No Arabic abstract
We argue that the evolution of coloured partons into colour-singlet hadrons has approximate factorization into an extended parton-shower phase and a colour-singlet resonance--pole phase. The amplitude for the conversion of colour connected partons into hadrons necessarily resembles Regge-pole amplitudes since qq-bar resonance amplitudes and Regge-pole amplitudes are related by duality. A `Regge-cascade factorization property of the N-point Veneziano amplitude provides further justification of this protocol. This latter factorization property, in turn, allows the construction of general multi-hadron amplitudes in amplitude-squared factorized form from (1->2) link amplitudes. We suggest an algorithm with cascade-decay configuration, ordered in the transverse momentum, suitable for Monte-Carlo simulation. We make a simple implementation of this procedure in Herwig++, obtaining some improvement to the description of the event-shape distributions at LEP.
Measurements of lifetimes can be done in two ways. For very short lived particles, the width can be measured. For long lived ones, the lifetime can be directly measured, for example, using a displaced vertex. Practically, the lifetime cannot be extracted for particles with intermediate lifetimes. We show that for such cases information about the lifetime can be extracted for heavy colored particles that can be produced with known polarization. For example, a $t$-like particle with intermediate lifetime hadronizes into a superposition of the lowest two hadronic states, $T^*$ and $T$ (the equivalent of $B^*$ and $B$). Depolarization effects are governed by time scales that are much longer than the hadronization time scale, $lqcd^{-1}$. After a time of order $1/Delta m$, with $Delta m equiv m(T^*)-m(T)$, half of the initial polarization is lost. The polarization is totally lost after a time of order $1/Gamma_{gamma}$, with $Gamma_{gamma}= Gamma(T^*to Tgamma)$. Thus, by comparing the initial and final polarization, we get information on the particles lifetime.
We propose a parametrization of the nuclear absorption mechanism relying on the proper time spent by $coverline{c}$ bound states travelling in nuclear matter. Our approach could lead to the extraction of charmonium formation time. It is based on a large amount of proton-nucleus data, from nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies $sqrt{s_{NN}}=27$ GeV to $sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV, collected in the past 30~years, and for which the main effect on charmonium production must be its absorption by the nuclear matter it crosses.
We discuss some problems concerning the application of perturbative QCD to high energy soft processes. We show that summing the contributions of the lowest twist operators for non-singlet $t$-channel leads to a Regge-like amplitude. Singlet case is also discussed.
Using the equation of state of the string model with linear strings comes close to describing the lattice QCD results and offers an explanation for the E/N = 1 GeV hadronization condition found in phenomenological statistical model. The E/N = 6T relation is derived from the zero pressure condition and is a fairly general result. The baryochemical potential dependence of the hadron gas can be met if it is re-interpreted in the framework of an additive quark model.
Heavy flavor supplies a chance to constrain and improve the hadronization mechanism. We have established a sequential coalescence model with charm conservation and applied it to the charmed hadron production in heavy ion collisions. The charm conservation enhances the earlier hadron production and suppresses the later production. This relative enhancement (suppression) changes significantly the ratios between charmed hadrons in heavy ion collisions.