No Arabic abstract
Studying experimental data obtained at ITEP [1] on neutron production in interactions of protons with various nuclei in the energy range from 747 MeV up to 8.1 GeV, we have found that slow neutron spectra have scaling and asymptotic properties [2]. The spectra weakly depend on the collision energy at momenta of projectile protons larger than 5 - 6 GeV/c. These properties are taken into account in the Geant4 Fritiof (FTF) model. The improved FTF model describes as well as the Geant4 Bertini model the experimental data on neutron production by 1.2 GeV and 1.6 GeV protons on targets (Fe, Pb) [3] and by 3.0 GeV protons on various targets (Al, Fe, Pb) [4]. For neutron production in antiproton-nucleus interactions, it was demonstrated that the FTF results are in a satisfactory agreement with experimental data of the LEAR collaboration [5]. The FTF model gives promising results for neutron production in nucleus - nucleus interactions at projectile energy 1 - 2 GeV per nucleon [6]. The observed properties allow one to predict neutron yields in the nucleus-nucleus interactions at high and very high energies. Predictions for the NICA/MPD experiment at JINR are presented.
We make a theoretical and experimental summary of the state-of-the-art status of hot and dense QCD matter studies on selected topics. We review the Beam Energy Scan program for the QCD phase diagram and present the current status of search for QCD Critical Point, particle production in high baryon density region, hypernuclei production, and global polarization effects in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The available experimental data in the strangeness sector suggests that a grand canonical approach in thermal model at high collision energy makes a transition to the canonical ensemble behavior at low energy. We further discuss future prospects of nuclear collisions to probe properties of baryon-rich matter. Creation of a quark-gluon plasma at high temperature and low baryon density has been called the Little-Bang and, analogously, a femtometer-scale explosion of baryon-rich matter at lower collision energy could be called the Femto-Nova, which may possibly sustain substantial vorticity and magnetic field for non-head-on collisions.
Prompt photons produced in a hard reaction are not accompanied with any final state interaction, either energy loss or absorption. Therefore, besides the Cronin enhancement at medium transverse momenta pT and small isotopic corrections at larger pT, one should not expect any nuclear effects. However, data from PHENIX experiment exhibit a significant large-pT suppression in central d+Au and Au+Au collisions that cannot be accompanied by coherent phenomena. We demonstrate that such an unexpected result is subject to the energy sharing problem near the kinematic limit and is universally induced by multiple initial state interactions. We describe production of photons in the color dipole approach and find a good agreement with available data in p+p collisions. Besides explanation of large-pT nuclear suppression at RHIC we present for the first time predictions for expected nuclear effects also in the LHC energy range at different rapidities. We include and analyze also a contribution of gluon shadowing as a leading twist shadowing correction modifying nuclear effects at small and medium pT.
Rescattering following a neutrino-nucleus reaction changes the number, energy, and direction of detectable hadrons. In turn, this affects the selection and kinematic distributions of subsamples of neutrino events used for interaction or oscillation analysis. This technical note focuses on three forms of two-body rescattering. Elastic hadron+nucleus scattering primarily changes the direction of the hadron with very little energy transfer. Secondly, a hadron+nucleon quasi-elastic process leads to the knockout of a single struck nucleon, possibly with charge exchange between the two hadrons. Also, a pion can be absorbed leading to the ejection of two nucleons. There was an error in the code of the {small GENIE} neutrino event generator that affects these processes. We present examples of the change with the fixed version of the scattering process, but also compare these specifically to turning off elastic scattering completely, which is similar to other neutrino event generator configurations or a potential Equick-fix to already generated samples. Three examples are taken from current topics of interest: transverse kinematics observables in quasielastic neutrino reactions, the pion angle with respect to the incoming and outgoing lepton for $Delta$ reactions with a charged pion in the final state, and the angle between two protons in reactions with no pions present. Elastic hadron+nucleus scattering in its unfixed form makes a large distortion in distributions of transverse kinematic imbalances scattering, but only mild distortion in other observables. The distortion of the other two processes is also mild for all distributions considered. The correct form of hadron+nucleus scattering process could play a role in describing the width and center of the sharp peak in the inferred Fermi-motion of the struck nucleon or be benchmarked using (e,ep) data.
Strange baryons have long been known to exhibit a leading particle effect. A recent comparison of $Xi^-$ production in $pi^-$, $n$, and $Sigma^-$ interactions with nuclei show this effect clearly. These data are supplemented by earlier measurements of $Xi^-$ and $Omega$ production by a $Xi^-$ beam. We calculate the $Xi^-$ and $Omega$ $x_F$ distributions and nuclear dependence in $hA$ interactions using the intrinsic model.
Neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering provides a unique laboratory to study the quantum mechanical coherency effects in electroweak interactions, towards which several experimental programs are being actively pursued. We report results of our quantitative studies on the transitions towards decoherency. A parameter ($alpha$) is identified to describe the degree of coherency, and its variations with incoming neutrino energy, detector threshold and target nucleus are studied. The ranges of $alpha$ which can be probed with realistic neutrino experiments are derived, indicating complementarity between projects with different sources and targets. Uncertainties in nuclear physics and in $alpha$ would constrain sensitivities in probing physics beyond the standard model. The maximum neutrino energies corresponding to $alpha$>0.95 are derived.