Centrality dependence of the multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions at RHIC and LHC and the percolation of strings

The dependence of the multiplicity and the transverse momentum distribution on the number of collisions are studied for central and peripheral Au-Au collisions at SPS, RHIC and LHC energies in the framework of percolation of strings. A scaling law relating the multiplicity to the mean transverse momentum is obtained. Our results are in overall agreement with the SPS and RHIC data, obtaining a suppression on $p_T$ distribution even for $p_T$ larger than 1 GeV/c.Comment: Contribution to QM2002, espcrc1.st

Anisotropic flows from colour strings: Monte-Carlo simulations

By direct Monte-Carlo simulations it is shown that the anisotropic flows can be successfully described in the colour string picture with fusion and percolation provided anisotropy of particle emission from the fused string is taken into account. Quenching of produced particles in the strong colour field of the string is the basic mechanism for this anisotropy. The concrete realization of this mechanism is borrowed from the QED. Due to dependence of this mechanism on the external field strength the found flows grow with energy, with values for $v_2$ at LHC energies greater by ~15% than at RHIC energies.Comment: New version with a non-static distribution of string

BFKL pomeron propagator in the external field of the nucleus

It is shown by numerical calculations that the convoluted QCD pomeron propagator in the external field created by a solution of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation in the nuclear matter vanishes at high rapidities. This may open a possibility to apply the perturbative approach for the calculation of pomeron loops.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure

On the initial condition for evolution of the perturbative QCD Pomeron in the nucleus

It is shown that subdominant terms found in the reggeized gluon diagram technique, to be added to Pomeron fan diagrams with the 3P interaction, can be exactly taken into account by taking the initial condition for evolution in the Glauber form. This demonstrates complete equivalence of the dipole picture and the reggeized gluon approach not only on the leading level but also on the subleading level.Comment: 5 pages in LaTe

On the inclusive gluon jet production from the triple pomeron vertex in the perturbative QCD

Single and double inclusive cross-sections for gluon jet production from within the triple pomeron vertex are studied in the reggeized gluon technique. It is shown that to satisfy the AGK rules the vertex has to be fully symmetric in all four reggeized gluons which form the two final pomerons. The single inclusive cross-sections are found for different cuttings of the triple pomeron vertex. They sum into the expression obtained by Yu.Kovchegov and K.Tuchin in the colour dipole picture. The found double inclusive cross-sections satisfy the AGK rules.Comment: 17 pages in LaTex, 6 figures, revised version with partially changed rsult

Estimating the solar meridional circulation by normal mode decomposition

The objective of this article is to use Fourier-Hankel decomposition as suggested earlier by Braun & Fan (1998) to estimate the integrated horizontal meridional flow velocity as a function of mode penetration depth, and to find ways of potentially improve this technique. We use a time series of 43200 (30 days) consecutive full-disk Dopplergrams obtained by the MDI (Michelson Doppler Imager) instrument aboard the SOHO (Solar Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft in April 1999. We find averaged meridional flow estimates of 15 m/s for modes with a penetration depth in the upper 20 Mm of the solar convection zone. This reproduces the results of the earlier investigations. Moreover we conclude that this method has the potential to become a new technique to measure the meridional circulation in the deep convection zone, if some improvements will be applied.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, HELAS workshop proceedings "Roadmap for European Local Helioseismology", Nice, 25-27 September 200

Cosmological evolution of atomic gas and implications for 21 cm HI absorption

Galaxy disks are shown to contain a significant population of atomic clouds of 100pc linear size which are self-opaque in the 21cm transition. These objects have HI column densities as high as 10^23 and contribute to a global opacity correction factor of 1.34+/-0.05 that applies to the integrated 21cm emission to obtain a total HI mass estimate. Opacity-corrected images of the nearest external galaxies have been used to form a robust z=0 distribution function of HI, f(N_HI,X,z=0), the probability of encountering a specific HI column density per unit comoving distance. This is contrasted with previously published determinations of f(N_HI,X) at z=1 and 3. A systematic decline of moderate column density (18<log(N_HI)<21) HI is observed that corresponds to a decline in surface area of such gas by a factor of five since z=3. The number of equivalent DLA absorbers (log(N_HI)>20.3) has also declined systematically over this redshift interval by a similar amount, while the cosmological mass density in such systems has declined by only a factor of two to its current, opacity corrected value of Omega_HI^DLA(z=0) = 5.4 +/- 0.9x10^-4. We utilize the tight, but strongly non-linear dependence of 21cm absorption opacity on column density at z=0 to transform our HI images into ones of 21cm absorption opacity. These images are used to calculate distribution and pathlength functions of integrated 21cm opacity. The incidence of deep 21cm absorption systems is predicted to show very little evolution with redshift, while that of faint absorbers should decline by a factor of five between z=3 and the present. We explicitly consider the effects of HI absorption against background sources that are extended relative to the 100pc intervening absorber size scale. Future surveys of 21cm absorption will require very high angular resolution, of about 15mas, for their unambiguous interpretation. (Abridged.)Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

String and Parton Percolation

A brief review to string and parton percolation is presented. After a short introduction, the main consequences of percolation of color sources on the following observables in A-A collisions: $J/\psi$ suppression, saturation of the multiplicity, dependence on the centrality of the transverse momentum fluctuations, Cronin effect and transverse momentum distributions, strength of the two and three body Bose-Einstein correlations and forward-backward multiplicity correlations, are presented. The behaviour of all of them can be naturally explained by the clustering of color sources and the dependence of the fluctuations of the number of these clusters on the density.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Plenary talk given at Hard Probes 2004, Ericeira, Portuga