Probing the interaction of semi-hard quarks and gluons with the underlying event in light- and heavy-flavor triggered proton-proton collisions

We study underlying-event observables in inelastic proton-proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ s = 13 TeV with identified light and heavy-flavor triggers using the PYTHIA 8 event generator. The study is performed as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading particle ($$p_\mathrm {T}^\mathrm{trigger}$$ p T trigger ). While at high $$p_\mathrm {T}^\mathrm{trigger}$$ p T trigger ($$>10$$ > 10 GeV/c) the underlying-event activity is independent of the leading particle species, at intermediate $$p_\mathrm {T}^\mathrm{trigger}$$ p T trigger ($$2<p_\mathrm {T}^\mathrm{trigger} <8$$ 2 < p T trigger < 8 GeV/c) it is larger in pion-triggered events than in events triggered with B mesons. Moreover, the underlying event in pion-triggered events, the majority of which are initiated by gluons, shows a stronger effect of color reconnection than events triggered with B-hadrons, that are mostly initiated by quark jets. The effect is observed at both hadronic and partonic level. Given that color reconnection affects the interaction among final partons before the hadronization, and that in the string model quarks (gluons) are connected to one (two) string piece(s), we conclude that the observed effect can be attributed to differences in the interactions of gluon and quark jets with the underlying event.

A Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Based on Self-Updating Mechanism

The living mechanism has limited life in nature; it will age and die with time. This article describes that during the progressive process, the aging mechanism is very important to keep a swarm diverse. In the quantum behavior particle swarm (QPSO) algorithm, the particles are aged and the algorithm is prematurely convergent, the self-renewal mechanism of life is introduced into QPSO algorithm, and a leading particle and challengers are introduced. When the population particles are aged and the leading power of leading particle is exhausted, a challenger particle becomes the new leader particle through the competition update mechanism, group evolution is completed and the group diversity is maintained, and the global convergence of the algorithm is proven. Next in the article, twelve Clement2009 benchmark functions are used in the experimental test, both the comparison and analysis of results of the proposed method and classical improved QPSO algorithms are given, and the simulation results show strong global finding ability of the proposed algorithm. Especially in the seven multi-model test functions, the comprehensive performance is optimal.

On the origin and nature of dark matter

It is discussed how the ideas of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, conceived long ago during the nineteenth century, underly why cosmological dark matter exists and originated in the first three years of the universe in the form of primordial black holes, a very large number of which have many solar masses including up to the supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Certain upper bounds on dark astrophysical objects with many solar masses based on analysis of the CMB spectrum and published in the literature are criticised. For completeness we discuss WIMPs and axions which are leading particle theory candidates for the constituents of dark matter. The PIMBHs (Primordial Intermediate Mass Black Holes) with many solar masses should be readily detectable in microlensing experiments which search the Magallenic Clouds and measure light curves with durations of from one year up to several years.

A Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Based on Self-Updating Mechanism

The living mechanism has limited life in nature; it will age and die with time. This article describes that during the progressive process, the aging mechanism is very important to keep a swarm diverse. In the quantum behavior particle swarm (QPSO) algorithm, the particles are aged and the algorithm is prematurely convergent, the self-renewal mechanism of life is introduced into QPSO algorithm, and a leading particle and challengers are introduced. When the population particles are aged and the leading power of leading particle is exhausted, a challenger particle becomes the new leader particle through the competition update mechanism, group evolution is completed and the group diversity is maintained, and the global convergence of the algorithm is proven. Next in the article, twelve Clement2009 benchmark functions are used in the experimental test, both the comparison and analysis of results of the proposed method and classical improved QPSO algorithms are given, and the simulation results show strong global finding ability of the proposed algorithm. Especially in the seven multi-model test functions, the comprehensive performance is optimal.

Unparticle

“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.” So claimed Ernest Rutherford, the British physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus in 1910, touting the explanatory power of physics over the busywork of classifying elements or planets or animals. One hundred years later, the endless variety of matter postulated by physics—within the nucleus and throughout the universe—has far surpassed the inventories of the periodic table and solar system, leading particle physicists to refer to their domain as a bestiary and one textbook to be aptly titled A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo. There are electrons and protons and neutrons, as well as quarks and positrons and neutrinos. There are also gluons and muons—the unexpected discovery of which, in 1936, led the physicist Isidor Rabi to quip, “Who ordered that?”—and potentially axions and saxions and saxinos. In this menagerie it’s not easy for a new particle, especially a hypothetical one, to get attention. The unparticle, first proposed by American physicist Howard Georgi in 2007, is therefore remarkable for garnering worldwide media attention and spurring more than a hundred scholarly papers, especially considering that there’s no experimental evidence for it, nor is it called for mathematically by any prior theory. What an unparticle is, exactly, remains vague. The strange form of matter first arose on paper when Georgi asked himself what properties a “scale-invariant” particle might have and how it might interact with the observable universe. Scale invariance is a quality of fractals, such as snowflakes and fern leaves, that makes them look essentially the same at any magnification. Georgi’s analogous idea was to imagine particles that would interact with the same force regardless of the distance between them. What he found was that such particles would have no definite mass, which would, for example, exempt them from obeying special relativity. “It’s very difficult to even find the words to describe what unparticles are,” Georgi confessed to the magazine New Scientist in 2008, “because they are so unlike what we are familiar with.” For those unprepared to follow his mathematics, the name evokes their essential foreignness.

HYPERON POLARIZATION IN QUARK-DIQUARK CASCADE MODEL

We relate the hyperon polarizations in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions to the leading particle effect and use the constituent quark-diquark cascade model with SU(6) wave function. We assume that the quantization axis is characterized by the production normal of the leading baryon of the most massive cascade chain and the incident valence diquark tends to pick up a spin down sea quark or conversely a sea diquark preferentially combines with the spin up incident valence quark to form a leading baryon as compared with the spin down valence quark.

WHY THE xE DISTRIBUTION TRIGGERED BY A LEADING PARTICLE DOES NOT MEASURE THE FRAGMENTATION FUNCTION BUT DOES MEASURE THE RATIO OF THE TRANSVERSE MOMENTA OF THE AWAY-SIDE JET TO THE TRIGGER-SIDE JET

Hard-scattering of point-like constituents (or partons) in p-p collisions was discovered at the CERN-ISR1 in 1972 by measurements utilizing inclusive single or pairs of hadrons with large transverse momentum (pT). Due to the steeply falling power-law pT spectrum of the hard-scattered partons, the inclusive single particle (e.g. π0) pTt spectrum from parton fragmentation to a jet is dominated by trigger fragments with large zt ~ 0.7–0.8, where zt = pTt/pTjet is the fragmentation variable. It was generally assumed, following Feynman, Field and Fox,2 as shown by data from the CERN-ISR experiments, that the pTa distribution of away side hadrons from a single particle trigger [with pTt], corrected for zt, would be the same as that from a jet-trigger and follow the same fragmentation function as observed in e+e− or DIS. PHENIX3 attempted to measure the fragmentation function from the away side xE ~ PTa/pTt distribution of charged particles triggered by a π0 in p − p collisions at RHIC and showed by explicit calculation that the xE distribution is actually quite insensitive to the fragmentation function. Illustrations of the original arguments and ISR results will be presented. Then the lack of sensitivity to the fragmentation function will be explained, and an analytic formula for the xE distribution given, in terms of incomplete Gamma functions, for the case where the fragmentation function is exponential. The away-side distribution in this formulation has the nice property that it both exhibits xE scaling and is directly sensitive to the ratio of the away jet [Formula: see text] to that of the trigger jet, [Formula: see text], and thus can be used, for example, to measure the relative energy loss of the two jets from a hard-scattering which escape from the medium in A + A collisions. Comparisons of the analytical formula to RHIC measurements will be presented, including data from STAR4,5 and PHENIX,3,6 leading to some interesting conclusions.