Medium-Enhanced cc[over ¯] Radiation.

We show that the same QCD formalism that accounts for the suppression of high-p_{T} hadron and jet spectra in heavy-ion collisions predicts medium-enhanced production of cc[over ¯] pairs in jets. We demonstrate that this phenomenon, which cannot be accessed by traditional jet-quenching observables, can be directly observed using D^{0}D[over ¯]^{0}-tagged jets in nuclear collisions.

Discovering Partonic Rescattering in Light Nucleus Collisions.

We demonstrate that oxygen-oxygen collisions at the LHC provide unprecedented sensitivity to parton energy loss in a system whose size is comparable to those created in very peripheral heavy-ion collisions. With leading and next-to-leading order calculations of nuclear modification factors, we show that the baseline in the absence of partonic rescattering is known with up to 2% theoretical accuracy in inclusive oxygen-oxygen collisions. Surprisingly, a Z-boson normalized nuclear modification factor does not lead to higher theoretical accuracy within current uncertainties of nuclear parton distribution functions.

Early- and Late-Time Behavior of Attractors in Heavy-Ion Collisions.

Whether, how, and to what extent solutions of Bjorken-expanding systems become insensitive to aspects of their initial conditions is of importance for heavy-ion collisions. Here we study 1+1D and phenomenologically relevant boost-invariant 3+1D systems in which initial conditions approach a universal attractor. In Israel-Stewart theory (IS) and kinetic theory where the universal attractor extends to arbitrarily early times, we show that all initial conditions approach the attractor at early times by a power law while their approach is exponential at late times.

Accelerating cosmological expansion from shear and bulk viscosity.

The dissipation of energy from local velocity perturbations in the cosmological fluid affects the time evolution of spatially averaged fluid dynamic fields and the cosmological solution of Einstein's field equations. We show how this backreaction effect depends on shear and bulk viscosity and other material properties of the dark sector, as well as the spectrum of perturbations. If sufficiently large, this effect could account for the acceleration of the cosmological expansion.

Eccentricity fluctuations make flow measurable in high multiplicity p-p collisions.

Elliptic flow is a hallmark of collectivity in hadronic collisions. Its measurement relies on analysis techniques which require high event multiplicity and so far can only be applied to heavy ion collisions. Here, we delineate the conditions under which elliptic flow becomes measurable in the samples of high-multiplicity (dN(ch)/dy > or = 50) p-p collisions, which will soon be collected at the LHC.

Local Monte Carlo implementation of the non-Abelian Landau-Pomeranschuk-Migdal effect.

The non-Abelian Landau-Pomeranschuk-Migdal (LPM) effect arises from the quantum interference between spatially separated, inelastic radiation processes in matter. A consistent probabilistic implementation of this LPM effect is a prerequisite for extending the use of Monte Carlo (MC) event generators to the simulation of jetlike multiparticle final states in nuclear collisions. Here, we propose a local MC algorithm, which is based solely on relating the LPM effect to the probabilistic concept of formation time for virtual quanta.

Anti-de sitter/conformal-field-theory calculation of screening in a hot wind.

One of the challenges in relating experimental measurements of the suppression in the number of J/psi mesons produced in heavy ion collisions to lattice QCD calculations is that whereas the lattice calculations treat J/psi mesons at rest, in a heavy ion collision a cc[over ] pair can have a significant velocity with respect to the hot fluid produced in the collision. The putative J/psi finds itself in a hot wind. We present the first rigorous nonperturbative calculation of the consequences of a wind velocity v on the screening length L(s) for a heavy quark-antiquark pair in hot N=4 supersymmetric QCD.

Calculating the jet quenching parameter.

Models of medium-induced radiative parton energy loss account for the strong suppression of high-p(T) hadron spectra in square root of (S)NN=200 GeV Au-Au collisions at BNL RHIC in terms of a single "jet quenching parameter" q. We observe that q can be given a model-independent, nonperturbative, quantum field theoretic definition in terms of the short-distance behavior of a particular lightlike Wilson loop. We then use the anti-de Sitter/conformal-field-theory correspondence to obtain a strong-coupling calculation of q in hot N=4 supersymmetric QCD, finding q(SYM)=26.

Relating high-energy Lepton-Hadron, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions through geometric scaling.

A characteristic feature of small-x lepton-proton data from HERA is geometric scaling: the fact that in the region of small Bjorken variable x, x less, similar 0.01, all data can be described by a single variable Q(2)/Q(2)(s,p)(x), with all x dependence encoded in the so-called saturation momentum Q(s,p)(x). Here, we observe that the same scaling ansatz accounts for nuclear photoabsorption cross sections and favors the nuclear dependence Q(2)(s,A) proportional, variant A(alpha)Q(2)(s,p), alpha approximately 4/9.

Measuring the collective flow with jets.

In nucleus-nucleus collisions, high-p(T) partons interact with a dense medium, which possesses strong collective flow components. Here, we demonstrate that the resulting medium-induced gluon radiation does not depend solely on the energy density of the medium, but also on the collective flow. Both components can be disentangled by the measurement of particle production associated with high-p(T) trigger particles, jetlike correlations, and jets.

Medium modification of jet shapes and jet multiplicities.

Medium-induced parton energy loss is widely considered to underlie the suppression of high-pt leading hadron spectra in square root sNN = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Its description implies a characteristic kt broadening of the subleading hadronic fragments associated with the hard parton. However, this latter effect is more difficult to measure and has remained elusive so far.

Energy dependence of the Cronin effect from nonlinear QCD evolution.

The nonlinear evolution of dense partonic systems has been suggested as a novel physics mechanism relevant for the dynamics of p-A and A-A collisions at collider energies. Here we study to what extent the description of Cronin enhancement in the framework of this nonlinear evolution is consistent with the recent observation in sqrt[s]=200 GeV d-Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We solve the Balitsky-Kovchegov evolution equation numerically for several initial conditions encoding Cronin enhancement.

Timing of network synchronization by refractory mechanisms.

Even without active pacemaker mechanisms, temporally patterned synchronization of neural network activity can emerge spontaneously and is involved in neural development and information processing. Generation of spontaneous synchronization is thought to arise as an alternating sequence between a state of elevated excitation followed by a period of quiescence associated with neuronal and/or synaptic refractoriness. However, the cellular factors controlling recruitment and timing of synchronized events have remained difficult to specify, although the specific temporal pattern of spontaneous rhythmogenesis determines its impact on developmental processes.

Dynamical scaling law for jet tomography.

Medium modifications of parton fragmentation provide a novel tomographic tool for the study of the hot and dense matter created in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. Their quantitative analysis, however, is complicated by the strong dynamical expansion of the collision region. Here we establish for the multiple scattering induced gluon radiation spectrum a scaling law which relates medium effects in a collision of arbitrary dynamical expansion to that in an equivalent static scenario.