Collaborative Research: Heavy-Quark Reaction Cross Sections at RHIC: Studies of Quark-Gluon Plasma Signatures

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

We propose a program of calculations of heavy-quark hadron cross sections which are of great importance in the identifcation of a quark gluon plasma (QGP) in heavy-ion colli- sions. This program will involve the calculation of reaction cross sections of various hadrons which have been proposed as QGP diagnostic probes, such as heavy quarkonia, hyper- ons, and antihyperons. Most of these cross sections are not accessible experimentally at present, and as such can only be estimated using theoretical models. The central compo- nent of this proposal consists of calculations of these cross sections using the well-established constituent-interchange model, assuming standard quark model forces and a scattering for- malism developed previously by two of us (Barnes and Swanson). This approach is known to give reasonable agreement with existing experimental low-energy scattering data for a wide range of analogous hadron-hadron scattering processes. Additional research topics which will be addressed are the generalization of the approach to multichannel and relativistic regimes, the incorporation of qq pair production amplitudes, a comparison of microscopic and effective Lagrangian descriptions, and the development of a T-matrix formalism that will allow direct application to bound state problems. The cross sections obtained here should be useful as estimates of the various hadronic contributions to the proposed experimental signals for the quark-gluon plasma. These hadronic contributions must be understood and incorporated in simulations of heavy-ion collisions before QGP formation can be established through various signatures; for this reason a third component of our program is a close collaboration with researchers involved in Monte-Carlo simulations of RHIC experiments, so that the experimental implications of these hadronic contributions for RHIC can be as- sesssed. This will be facilitated by the presence of a large RHIC experimental group from PHENIX at ORNL and University of Tennessee.