333 search hits
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An introduction to mini black holes at LHC
(2007)
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Horst Stöcker
Ben Koch
Marcus Bleicher
- Relying on the existing estimates for the production cross sections of mini black holes in models with large extra dimensions, we review strategies for identifying those objects at collider experiments. We further consider a possible stable final state of such black holes and discuss their characteristic signatures. Keywords: Black holes
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Collapse of flow: probing the order of the phase transition
(2007)
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Horst Stöcker
- We discuss the present collective flow signals for the phase transition to the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and the collective flow as a barometer for the equation of state (EoS). We emphasize the importance of the flow excitation function from 1 to 50A GeV: here the hydrodynamicmodel has predicted the collapse of the v1-flow at ~ 10A GeV and of the v2-flow at ~ 40A GeV. In the latter case, this has recently been observed by the NA49 collaboration. Since hadronic rescattering models predict much larger flow than observed at this energy, we interpret this observation as potential evidence for a first order phase transition at high baryon density pB.
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Heavy ions and X-rays in brain tumor treatment : a comparison of their biological effects on tissue slice cultures
(2009)
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M. Müller
F. Merz
Marco Durante
Volker Seifert
Johannes Rieger
Michel Guy André Mittelbronn
Patrick Nikolaus Harter
Igor Mishustin
Igor Pshenichnov
Franz Rödel
Horst Stöcker
Kosta Schopow
Faramarz Dehghani
Gisela Taucher-Scholz
Ingo Bechmann
- Background: In this interdisciplinary project, the biological effects of heavy ions are compared to those of X-rays using tissue slice culture preparations from rodents and humans. Advantages of this biological model are the conservation of an organotypic environment and the independency from genetic immortalization strategies used to generate cell lines. Its open access allows easy treatment and observation via live-imaging microscopy. Materials and methods: Rat brains and human brain tumor tissue are cut into 300 micro m thick tissue slices. These slices are cultivated using a membrane-based culture system and kept in an incubator at 37°C until treatment. The slices are treated with X-rays at the radiation facility of the University Hospital in Frankfurt at doses of up to 40 Gy. The heavy ion irradiations were performed at the UNILAC facility at GSI with different ions of 11.4 A MeV and fluences ranging from 0.5–10 x 106 particles/cm². Using 3D-confocal microscopy, cell-death and immune cell activation of the irradiated slices are analyzed. Planning of the irradiation experiments is done with simulation programs developed at GSI and FIAS. Results: After receiving a single application of either X-rays or heavy ions, slices were kept in culture for up to 9d post irradiation. DNA damage was visualized using gamma H2AXstaining. Here, a dose-dependent increase and time-dependent decrease could clearly be observed for the X-ray irradiation. Slices irradiated with heavy ions showed less gamma H2AX-positive cells distributed evenly throughout the slice, even though particles were calculated to penetrate only 90–100 micro m into the slice. Conclusions: Single irradiations of brain tissue, even at high doses of 40 Gy, will result neither in tissue damage visible on a macroscopic level nor necrosis. This is in line with the view that the brain is highly radio-resistant. However, DNA damage can be detected very well in tissue slices using gamma H2AX-immuno staining. Thus, slice cultures are an excellent tool to study radiation-induced damage and repair mechanisms in living tissues.
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Charmed signatures for phase transitions in heavy-ion collisions
(2007)
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Elena L. Bratkovskaya
Olena Linnyk
Wolfgang Cassing
Horst Stöcker
- The interplay of charmonium production and suppression in In+In and Pb+Pb reactions at 158 AGeV and in Au+Au reactions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV is investigated with the HSD transport approach within the hadronic comover model' and the QGP melting scenario'. The results for the J/Psi suppression and the Psi' to J/Psi ratio are compared to the recent data of the NA50, NA60, and PHENIX Collaborations. We find that, at 158 AGeV, the comover absorption model performs better than the scenario of abrupt threshold melting. However, neither interaction with hadrons alone nor simple color screening satisfactory describes the data at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. A deconfined phase is clearly reached at RHIC, but a theory having the relevant degrees of freedom in this regime (strongly interacting quarks/gluons) is needed to study its transport properties.
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Schwarze Löcher im Labor? : Auf der Suche nach einer experimentellen Bestätigung der Stringtheorie
(2006)
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Marcus Bleicher
Horst Stöcker
- Schwarze Löcher – das sind im Allgemeinen alles verschlingende, gigantisch schwere astronomische Objekte mit bis zu einigen Milliarden Sonnenmassen. Am Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) und am Institut für Theoretische Physik sind in den vergangenen fünf Jahren eine ganz neue Art von Schwarzen Löchern theoretisch vorhergesagt worden, die genau das Gegenteil der astronomisch gemessenen Giganten darstellen, nämlich winzig kleine Schwarze Löcher, so genannte »mini black holes«. Auftreten könnten sie, wenn im kommenden Jahr der neue Teilchenbeschleuniger am CERN in Genf in Betrieb genommen wird.
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Hydrodynamic flow and jet induced mach shocks at RHIC and LHC
(2007)
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Horst Stöcker
Barbara Betz
Philip Rau
- We discuss the present collective flow signals for the phase transition to quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and the collective flow as a barometer for the equation of state (EoS). A study of Mach shocks induced by fast partonic jets propagating through the QGP is given. We predict a significant deformation of Mach shocks in central Au+Au collisions at RHIC and LHC energies as compared to the case of jet propagation in a static medium. Results of a hydrodynamical study of jet energy loss are presented.
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Baryon number and electric charge fluctuations in Pb+Pb collisions at SPS energies
(2006)
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Volodymyr P. Konchakovski
Mark I. Gorenstein
Elena L. Bratkovskaya
Horst Stöcker
- Event-by-event fluctuations of the net baryon number and electric charge in nucleus-nucleus collisions are studied in Pb+Pb at SPS energies within the HSD transport model. We reveal an important role of the fluctuations in the number of target nucleon participants. They strongly influence all measured fluctuations even in the samples of events with rather rigid centrality trigger. This fact can be used to check different scenarios of nucleus-nucleus collisions by measuring the multiplicity fluctuations as a function of collision centrality in fixed kinematical regions of the projectile and target hemispheres. The HSD results for the event-by-event fluctuations of electric charge in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20, 30, 40, 80 and 158 A GeV are in a good agreement with the NA49 experimental data and considerably larger than expected in a quark-gluon plasma. This demonstrate that the distortions of the initial fluctuations by the hadronization phase and, in particular, by the final resonance decays dominate the observable fluctuations.
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Transport model analysis of the transverse momentum and rapidity dependence of pion interferometry at SPS energies
(2006)
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Qingfeng Li
Marcus Bleicher
Xianglei Zhu
Horst Stöcker
- Based on the UrQMD transport model, the transverse momentum and the rapidity dependence of the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii R_L, R_O, R_S as well as the cross term R_OL at SPS energies are investigated and compared with the experimental NA49 and CERES data. The rapidity dependence of the R_L, R_O, R_S is weak while the R_OL is significantly increased at large rapidities and small transverse momenta. The HBT "life-time" issue (the phenomenon that the calculated sqrt R_O^2-R_S^2 value is larger than the correspondingly extracted experimental data) is also present at SPS energies.
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In-medium properties of D-mesons at FAIR
(2006)
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Laura Tolos
Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich
Horst Stöcker
- We obtain the D-meson spectral density at finite temperature for the conditions of density and temperature expected at FAIR. We perform a self-consistent coupled-channel calculation taking, as a bare interaction, a separable potential model. The Lambda_c (2593) resonance is generated dynamically. We observe that the D-meson spectral density develops a sizeable width while the quasiparticle peak stays close to the free position. The consequences for the D-meson production at FAIR are discussed.
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Mini black holes at the LHC : discovery through di-jet suppression, mono-jet emission and a supersonic boom in the quark-gluon plasma in ALICE, ATLAS and CMS
(2006)
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Barbara Betz
Marcus Bleicher
Ulrich Harbach
Thomas J. Humanic
Benjamin Koch
Horst Stöcker
- We examine experimental signatures of TeV-mass black hole formation in heavy ion collisions at the LHC. We find that the black hole production results in a complete disappearance of all very high p_T (> 500 GeV) back-to-back correlated di-jets of total mass M > M_f ~ 1 TeV. We show that the subsequent Hawking-decay produces multiple hard mono-jets and discuss their detection. We study the possibility of cold black hole remnant (BHR) formation of mass ~ M_f and the experimental distinguishability of scenarios with BHRs and those with complete black hole decay. Finally we point out that a Heckler-Kapusta-Hawking plasma may form from the emitted mono-jets. In this context we present new simulation data of Mach shocks and of the evolution of initial conditions until the freeze-out.