Pair Of Partons Research Articles

Disentangling correlations in multiple parton interactions

Multiple Parton Interactions are the tool to obtain information on the correlations between partons in the hadron structure. Partons may be correlated in all degrees of freedom and all different correlation terms contribute to the cross section. The contributions due to the different parton flavors can be isolated, at least to some extent, by selecting properly the final state. In the case of high energy proton-proton collisions, the effects of correlations in the transverse coordinates and in fractional momenta are, on the contrary, unavoidably mixed in the final observables. The standard way to quantify the strength of double parton interactions is by the value of the effective cross section and a small value of the effective cross section may be originated both by the relatively short transverse distance between the pairs of partons undergoing the double interaction and by a large dispersion of the distribution in multiplicity of the multi-parton distributions. The aim of the present paper is to show how the effects of longitudinal and transverse correlations may be disentangled by taking into account the additional information provided by double parton interactions in high energy proton-deuteron collisions.

Jet evolution in the 𝒩 = 4 SYM plasma at strong coupling

Within the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the time evolution of an energetic -current propagating through a finite temperature, strongly coupled, = 4 SYM plasma and propose a physical picture for our results. In this picture, the current splits into a pair of massless partons, which then evolve via successive branchings, in such a way that energy is quasi-democratically divided among the products of a branching. We point out a duality between the transverse size of the partonic system produced through branching and the radial distance traveled by the dual Maxwell wave in the AdS geometry. For a time-like current, the branching occurs already in the vacuum, where it gives rise to a system of low-momentum partons isotropically distributed in the transverse plane. But at finite temperature, the branching mechanism is modified by the medium, in that the rate for parton splitting is enhanced by the transfer of transverse momentum from the partons to the plasma. This mechanism, which controls the parton energy loss, is sensitive to the energy density in the plasma, but not to the details of the thermal state. We compute the lifetime of the current for various kinematical regimes and provide physical interpretations for other, related, quantities, so like the meson screening length, the drag force, or the trailing string, that were previously computed via AdS/CFT techniques.

Global quark polarization in noncentralA+Acollisions

Partons produced in the early stage of noncentral heavy-ion collisions can develop a longitudinal fluid shear because of the unequal local number densities of participant target and projectile nucleons. Under such fluid shear, local parton pairs with nonvanishing impact parameters have finite local relative orbital angular momentum along the direction opposite to the reaction plane. Such a finite relative orbital angular momentum among locally interacting quark pairs can lead to global quark polarization along the same direction because of spin-orbital coupling. Local longitudinal fluid shear is estimated within both the Landau fireball and the Bjorken scaling model of initial parton production. Quark polarization through quark-quark scatterings with the exchange of a thermal gluon is calculated beyond the small-angle scattering approximation in a quark-gluon plasma. The polarization is shown to have a nonmonotonic dependence on the local relative orbital angular momentum dictated by the interplay between electric and magnetic interactions. 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 semiperipheral Au+Au collisions at energies currently available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), 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 CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are also discussed.

The soft-gluon current at one-loop order

We study the soft limit of one-loop QCD amplitudes and we derive the process-independent factorization formula that controls the singular behaviour in this limit. This is obtained from the customary eikonal factorization formula valid at tree (classical) level by introducing a generalized soft-gluon current that embodies the quantum corrections. We compute the explicit expression of the soft-gluon current at one-loop order. It contains purely non-abelian correlations between the colour charges of each pair of hard-momentum partons in the matrix element. This leads to colour correlations between (two and) three hard partons in the matrix element squared. Exploiting colour conservation, we recover QED-like factorization for the square of the matrix elements with two and three hard partons.

QCD factorization in γ*γ → ππ and γ* N → ππ N

Exclusive two-pion production near threshold in the collision of a highly virtual photon with a real one offers a new possibility to unravel the partonic content of hadrons. We explain the dynamics of this regime, i.e. the separation of the amplitude in terms of partonic diagrams computable in QCD perturbation theory and generalized distribution amplitudes, which are nonperturbative functions describing the exclusive transition of a parton pair into two hadrons. The same quantities also appear in gamma* N -> pi pi N in the kinematical regime where the momentum transfer of the nucleon and the invariant mass of the pion pair are both small; this allows to extend the QCD analysis of exclusive rho electroproduction outside the resonance region of the two produced pions.

Signatures of parton exogamy in e+e− → W+W− → hadrons

We propose possible signatures of ‘exogamous’ combinations between partons in the different W + and W − hadron showers in e + e − → W + W − events with purely hadronic final states. Within the space-time model for hadronic shower development that we have proposed previously, we find a possible difference of about 10% between the mean hadronic multiplicity in such purely hadronic final states and twice the hadronic multiplicity in events in which one W ± decays hadronically and the other leptonically, i.e., « N had(2 W ≠ 2« N had( W), associated with the formation of hadronic clusters by ‘exogamous’ pairs of partons. We discuss the dependence of this possible difference in multiplicity on the center-of-mass energy, on the hadron momenta, and on the angular separation between the W ± dijets. If it were observed, any such multiplicity difference would indicate that the W ± do not hadronize independently, and hence raise questions about the accuracy with which the W ± mass could be determined from purely hadronic final states.

Single production of very heavy particles at [formula omitted] colliders

The cross section to partial width ratio σ( p p → ab→ X)/Γ( X→ ab) for parton pairs ab = q q, qg, gg is given versus the mass M of an arbitrary heavy particle X. For M ≅ 160 GeV and s = 540 GeV the effective X production cross section has upper bounds of about 10 nb for a color-triplet spin- 1 2 excited quark, 2 nb for an excited weak boson, and 0.2 nb for a neutral Higgs boson. This bound rules out a Higgs boson with enhanced coupling to gg as an explanation anomalous missing- p T events at the CERN p p collider.

The merging of jets

In perturbative QCD matrix elements, the invariant mass of parton pairs is normally peaked at low values, due to the singularities of the q → qg and g →gg subprocesses. Whereas pairs at large invariant masses give rise to separately visible jets, one may expect a continuous merging back into one single jet, q or g, when the qg or gg invariant mass becomes small. Within the framework of string fragmentation, we outline an explicit model in which this takes place, and study some of the resulting properties.

New effects in the ISR region

We suggest that the increase of total cross sections and large P T effects observed over the ISR range have a common origin in the hard collision of parton pairs. The observed magnitude of these effects suggest a parton-parton cross section ∼ 0.2 mb. The data is consistent with vector gluon exchange mechanisms. These mechanisms can also cause inhibited shrinkage and energy dependent dips in differential cross sections.