Measuring Double Parton Distributions in Nucleons at Proton-Nucleus Colliders

We predict a strong enhancement of multijet production in proton-nucleus collisions at collider energies, as compared to a naive expectation of a cross section $\propto A$. The study of the process would allow to measure, for the first time, the double parton distribution functions in a nucleon in a model independent way and hence to study both the longitudinal and the transverse correlations of partons.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Examination of direct-photon and pion production in proton-nucleon collisions

We present a study of inclusive direct-photon and pion production in hadronic interactions, focusing on a comparison of the ratio of gamma/pi0 yields with expectations from next-to-leading order perturbative QCD (NLO pQCD). We also examine the impact of a phenomenological model involving k_T smearing (which approximates effects of additional soft-gluon emission) on absolute predictions for photon and pion production and their ratio.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Minor changes in wording and in figure

Inclusive Dielectron Cross Sections in p+p and p+d Interactions at Beam Energies from 1.04 to 4.88 GeV

Measurements of dielectron production in p+p and p+d collisions with beam kinetic energies from 1.04 to 4.88 GeV are presented. The differential cross section is presented as a function of invariant pair mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity. The shapes of the mass spectra and their evolution with beam energy provide information about the relative importance of the various dielectron production mechanisms in this energy regime. The p+d to p+p ratio of the dielectron yield is also presented as a function of invariant pair mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity. The shapes of the transverse momentum and rapidity spectra from the p+d and p+p systems are found to be similar to one another for each of the beam energies studied. The beam energy dependence of the integrated cross sections is also presented.Comment: 15 pages and 16 figure

Relevance of baseline hard proton-proton spectra for high-energy nucleus-nucleus physics

We discuss three different cases of hard inclusive spectra in proton-proton collisions: high $p_T$ single hadron production at $\sqrt{s}\approx$ 20 GeV and at $\sqrt{s}$ = 62.4 GeV, and direct photon production at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV; with regard to their relevance for the search of Quark Gluon Plasma signals in A+A collisions at SPS and RHIC energies.Comment: Proceeds. Hot Quarks 2004 Int. Workshop on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions. 26 pages. 26 figs. [minor corrs., refs. added

Multiple Interactions in Two-Photon Collisions

We compute cross sections for events where two pairs of partons scatter off each other in the same $\gamma\gamma$ reaction, giving rise to at least 3 high--{\mbox{$p_T^{}$}} jets. Unlike in {\mbox{$p \bar p$}}\ collisions we find the signal to lie well above the background from higher order QCD processes. If the usual ``eikonaliztion" assumption is correct, the signal should be readily observable at LEP2, and might already be detectable in data taken at TRISTAN.Comment: 8 pages, plain LaTeX, 2 figures (not included). A compressed PS file of the entire paper, including figures, can be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-921.ps.

Studying minijets via the pTp_T dependence of two-particle correlation in azimuthal angle ϕ\phi

Following my previous proposal that two-particle correlation functions can be used to resolve the minijet contribution to particle production in minimum biased events of high energy hadronic interactions, I study the $p_T$ and energy dependence of the correlation. Using HIJING Monte Carlo model, it is found that the correlation $c(\phi_1,\phi_2)$ in azimuthal angle $\phi$ between two particles with $p_T>p_T^{cut}$ resembles much like two back-to-back jets as $p_T^{cut}$ increases at high colliding energies due to minijet production. It is shown that $c(0,0)-c(0,\pi)$, which is related to the relative fraction of particles from minijets, increases with energy. The background of the correlation for fixed $p_T^{cut}$ also grows with energy due to the increase of multiple minijet production. Application of this analysis to the study of jet quenching in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages Latex text and 8 ps figures, LBL-3349

Signals for Double Parton Scattering at the Fermilab Tevatron

Four double-parton scattering processes are examined at the Fermilab Tevatron energy. With optimized kinematical cuts and realistic parton level simulation for both signals and backgrounds, we find large samples of four-jet and three-jet+one-photon events with signal to background ratio being 20\%-30\%, and much cleaner signals from two-jet+two-photon and two-jet+$e^+e^-$ final states. The last channel may provide the first unambiguous observation of multiple parton interactions, even with the existing data sample accumulated by the Tevatron collider experiments.Comment: 7 pages, plain LaTeX, 2 tables, no figures. A compressed PS file is available by anonymous ftp at ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1996/madph-96-945.ps.

On the Determination of the Gluon Density of the Proton from Heavy-Flavour Production at HERA

Using a recent next-to-leading-order calculation of the photoproduction double differential cross section for heavy quarks, we study the possibility of extracting the gluon density of the proton from heavy-quark photoproduction data. We discuss the theoretical uncertainties connected with this method, and we conclude that they are well under control in a wide $x$ domain.Comment: CERN-TH.6864/93, GeF-TH-12/93. Latex, 5 topdrawer figures appended at the en

K∗(892)K^{*}(892) Production in Au+Au and pp Collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200GeV at STAR

Mid-rapidity $K^{*0}(892)\to K\pi$ and $K^{*\pm}(892)\to K_S^0\pi^{\pm}$ are measured in Au+Au and pp collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200GeV using the STAR detector at RHIC. The $K^{*0}(892)$ mass is systematically shifted at small transverse momentum for both Au+Au and pp collisions. The $K^{*0}(892)$ transverse mass spectra are measured in Au+Au collisions at different centralities and in pp collisions. The $K^{*0}(892)$ mean transverse momentum as a function of the collision centrality is compared to those of identified $\pi^{-}$, $K^{-}$ and $\bar{p}$. The $K^{*}/K$ and $\phi/K^{*}$ ratios are compared to measurements in A+A, $pp$, $\bar{p}p$, $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at various colliding energies. The physics implications of these measurements are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of Strange Quarks in Matter (SQM2003), Atlantic Beach, USA, to be published in J. Phys.