation of total cross section in perturbative QCD. Solution method: Numerical integration of hard parton cross section convoluted with parton distribution functions. Running time: A few seconds to a few minutes on standard desktop PCs or notebooks, depending on the chosen options.

Perturbative QCD Description of Heavy and Light Flavor Jet Quenching

We present a successful description of the medium modification of light and heavy flavor jets within a perturbative-QCD-based approach. Only the couplings involving hard partons are assumed to be weak. The effect of the medium on a hard parton, per unit time, is encoded in terms of three nonperturbative, related transport coefficients which describe the transverse momentum squared gained, the elastic energy loss, and diffusion in elastic energy transfer. Scaling the transport coefficients with the temperature of the medium, we achieve a good description of the centrality dependence of the suppression and the azimuthal anisotropy of leading hadrons. Imposing additional constraints based on leading order (LO) hard thermal loop (HTL) effective theory leads to a worsening of the fit, implying the necessity of computing transport coefficients beyond LO HTL.

Elastic energy loss with respect to the reaction plane in a Monte Carlo model

We present a computation of $\pi^0$ nuclear modification factor with respect to the reaction plane in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV, based on a Monte-Carlo model of elastic energy loss of hard partons traversing the bulk hydrodynamical medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find the incoherent nature of elastic energy loss incompatible with the measured data.

Webs in multiparton scattering using the replica trick

Soft gluon exponentiation in non-abelian gauge theories can be described in terms of webs. So far this description has been restricted to amplitudes with two hard partons, where webs were defined as the colour-connected subset of diagrams. Here we generalise the concept of webs to the multi-leg case, where the hard interaction involves non-trivial colour flow. Using the replica trick from statistical physics we solve the combinatorial problem of non-abelian exponentiation to all orders. In particular, we derive an algorithm for computing the colour factor associated with any given diagram in the exponent. The emerging result is exponentiation of a sum of webs, where each web is a linear combination of a subset of diagrams that are mutually related by permuting the eikonal gluon attachments to each hard parton. These linear combinations are responsible for partial cancellation of subdivergences, conforming with the renormalization of a multi-leg eikonal vertex. We also discuss the generalisation of exponentiation properties to beyond the eikonal approximation.

Heavy-quark production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions within a partonic transport model

The production and space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC are investigated with the partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings). Heavy quarks, produced in primary hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, are sampled using the Monte Carlo event generator PYTHIA or the leading order mini-jet model in conjunction with the Glauber model, revealing a strong sensitivity on the parton distribution functions, scales, and heavy quark mass. In a comprehensive study exploring different charm masses, K factors, and possible initial gluon conditions, secondary production and the evolution of heavy quarks are examined within a fully dynamic BAMPS simulation for central heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. Although charm production in the quark-gluon plasma can be neglected at RHIC, it is significant at LHC but very sensitive to the initial conditions and the charm mass. Bottom production in the quark-gluon plasma, however, is negligible both at RHIC and LHC.