Introduction to relativistic heavy ion physics / J. Bartke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bartke, J. (Jerzy)

Contributor:

Jessie A. Rodman Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Heavy ions--Textbooks.

Heavy ions.

Heavy ion collisions--Textbooks.

Heavy ion collisions.

Particles, Relativistic--Textbooks.

Particles, Relativistic.

Genre:

Textbooks.

Physical Description:

xiii, 224 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Relativistic heavy ion physics

Place of Publication:

Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, [2009]

Summary:

This book attempts to cover the fascinating field of physics of relativistic heavy ions, mainly from the experimentalist's point of view. After the introductory chapter on quantum chromodynamics, basic properties of atomic nuclei, sources of relativistic nuclei, and typical detector set-ups are described in three subsequent chapters. Experimental facts on collisions of relativistic heavy ions are systematically presented in 15 consecutive chapters, starting from the simplest features like cross sections, multiplicities, and spectra of secondary particles and going to more involved characteristics like correlations, various relatively rare processes, and newly discovered features: collective flow, high pT suppression and jet quenching. Some entirely new topics are included, such as the difference between neutron and proton radii in nuclei, heavy hypernuclei, and electromagnetic effects on secondary particle spectra.

Phenomenological approaches and related simple models are discussed in parallel with the presentation of experimental data. Near the end of the book, recent ideas about the new state of matter created in collisions of ultrarelativistic nuclei are discussed. In the final chapter, some predictions are given for nuclear collisions in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), now being commissioned at the site of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva. Finally, the appendix gives us basic notions of relativistic kinematics, and lists the main international conferences related to this field.

A concise reference book on physics of relativistic heavy ions, it shows the present status of this field.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

2 Quantum Chromodynamics and the Phase Transition in Strongly Interacting Matter 7

3 Basic Properties of Atomic Nuclei 17

3.1 Static properties 17

3.2 The nuclear Fermi momentum 22

4 Sources of Relativistic and Ultrarelativistic Nuclei 25

4.1 Cosmic rays 25

4.2 Accelerators 26

5 Detection Techniques 33

5.1 Fixed-target experiments 33

5.2 Experiments at colliders 43

6 Cross Sections and Collision Geometry 51

6.1 Interaction cross sections 51

6.2 Geometrical picture of the collision 54

7 Fragmentation Processes 59

7.1 Electromagnetic dissociation 59

7.2 Nuclear fragmentation 66

7.3 Fragmentation in its extended meaning 71

8 Multiplicities and Relative Abundances of Secondary Particles 75

8.1 Mean multiplicities 75

8.2 Multiplicity distributions 80

8.3 Particle abundances 84

9 Longitudinal Distributions of Secondary Particles 93

10 Transverse Spectra of Secondary Particles 99

11 Electromagnetic Effects on Charged Meson Spectra 105

12 Production of Strangeness and Heavy Flavours 111

12.1 Strangeness 111

12.2 Heavy flavours 117

13 Emission of Light Nuclei, Antinuclei, and Hypernuclei 121

13.1 Light nuclei and antinuclei 121

13.2 Hypernuclei 125

14 Hadronic Femtoscopy 131

14.1 Correlations of identical bosons 131

14.2 Correlations of identical fermions 149

14.3 Correlations of non-identical particles 153

15 Collective Flow 157

16 Charmonium Suppression 167

17 Puzzle in Di-Lepton Mass Spectrum 175

18 Direct Photons 179

19 High Transverse Momenta 185

20 Production and Absorption of Jets 193

21 More About Quark-Gluon Plasma 197

21.1 Polarization of the quark-gluon plasma in the spin space 197

21.2 Disoriented chiral condensate 198

21.3 Color glass condensate 200

22 Predictions for the Large Hadron Collider 203

22.1 Extrapolations of present-day experimental data 203

22.2 Predictions from theoretical models 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Jessie A. Rodman Fund.

ISBN:

9789810212315

9810212313

OCLC:

149073321