Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Ramona Vogt0444521968, 9780444521965, 9780080525365

This book is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in high energy heavy-ion physics. It is relevant for students who will work on topics being explored at RHIC and the LHC. In the first part, the basic principles of these studies are covered including kinematics, cross sections (including the quark model and parton distribution functions), the geometry of nuclear collisions, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics and relevant aspects of lattice gauge theory at finite temperature. The second part covers some more specific probes of heavy-ion collisions at these energies: high mass thermal dileptons, quarkonium and hadronization. The second part also serves as extended examples of concepts learned in the previous part. Both parts contain examples in the text as well as exercises at the end of each chapter. – Designed for students and newcomers to the field – Focuses on hard probes and QCD – Covers all aspects of high energy heavy-ion physics – Includes worked example problems and exercises

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Table of contents :
Front Cover……Page 1
Ultrarelativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions……Page 4
Copyright Page……Page 5
Preface……Page 6
Table of Contents……Page 8
Part I Basics……Page 12
1.1 Introduction……Page 14
1.2 Four-vectors and kinematic variables……Page 18
1.3 Invariants……Page 25
2.1 Introduction……Page 36
2.2 Derivation of the cross section from nonrelativistic perturbation theory……Page 37
2.3 The wave-optical model and total cross sections……Page 58
2.4 The quark model, hadron-hadron interactions and parton distribution functions……Page 71
2.5 Photoproduction and two-photon physics in heavy-ion collisions……Page 107
3.2 Nuclear density distributions……Page 116
3.3 Geometry of nucleus-nucleus collisions……Page 128
3.4 Probes of centrality……Page 139
4.1 Introduction……Page 160
4.2 Review of thermodynamics……Page 165
4.3 Phase transitions……Page 182
4.4 Phase transitions in nuclear physics……Page 194
5.1 Introduction……Page 232
5.2 Energy-momentum tensor……Page 236
5.3 Hydrodynamic equations……Page 239
5.4 Solutions to the hydrodynamic equations: longitudinal expansion……Page 249
5.5 Solutions to the hydrodynamic equations: transverse (radial) expansion……Page 268
5.6 Observable consequences……Page 280
6.1 Introduction……Page 290
6.2 Symmetries and the Lagrangian……Page 291
6.3 Basics of lattice gauge theory……Page 303
6.4 Chiral symmetry and spontaneous symmetry breaking……Page 344
6.5 Selected results from lattice QCD……Page 352
Part II Probes……Page 368
7.1 Introduction……Page 370
7.2 High mass thermal dilepton rate……Page 371
7.3 Initial conditions……Page 382
7.4 Numerical results……Page 385
7.5 Other dilepton sources……Page 393
8.1 Introduction to quarkonium in heavy-ion collisions……Page 396
8.2 Quarkonium levels at T = 0……Page 398
8.3 Quarkonium production……Page 404
8.4 Quarkonium suppression by a quark-gluon plasma……Page 412
8.5 Quarkonium suppression by hadrons……Page 424
8.6 Nucleus-nucleus collisions……Page 432
9.2 Fragmentation in pp collisions……Page 438
9.3 Nuclear effects……Page 456
Bibliography……Page 466
Index……Page 480