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

本文提出了一个计算重夸克强子截面的程序，它对识别重离子碰撞中的夸克胶子等离子体（QGP）具有重要意义。这个程序将包括计算各种强子的反应截面，这些强子被提议作为QGP诊断探针，如重夸克偶素、超子和反超子。这些横截面中的大多数目前无法通过实验获得，因此只能使用理论模型进行估计。这个建议的中心组成部分包括使用已建立的组分交换模型计算这些截面，假设标准夸克模型力和我们两个人（巴恩斯和斯旺森）以前开发的散射形式。这种方法是已知的合理协议与现有的实验低能散射数据的广泛的类似强子-强子散射过程。其他的研究课题which将被解决的方法，以多通道和relativistic制度的推广，纳入qq对生产振幅，比较microscopicand有效的拉格朗日描述，和一个T-矩阵形式主义的发展，将允许直接应用到束缚态问题。这里得到的截面可以用来估计各种强子对夸克-胶子等离子体实验信号的贡献。这些强子贡献必须被理解，并纳入重离子碰撞的模拟之前，QGP的形成可以建立通过各种签名，因此，我们的计划的第三个组成部分是密切合作，与研究人员参与蒙特-卡罗模拟RHIC实验，使这些强子贡献的实验意义，RHIC可以assessed。在ORNL和田纳西大学，PHENIX的大型RHIC实验组的存在将促进这一点。

We propose a program of calculations of heavy-quark hadron cross sections which areof 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 hadronswhich have been proposed as QGP diagnostic probes, such as heavy quarkonia, hyper-ons, and antihyperons. Most of these cross sections are not accessible experimentally atpresent, 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-establishedconstituent-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 togive reasonable agreement with existing experimental low-energy scattering data for a widerange of analogous hadron-hadron scattering processes. Additional research topics whichwill be addressed are the generalization of the approach to multichannel and relativisticregimes, the incorporation of qq pair production amplitudes, a comparison of microscopicand effective Lagrangian descriptions, and the development of a T-matrix formalism that willallow direct application to bound state problems. The cross sections obtained here shouldbe useful as estimates of the various hadronic contributions to the proposed experimentalsignals for the quark-gluon plasma. These hadronic contributions must be understood andincorporated in simulations of heavy-ion collisions before QGP formation can be establishedthrough various signatures; for this reason a third component of our program is a closecollaboration 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 fromPHENIX at ORNL and University of Tennessee.