32897419
Electromagnetic wave scattering by Schwarzschild black holes.
We analyze the scattering of a planar monochromatic electromagnetic wave incident upon a Schwarzschild black hole. We obtain accurate numerical results from the partial wave method for the electromagnetic scattering cross section and show that they are in excellent agreement with analytical approximations. The scattering of electromagnetic waves is compared with the scattering of scalar, spinor, and gravitational waves. We present a unified picture of the scattering of all massless fields for the first time.
120762974
Absorption of planar waves in a draining bathtub
We present an analysis of the absorption of acoustic waves by a black hole analogue in (2+1) dimensions generated by a fluid flow in a draining bathtub. We show that the low-frequency absorption length is equal to the acoustic hole circumference and that the high-frequency absorption length is 4 times the ergoregion radius. For intermediate values of the wave frequency, we compute the absorption length numerically and show that our results are in excellent agreement with the low- and high-frequency limits. We analyze the occurrence of superradiance, manifested as negative partial absorption lengths for corotating modes at low frequencies.
118954601
Scattering of sound waves by a canonical acoustic hole
This is a study of a monochromatic planar perturbation impinging upon a canonical acoustic hole. We show that acoustic hole scattering shares key features with black hole scattering. The interference of wave fronts passing in opposite senses around the hole creates regular oscillations in the scattered intensity. We examine this effect by applying a partial wave method to compute the differential scattering cross section for a range of incident wavelengths. We demonstrate the existence of a scattering peak in the backward direction, known as the glory. We show that the glory created by the canonical acoustic hole is approximately 170 times less intense than the glory created by the Schwarzschild black hole, for equivalent horizon-to-wavelength ratios. We hope that direct experimental observations of such effects may be possible in the near future.
124961099
Absorption of scalar waves by static black holes and analogues
55565544
Absorption of planar massless scalar waves by Kerr black holes
We consider planar massless scalar waves impinging upon a Kerr black hole, for general angles of incidence. We compute the absorption cross section via the partial wave approach, and present a gallery of results. In the low-frequency regime, we show that the cross section approaches the horizon area; in the high-frequency regime, we show that the cross section approaches the geodesic capture cross section. In the aligned case, we extend the complex angular momentum method to obtain a `sinc' approximation, which relates the regular high-frequency oscillations in the cross section to the properties of the polar null orbit. In the non-aligned case, we show, via a semi-analytic approximation, that the reduction in symmetry generates a richer, less regular absorption cross section. We separate the absorption cross section into corotating and counterrotating contributions, showing that the absorption is larger for counterrotating waves, as expected.
118963556
AharonovBohm effect in a draining bathtub vortex
Abstract We study planar waves in a circulating, draining fluid flow, which: (i) exhibit an analogue of the Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect in Quantum Mechanics; (ii) obey a Klein–Gordon equation on an ‘effective spacetime’ which resembles the Kerr spacetime of General Relativity; and (iii) may be observed in the laboratory using gravity waves in a shallow basin. We describe a modified AB effect which depends on two dimensionless parameters, associated with the circulation α and draining β rates; we call this the ‘ αβ effect’. We show that the αβ effect is inherently asymmetric even in the low-frequency limit, and that it leads to novel interference patterns which carry the signature of both rotation and absorption.
118485927
Treatment of heavy quarks in QCD
We show that to correctly describe the effects of the heavy-quark mass, mh, in DGLAP evolution, it is necessary to work in the so-called ‘physical’ scheme. In this way, we automatically obtain a smooth transition through the heavy-quark thresholds. Moreover, we show that to obtain NLO accuracy, it is sufficient to account for the heavy-quark mass, mh, just in the LO (one-loop) splitting function. The use of the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ factorization scheme is not appropriate, since at NLO we deal with a mixture of quarks and gluon (that is, the mass of the heavy parton is not well-defined). The formulas for the explicit mh dependence of the splitting functions, and for αs, are presented.
118600889
The LHC can probe small x PDFs; the treatment of the infrared region
First, we show how to reduce the sensitivity of the NLO predictions of the Drell-Yan production of low-mass, lepton-pairs, at high rapidity, to the choice of factorization scale. In this way, observations of this process at the LHC can make direct measurements of parton distribution functions in the low x domain; x ≲10−4. Second, we find an inconsistency in the conventional NLO treatment of the infrared region. We illustrate the problem using the NLO coefficient function of Drell-Yan production.
122039764
Running coupling and pomeron loop effects on inclusive and diffractive DIS cross sections
Within the framework of a (1+1)-dimensional model which mimics high-energy QCD, we study the behavior of the cross sections for inclusive and diffractive deep inelastic γ∗h scattering cross sections. We analyze the cases of both fixed and running coupling within the mean-field approximation, in which the evolution of the scattering amplitude is described by the Balitsky–Kovchegov equation, and also through the pomeron loop equations, which include in the evolution the gluon number fluctuations. In the diffractive case, similarly to the inclusive one, suppression of the diffusive scaling, as a consequence of the inclusion of the running of the coupling, is observed.
38260061
Dipole Scattering Amplitude in Momentum Space: Investigating Fluctuations at HERA
not included in the original Balitsky-JIMWLK hierarchy and obviously missed in its mean field version, the BK equation. The fluctuations have been exhaustively investigated in recent years and their effects in the high energy evolution will be discussed in the next sections of this contribution. What one can antecipate is that they dramatically influence the high energy scattering, at least in the case when the strong coupling constant as is fixed. Among these investigations, one can cite a recent study [6] of the possible implications of the gluon number fluctuations in the measurements of the F2 proton structure function of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at HERA, through well known models for the dipole-proton cross section in coordinate space [7,8]. The results show that, although they may be present in the DIS measurements, they seem not to strongly influence the evolution at HERA energies. In these proceedings we use the first model for the dipoleproton cross section developed in momentum space [9] with fluctuation effects included to fit the last HERA data. This model has shown to be successful in the description of DIS data, specially with heavy quark (charm) contributions included, by using a mean-field (BK) inspired parametrization for the scattering amplitude, which enters in the expression for the dipole-proton cross section. Some preliminary results are presented and some future expectations on the effects of fluctuations at HERA are discussed.
119249393
Improving the Drell–Yan probe of small x partons at the LHC via a kt cut
We show that the observation of the Drell–Yan production of low-mass lepton-pairs (M≲20 GeV) at high rapidities (Y≳3) at the LHC can make a direct measurement of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the low x region, x≲10−4. We describe a procedure that greatly reduces the sensitivity of the predictions to the choice of the factorization scale and, in particular, show how, by imposing a cutoff on the transverse momentum of the lepton-pair, the data are able to probe PDFs in the important low scale, low x domain. We include the effects of the Sudakov suppression factor.