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

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We propose a program of calculations of heavy-quark hadron cross sections which areof great importance in the identification 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.