16115905
Flavor and quark mass dependence of QCD thermodynamics
We calculate the transition temperature in 2 and 3-flavor QCD using improved gauge and staggered fermion actions on lattices with temporal extent Nτ = 4. We find Tc = 173 (8) MeV and 154 (8) MeV for nf = 2 and 3, respectively. In the case of 3-flavor QCD we present evidence that the chiral critical point, i.e. the second order endpoint of the line of first order chiral phase transitions, belongs to the universality class of the 3d Ising model.
16876997
QCD thermodynamics with 2 and 3 quark flavors
We discuss the flavor dependence of the pressure and critical temperature calculated in QCD with 2, 2+1 and 3 flavors using improved gauge and staggered fermion actions on lattices with temporal extent Nt=4. For T > 2 Tc we find that bulk thermodynamics of QCD with 2 light and a heavier strange quark is well described by 3-flavor QCD while the transition temperature is closer to that of 2-flavor QCD. Furthermore, we present evidence that the chiral critical point of 3-flavor QCD, i.e. the second order endpoint of the line of first order chiral phase transitions, belongs to the universality class of the 3d Ising model.
14890549
Lattice QCD at finite density
I discuss different approaches to finite density lattice QCD. In particular, I focus on the structure of the phase diagram and discuss attempts to determine the location of the critical end-point. Recent results on the transition line as function of the chemical potential (T{sub c}({mu}{sub q})) are reviewed. Along the transition line, hadronic fluctuations have been calculated; which can be used to characterize properties of the Quark Gluon plasma and eventually can also help to identify the location of the critical end-point in the QCD phase diagram on the lattice and in heavy ion experiments. Furthermore, I comment on the structure of the phase diagram at large {mu}{sub q}.
13969763
Baryon number strangeness and electric charge fluctuations at zero and non-zero chemical potential
We present results on baryon number, strangeness and electric charge fluctuations in QCD at non-zero density and temperature obtained from lattice calculations with almost physical quark masses. At vanishing chemical potential, i.e. under conditions almost realized at RHIC and the LHC, quartic fluctuations of net baryon number and strangeness are large in a narrow temperature interval characterizing the transition region from the low to the high temperature phase. Our results are based on Taylor expansions in light and strange quark chemical potentials, i.e. we rigorously compute corrections to bulk thermodynamic quantities at non-vanishing chemical potential, by performing a Taylor expansion in μ/T. We find non-monotonic behavior for the radius of convergence of this series, which could be a hint for a critical end point in the (T, μ)-plane.
119007148
Conserved charge fluctuations with HISQ fermions
We calculate cumulants of fluctuations of net-baryon number, net-electric charge and net-strangeness, in the framework of lattice regularized QCD. We use a highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) action on lattices with temporal extent of N_tau=6,8 and 12 and almost physical quark masses. By means of a Taylor expansion in various chemical potentials and under demanding both strangeness neutrality as well as the correct isospin asymmetry, we evaluate these fluctuations at conditions met in heavy ion collisions. Cumulants of net-electric charge fluctuations can, in principle, also be measured in heavy ion experiments. We therefore propose a method to extract freeze-out parameters, such as the freeze-out temperature and baryon chemical potential, based on a comparison of lattice results and experimental measurements of two different ratios of net-electric charge cumulants. As this method involves only (lattice) QCD results and experimental measurements it is model independent and, for the purpose of extracting freeze-out parameters, does not require any input from hadron resonance gas model calculations.
119207360
The QCD equation of state from improved staggered fermions
We calculate the equation of state in 2+1 flavor QCD at finite temperature with physical strange quark mass and almost physical light quark masses using lattices with temporal extent $N_{\tau}=8$. Calculations have been performed with two different improved staggered fermion actions, the asqtad and p4 actions. Overall, we find good agreement between results obtained with these two $O(a^2)$ improved staggered fermion discretization schemes. A comparison with earlier calculations on coarser lattices is performed to quantify systematic errors in current studies of the equation of state. We also present results for observables that are sensitive to deconfining and chiral aspects of the QCD transition on $N_\tau=6$ and 8 lattices. We find that deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration happen in the same narrow temperature interval.
119331939
Chiral perturbation theory for lattice QCD with a twisted mass term
Quantum chromodynamics on a lattice with Wilson fermions and a chirally twisted mass term for two degenerate quark flavours is considered in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. The pion mass and decay constant are calculated in next-to-leading order including terms linear in the lattice spacing a.
117019402
BFKL versus O (alpha-s**3) corrections to large rapidity dijet production
We examine dijet production at large rapidity intervals at Tevatron energies by comparing an exact ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^3)$ calculation with the BFKL approximation, which resums the leading powers of the rapidity interval $y$ to all orders in $\alpha_s$. We analyze the dependence of the exact ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^3)$ calculation on the jet cone-size as a function of $y$, and use this cross section to define an ``effective rapidity'' $\hat y$ which reduces the error that the large-$y$ approximation induces on the kinematics. Using $\hat y$ in the BFKL resummation, we reexamine jet production at large transverse momenta and the transverse momentum decorrelation of the tagging jets. We find less dramatic, but still significant, effects than found previously using the large-$y$ approximation.
119495100
QCD phenomenology of charm production at HERA
We compare different schemes for the treatment of heavy quark production in Deep-Inelastic Scattering (DIS). For fully-integrated quantities such as F{sub 2}(x,Q{sup 2}), we advocate the use of the General-Massive Variable-Flavor-Number (GM-VFN) scheme; we present some results showing the progress of a Next-to-Leading Order calculation in this scheme. For differential quantities, the Fixed-Flavor-Number (FFN) scheme provides a more appropriate starting point. We present a new calculation of the azimuthal distribution of charm quark production in DIS. All results have been obtained using a Monte Carlo program under development.
11921450
Energy Distribution of the Leptons in Top Decay to Charged Higgs
We analyze the energy distribution of the leptons coming from the top decay $t\ra b\hc,\ bW^+\ra bl^+\nu$. The correlation between the lepton energy distribution and the top spin may be useful for distinguishing the $\hc$ signature from the $W$ background. Such a correlation can also be useful for disentangling the two different $\hc \bar tb$ couplings and determining the experimental value of $\tan\beta$.
109989370
Time-of-flight measurements of absolute beam energy in the Fermilab linac
Measurements have been made of the absolute energy of the fourth tank of our linac by measuring the time-of-flight of individual beam bunches passing between strip-line beam monitors at the entrance and exit of each tank of the linac. Accurate time-of-flight measurements are facilitated by the fact that the beam remains well bunched between strip-line monitors in the drift region beyond the fourth tank. Cable lengths were carefully measured using time-domain reflectometry. The data for tank 4 gave the time-of-flight over a 49.17 meter drift as 395.8 (/spl plusmn/0.5) nanoseconds. This translates into a measured /spl beta/ of 0.4155. The design /spl beta/ for tank 4 is 0.4141. Further measurements on other linac tanks are planned, if machine time becomes available. In addition to determination of absolute beam energy, the time-of-flight data can be used for absolute energy calibration of the magnetic spectrometer system used for detailed energy analysis of the beam. We plan to implement this technique on the Linac Upgrade to be installed in the summer of 1993.<<ETX>>