High-pT Physics in the Heavy Ion Era

One of few books to address both high-pT physics and relativistic heavy ion collisions. Essential handbook for graduates and researchers.

Jan Rak (Author), Michael J. Tannenbaum (Author)

9780521190299, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 April 2013

396 pages, 202 b/w illus.
25.5 x 18.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.87 kg

Aimed at graduate students and researchers in the field of high-energy nuclear physics, this book provides an overview of the basic concepts of large transverse momentum particle physics, with a focus on pQCD phenomena. It examines high-pT probes of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and will serve as a handbook for those working on RHIC and LHC data analyses. Starting with an introduction and review of the field, the authors look at basic observables and experimental techniques, concentrating on relativistic particle kinematics, before moving onto a discussion about the origins of high-pT physics. The main features of high-pT physics are placed within a historical context and the authors adopt an experimental outlook, highlighting the most important discoveries leading up to the foundation of modern QCD theory. Advanced methods are described in detail, making this book especially useful for newcomers to the field.

1. Introduction and overview
2. Basic observables
3. Some experimental techniques
4. The search for structure
5. Origins of high pT physics – the search for the W boson
6. Discovery of hard scattering in p–p collisions
7. Direct single lepton production and the discovery of charm
8. J/ ?, u and Drell–Yan pair production
9. Two particle correlations
10. Direct photon production
11. The search for jets
12. QCD in hard scattering
13. Heavy ion physics in the high pT era
14. RHIC and LHC
Appendix A. Probability and statistics
Appendix B. Methods of Monte Carlo calculations
Appendix C. TAB and the Glauber Monte Carlo calculation
Appendix D. Fits including systematic errors
Appendix E. The shape of the xE distribution triggered by a jet fragment, for example, ?0
Appendix F. kT phenomenology and Gaussian smearing
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Physics [PH], Mathematics & science [P]