Hard QCD Processes in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans-Jürgen Pirner
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: from 2004 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5439671

This project is aimed at an improvement of theoretical description of hard QCD processes which are an important part of the experimental program on heavy ion collisions at CERN SPS, RHIC at Brookhaven Lab, and at the forthcoming nuclear collider LHC at CERN. Hard reactions are employed as a probe for the matter produced by colliding heavy ions. This task demands a reliable understanding of the underlying dynamics. Based on our previous experience we are going to work on: (i) Initial state effects in hadron production with large pT. At the energy of LHC these probes are strongly affected by coherence effects which are of moderate importance at RHIC and hardly visible at SPS. A phenomenology able to describe available data for high pT hadrons including flavor dependence is to be developed; (ii) Final state interaction in high-pT hadron production. A realistic model for in-medium hadronization including the finite production length effects is to be developed and tested with data on deep-inelastic scattering off nuclei; (iii) The recent results from RHIC for heavy flavor production in deuteron-gold collisions have demonstrated lack of understanding of the dynamics of initial state interactions in these processes. A model able to describe J/q, D rapidity dependence in an wide energy range from SPS to RHIC will be developed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants